Today, ports are truly living environments that are constantly changing, growing and on the move, therefore it is important for a port’s network to do the same.
Whilst traditional Wi-Fi and standard mesh networks are commonly used, they are not built to thrive within the dynamic port environments for several reasons:
- The most common networks used within these environments are “break-before-make” or “make-before-break” pattern of connectivity. With mobile nodes only making one connection at a time, via a single frequency – causing the network to continually break and re-establish connectivity as it makes its way across access points
- Communication is not consistent and temporary lost. Due to the “break-before-make” pattern, the node is not always able to connect to the closest access point with ease, causing a lag time that that could cause substantial operational disruption
- Access points have been designed based only on RSSI and have not been designed with the consideration of performance factors such as interference or congestion
With Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh private wireless network, ports no longer need to be concerned with loss of connection. The Living Network™ works autonomously to deploy the fully mobile, highly adaptable, and secure connectivity to deliver the robust applications that are required. Kinetic Mesh gives operators the ability to transform virtually any asset, fixed or moving, into network infrastructure.
Deploying Rajant’s ruggedised, multi-radio BreadCrumb nodes, equipped with InstaMesh networking software, directly on the asset – be it a vehicle, quay crane, material handling equipment, surveillance camera, or drone – essentially turns that asset into a network node. Instead of each BreadCrumb only communicating with centralised access points, they are all able to share information back and forth in a highly interconnected web of communications.
Rajant Kinetic Mesh networks allow nodes to receive data packets from one peer and direct them to another via node, through multiple simultaneous connections. Unlike other mesh networks in the market, Rajant Kinetic Mesh networks are uniquely equipped to handle complexities of today’s dynamic port environments and operations and has the following offers:
1. Seamless integration for rapid network scalability
Kinetic Mesh is designed to flawlessly integrate with existing network infrastructure and non-Rajant technology and devices. The network supports Wi-Fi and uses Ethernet for easy integration with satellite, fiber, copper, cellular, LTE, 3G/4G, PTP, and PtMP wireless. The network is easily scalable to hundreds of high-bandwidth nodes, giving ports the ability to leverage their legacy network investments while adding capacity and reach whenever and wherever it is needed throughout the port.
2. Total network mobility
Instead of retrofitting mobile-limited network technology in environments that demand total movement, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh takes a totally fresh approach with “Make-Make-Make-Never-Break” connectivity. Through InstaMesh, each BreadCrumb node can maintain hundreds of peer connections simultaneously, even while in motion, and autonomously make new connections to other nodes as they come into range. No connections need to be broken for new ones to be made, so communications and data packets are not dropped. If one path becomes blocked or interference is identified, InstaMesh dynamically redirects traffic over another available path, with the network automatically optimising itself as conditions naturally change. This connectivity paradigm enables complete network mobility and ensures real-time flow of data, voice, and video at low latency and with mission-critical reliability.
3. Full redundancy built in
The “Make-Make-Make-Never-Break” approach also provides the Rajant network with built-in redundancy. Its ability to maintain multiple simultaneous connections removes any single point of failure and virtually eliminates downtime, and is readily scalable to hundreds of nodes. In fact, adding more nodes establishes more pathways to increase network resilience. By adding a mobile wireless backhaul, or additional wired LAN connections as needed, the bandwidth of a Rajant Kinetic Mesh network can be readily scaled as well.
4. Military-grade network security to support safe operations
Rajant understands that industrial IoT networks have unique requirements that must be accounted for in the design and integration of their security. Born from military applications, Rajant’s network offers robust security capabilities, including: multiple cryptographic options, configurable data and MAC address encryption, configurable per-hop, per-packet authentication between BreadCrumbs Layer-2 and Layer-3 client/server and peer-to-peer security solutions compatibility. Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh network also provides the high bandwidth needed to support video surveillance initiatives throughout a port, from streaming live remote camera video to dispatchers, security officials, and first responders to maintaining visual communications with patrolling unmanned aerial or ground vehicles.
5. Extremely reliable, real-time port-wide communications
With no single point of failure and self-healing capabilities, a Rajant Kinetic Mesh network guarantees uptime of mission-critical applications, anytime and anywhere they need to be accessed. With a BreadCrumb on board, each asset itself becomes a network node and has robust, redundant connectivity to other networked assets. InstaMesh can easily route data from these assets around network congestion or signal blockage using any of the multiple radio frequencies available to ensure real-time delivery rates are upheld. Even bandwidth-intensive applications like video surveillance or remote equipment control are easily supported. Rajant’s Automatic Protocol Tunneling (APT) feature enables reliable and fast off-loading into a wired Ethernet network via multiple, simultaneous bridge-mode links, avoiding Spanning Tree Loops. Having multiple ingress and egress points increases usable bandwidth and delivers data to client devices faster.
Rajant Corporation, the exclusive provider of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, has entered into a strategic distribution agreement with Australian communication solutions company Madison Technologies. This agreement represents Rajant’s further investment into Australia and New Zealand. Madison Technologies’ appointment as distributor enables them to introduce the world-leading Kinetic Mesh solution to their customers within industries, such as mining, oil & gas, rail, transport, ports, smart cities, emergency services and utilities.
For more information on Rajant solutions and distribution within Australia and New Zealand, contact Madison Technologies on 1800 72 79 79 or visit https://bit.ly/2RwOiRg
