Is there a way to combine multiple cellular WAN links?

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

I have a MAX BR1 mini with both a Verizon and ATT sim installed. Rather than having them set up as failover, I’d ideally like to combine them into one WAN link to maximize throughput. I realize that my current Mini only has one cellular radio, so additional equipment seems likely. I would love to combine the two without the added latency (and recurring fees) of a VPN. Would a load balancing router be the easiest way to accomplish this?

2

BR1’s are only capable of a singe cellular connection due to them only having a single modem.
If you are looking at doing this with a single router, have a look at the Transit DUO or HD2.
It is possible to have 2x BR1’s feeding into the WAN ports of a Balance 20 or Balance ONE but I would recommend the Transit DUO as then you only have one device to manage.
Added bonus, if you do go for the Transit DUO, you can use its WAN port for your existing BR1 Mini and make use of three cellular connections simultaneously!

Please make sure you understand the differences between “Load Balancing” and “Bonding” before taking the next step too. Your requirements for one or the other depend on the applications you utilise.

Hope this helps

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Thanks for the response. I really think load balancing is more what I would need. I have a couple of questions about the Transit DUO you recommended:

  1. Would I be able to park specific clients on a specific WAN link? For example, I would prefer my Playstation to always use the Verizon link due to better NAT and stability.

  2. How is Pepwave about adding band support for their devices? ATT is deploying band 14 everywhere, I’d like to be able to access it once available. I am curious if that is added via firmware update or if I would need new hardware.

Thanks again!

4

You can direct one IP or MAC address to use a specif WAN. You can even do this by service e.g. for 182.168.1.20, email going out on WAN 1 but everything else uses WAN two. You can make as many of these rules as you need.

Cellular band support is something that canot be upgraded via firmware as it’s a physical change in the modem hardware. Have a look at the following page regarding the different models and which bands they currently support.

Band 14 is currently not supported in any of the Pepwave models, please refer to this page for more info;

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5

That’s a useful table – and one we had not seen before. Thanks for citing. Looks like it is out of date, however. Example: In the USA Sprint has had 2.5GHz spectrum (and a lot of it) for quite some number of years and is making a strong effort to populate its towers with it. This is missing on the table. One must wonder how accurate the table really is. :hushed:

Maybe Peplink can update it?

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@Rick-DC
I agree with it looking out of date - I was on my phone.
I’ll try look up the updated info about the bands used - they where shown at one of the recent partner summits!
Thanks

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