Introduction
African banking regulators are advocating for greater access to financial services, particularly in rural areas where physical bank branches can be hard to come by. Unfortunately, internet accessibility remains a major obstacle towards achieving this goal – while satellite-delivered broadband is becoming increasingly common, latency issues still make it difficult for banks and other businesses that require reliable connections. Cellular networks have made progress in some more remote communities but there’s been little improvement when it comes to fixed line infrastructure deployments.
This is gradually improving with the recent growth of internet delivered by satellite (Satcom, Eutelsat, Starlink, Yahlink) but satellite availability is by no means widespread and the poor latency (>500ms) is still a negative factor. Cellular networks are slowly expanding into rural communities but there is little evidence of any growth in fixed line deployment in rural areas.
Problem
Our customer approached us to help the following problems:
- Only 2 main sources of internet available
- Satellite connectivity is inhibited by poor latency (>500ms)
- Cellular connectivity can be available but the signal can be fragile and maybe not all of the networks offer services in specific rural areas
- Linking multiple locations into a wide area network can be complex
Solution
The solution to all the problems is provided by the SD-WAN Pro solution – how ?
- Bonding multiple internet connections aggregates bandwidth
- A low latency cellular connection bonded with a high latency satellite connection mitigates (maybe moderates) the high latency of the satellite connection
- Connecting multiple SD-WAN pro boxes in different locations creates a wide area network that is totally secure