Help with wifi bonding and cellular multiplexers

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Help with wifi bonding and cellular multiplexers

Jdlearns

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#300695 28-Sep-2022 15:05

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for help with setting up a portable high-speed wifi system for a photography business.

Background info

I work for a small photography business in the middle of an operations overhaul. Lately, we have been discussing ways in which we can improve our current service turnaround times. Specifically, the time it takes from carrying out a photoshoot on the field to sending those raw images to our post-production team in the office.

What are we hoping to achieve?

We are planning to automate the above described workflow into a zero-touch, full automation consisting of 2 parts.

Part 1: Camera to PC. As a photograph is captured, it will be uploaded to the PC the photographer is carrying in his backpack wire a cable for maximum speed.

Part 2: Auto-uploading from PC to cloud for our post-production team to start editing straightaway. This is where we want to have a custom setup to utilize the concept of wifi bonding using a cellular multiplexer.

Now, this is all new to me and the little I have described above is what I gathered from my research. While I was searching for possible solutions, I came across an article posted by a team at NYTIMES, who created a custom set up to help their journalists send raw images from ground to their studio at high speeds. Their article specifically mentions:

The system fits together a computer, a cellular router for internet connectivity and a cellular multiplexer, which can send data across several cell networks at once. The multiplexer can also combine the throughput power of multiple internet connections, like wifi, ethernet, 3G and 4G.

As the photo thumbnails are transmitted live to the newsroom, photo editors in New York are able to review the thumbnail feed and selectively download high-resolution JPEG versions for publication.

Here's a link to that article: https://open.nytimes.com/were-helping-times-photojournalists-deliver-images-to-the-world-faster-2d04dea5acd0

This is pretty much the same thing we are trying to achieve, except, we don't have a team of experts at our disposal to help set this up and we are not sure where to get started.

Would anyone with the knowledge be able to advise of where I should look to take this forward? Is there any off the shelf solution in New Zealand we can use, or if this needs to be set up from scratch, what would that process entail?

Thanks!

trig42

5809 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#2974270 28-Sep-2022 15:33

The Multiplexer sounds expensive and complicated. I suppose it would be handy if they are operating in an area where there isn't coverage with one (or more) providers.

The Mobile router bit is pretty easy (apart from keeping it powered - could it be run from their cars?)

wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#2974271 28-Sep-2022 15:34

Point one, sounds expensive...

Point two even the NYTimes doesn't appear to be doing what you are talking about

They talk about "selectively download high-resolution JPEG versions for publication."

You are talking about pushing everything to the cloud as the first step....

Dual cellular modems do exist, but they are generally for fail over rather than load balancing,

But the first question you probably need to explain is what are the data requirements, how many GB would you expect to be uploaded, how long does it take now, how long could you do it with a single network and how much money are you prepared to spend to make it quicker.

RunningMan

8953 posts

Uber Geek

#2974297 28-Sep-2022 15:59

wellygary:

Point two even the NYTimes doesn't appear to be doing what you are talking about

They talk about "selectively download high-resolution JPEG versions for publication."

The article mentions that was a first step, before moving to uploading all images in RAW format.

Either way, times have moved on since that device was conjured up in 2018. What volume of data, how often, where geographically etc. would be useful info to have. NZ is very different to New York with coverage.

Could this be done with a phone/tablet as the intermediary instead?

Jdlearns

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2974316 28-Sep-2022 17:24

trig42:

The Multiplexer sounds expensive and complicated. I suppose it would be handy if they are operating in an area where there isn't coverage with one (or more) providers.

The Mobile router bit is pretty easy (apart from keeping it powered - could it be run from their cars?)

Yes, we do sometimes have photoshoots in areas with poor cellular coverage. To be honest that setup by New York Times was the first real solution I came across in relation to our use case hence I assumed it would be the most optimal solution. This is not to say we have money to throw and I understand it could be a complex set up, but if the cost and complexity is a one off and most importantly meets our requirements, I'd be very happy to explore that option further.

As for keeping the mobile router powered, I assumed this could be done using a battery in the backpack.

wellygary:

Point one, sounds expensive...

Point two even the NYTimes doesn't appear to be doing what you are talking about

They talk about "selectively download high-resolution JPEG versions for publication."

You are talking about pushing everything to the cloud as the first step....

Dual cellular modems do exist, but they are generally for fail over rather than load balancing,

But the first question you probably need to explain is what are the data requirements, how many GB would you expect to be uploaded, how long does it take now, how long could you do it with a single network and how much money are you prepared to spend to make it quicker.

NYTimes do seem to be pushing everything to the cloud at once, and the receiver downloads images selectively. And as mentioned above, we do have photoshoots in areas with poor coverages hence this could act both as a failover and load balancing option - I hope!

As for the data requirements, a typical photoshoot will have between 50 - 75 raw images. On average each raw image is about 60mb. So that's between 3GB - 5GB of data to upload per shoot. I don't personally go out for field shoots as I work in admin, but I'm told uploads can take up to 30 minutes using standard mobile data currently used.

To elaborate further on our current process - a typical photoshoot lasts around 1 hour. Once the shoot is done and everything is packed up, our photographer will manually upload the files to the cloud. So from the start of the shoot to the time all images are received by our editor in the office is usually 2 hours. Add to that the post-production time and we are looking at a 3 hour period from shoot to delivery. We want to cut this down as much as we can.

As I mentioned in my original post, why we want to make the image upload process a zero-touch and fully automated process is, when the camera captures the image, if that file could be received by our editor within seconds, he/she doesn't have to wait until the shoot is done and everything is wrapped up to start post production. If we can achieve the desired use case here, what that would mean operationally for us is by the time the photographer wraps up the shoot, most of the post-production would be complete.

As for how much money I'd be prepared to invest in achieving this, honestly I don't have a number prepared as this is all new to us, but we are happy to consider all options. This would also be relative. If any solution would only be a 10 - 20% increase in speeds, we wouldn't want to spend too much. But again, greater results can be supported by a greater budget :)

Jdlearns

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2974322 28-Sep-2022 17:26

RunningMan:

wellygary:

Point two even the NYTimes doesn't appear to be doing what you are talking about

They talk about "selectively download high-resolution JPEG versions for publication."

The article mentions that was a first step, before moving to uploading all images in RAW format.

Either way, times have moved on since that device was conjured up in 2018. What volume of data, how often, where geographically etc. would be useful info to have. NZ is very different to New York with coverage.

Could this be done with a phone/tablet as the intermediary instead?

Yes, that was nearly 5 years ago and I'm hoping wifi speeds and connectivity standards have improved a decent amount since. Please see my above reply for specific data.

As for using a phone/tablet as the intermediary, yes for sure, as mentioned in the original post, we will be using some sort of a PC. Probably a maxed out iPad pro. We can either use something like Dropbox for autosync or build our own app to take care of this. Where we need this custom set up is to speed up the upload process from here :)

RunningMan

8953 posts

Uber Geek

#2974466 28-Sep-2022 20:37

Pinging @raytaylor @coffeebaron who might be able to offer advice here?

coffeebaron

6231 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2974550 28-Sep-2022 22:45

You can get an LTE router with dual SIM, simultaneous 2x LTE connections. The issue will be getting data SIMs for two networks. Can easily be done on one particular network, but the other two networks acquiring an unlocked SIM is more difficult; which means stuck with a standard plan with less data.

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Broadband troubleshooting and master filter installs.
Starlink installer - one month free: https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-32845-88860-71
Wi-Fi and networking
Cel-Fi supply and installer - boost your mobile phone coverage legally

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Jdlearns

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2974570 29-Sep-2022 00:35

RunningMan:

Pinging @raytaylor @coffeebaron who might be able to offer advice here?

Thank you!

coffeebaron:

You can get an LTE router with dual SIM, simultaneous 2x LTE connections. The issue will be getting data SIMs for two networks. Can easily be done on one particular network, but the other two networks acquiring an unlocked SIM is more difficult; which means stuck with a standard plan with less data.

@coffeebaron Apologies in advance for the silly questions to follow, but I'm trying to understand what this means in simple terms.

1. After doing a quick Google search, I assume this would be a router which can take 4 separate SIMs. If I understood that right, where would the problem of getting unlocked SIMs come in? Would it not be as straight forward as putting in 4x Vodafone SIMs for example?

2. Is the practical purpose of a set up like this to have 1 primary SIM and 3 backup SIMs? Or could the output of all 4 SIMs be combined to get faster speeds?

3. Roughly what level of speeds do you think could be achieved with a set up like this, as compared to one SIM?

4. Does this work in a modular way? Meaning, would the number of extra SIMs equate to faster speeds? And would stacking the routers work?

Yep, I know these questions might make the pros cringe! I promise I'll do more research into this.

coffeebaron

6231 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2974593 29-Sep-2022 07:57

Some LTE routers with multiple SIM's are failover only; i.e. Only one SIM in use at a time. So you need one that will do multiple SIM's simultaneously.
Also as mobile is a shared resource, you are not likely to increase speed significantly using two SIM"s from the same provider.
Also to get a decent data allowance, you will ideally need to be on one of the fixed wireless plans, but these SIM's are usually locked to a limited range of hardware.

Rural IT and Broadband support.

Need help in Auckland, Waikato or BoP? Click my email button, or email me direct: [my user name] at geekzonemail dot com

wlgspotter

331 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2974594 29-Sep-2022 08:15

Peplink (http://www.peplink.com), manufactures products for a lot of remote office connectivitity solutions, and speficifically, they do have solutions for mobile media production, which sounds exactly like your use case. Check this out speficifically - https://www.peplink.com/mobility-and-specialized-solutions/media-film-production/

In therms of their local distributor / reseller, they now have a few located in New Zealand - https://www.peplink.com/peplink-certified-partners/?region=Oceania&location=New_Zealand

I know the Everlea Group (based in Manukau, Auckland) - https://www.everlea.co.nz/contact/, is one of them so if you could perhaps give them a bell and they may be able to assist further?

raytaylor

4014 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2974615 29-Sep-2022 09:32

A 4g router would be what you need. I dont think you would be able to combine multiple connections for faster upload as it gets complicated to break TCP connections.

The news media use a product called Vumedia? which sends a video stream up multiple cellular connections, but requires a box at the other end to recombine the streams. Wont work for still photography.

There are wifi sd cards which have a wifi chip in them which you could put into a camera.
Eye-fi was the one i used to use. It would sync the files via wifi to a computer on the same network.

So if you had a 4g router, a wifi sd card in the camera that sync'd to a laptop, and some bittorrent sync / Resilio sync software running on the laptop that sync'd the folder on the laptop with a desktop back at the office then that may work well. If the card you use has a cloud function, then you may even be able to bypass the laptop on site.

Eye-Fi shut down their cloud function a few years ago and that caused me to stop using it at home but there are other similar options around.

A peplink router with multiple sim cards might be able to take advantage of multiple connections as the bittorrent protocol can break the file transfer down into many parallel tcp connections and recombine them at the other end. A peplink router or one with multiple wan ports may be able to split that across multiple wan connections. Usually by default if the source and destination is the same the tcp connections are kept on the same wan connection.

Even if you used a standard huawei 4g router, you could probably get a 50 megabyte raw file uploaded every 30 seconds across a typical urban 4g connection with 15mbits upload speed. If not syncing raw files, you could be transferring a large jpg every 5 seconds.

Ray Taylor

There is no place like localhost

Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here

wellygary

8312 posts

Uber Geek

#2974677 29-Sep-2022 10:11

Jdlearns:

As for the data requirements, a typical photoshoot will have between 50 - 75 raw images. On average each raw image is about 60mb. So that's between 3GB - 5GB of data to upload per shoot. I don't personally go out for field shoots as I work in admin, but I'm told uploads can take up to 30 minutes using standard mobile data currently used.

To elaborate further on our current process - a typical photoshoot lasts around 1 hour. Once the shoot is done and everything is packed up, our photographer will manually upload the files to the cloud. So from the start of the shoot to the time all images are received by our editor in the office is usually 2 hours. Add to that the post-production time and we are looking at a 3 hour period from shoot to delivery. We want to cut this down as much as we can.

I think you should park the multiplexing idea for a while and look at streamlining the existing workflow,

Look to move to a system of the images being uploaded as they are shot , this means that at the end of the shoot, these are only a few files left to send (30 mins upload, 1 hour shoot time)

This also means the office can start to edit as soon as they turn up in the cloud,

As another poster mentioned check out Wifi SD cards as the first option to get the files of the Camera

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2975079 29-Sep-2022 22:20

I agree with @raytaylor here just stick with the router supplied by the wireless broadband providers or making sure you are getting one that isn't geo-fence locked to a certain location.

There are a number of providers who sell Caravan broadband such as https://www.wirelessnation.co.nz/nzmca-data/ or even consider Starlink depending on how remote you may go and how much data you need to shift as they have unlimited data caps for the moment but it is a lot more gear to take around.

In my view you will run out of 4G data cap far faster than you will have issues with wireless upload speeds. As long as you have a 4G LTE Band 28 then you should be fine across Vodafone and Spark. Or if urban the Mikrotik RB912R-2nD-LTm looks like a fairly tidy router as it doesn't have Band 28 in it.

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2975085 29-Sep-2022 22:32

Update this card looks like it does Band 28: https://www.gowifi.co.nz/gowirelessnzltd/ec25-au.html and with the No Modem version of the RB912 https://www.gowifi.co.nz/mikrotik/rb912r-2nd-ltm.html

cisconz

cisconz
1341 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2975242 30-Sep-2022 09:09

wlgspotter:

Peplink (http://www.peplink.com), manufactures products for a lot of remote office connectivitity solutions, and speficifically, they do have solutions for mobile media production, which sounds exactly like your use case. Check this out speficifically - https://www.peplink.com/mobility-and-specialized-solutions/media-film-production/

St John use these in their command units connecting to another set in their data centres.

They connect to a VF and Spark router with roof mounted antenna's and satellite internet as a failover, with options to connect to Wifi / Fixed broadband.

The peplink will then load balance the VPN to their datacentres over whatever connections it has available to it.

They also have temporary ones in large pelican cases that you could have in the photographer's car to save lugging all the equipment in the backpack.

Hmmmm