Branch Network Upgrade Brings Utmost Transparency
A multi-national fast food restaurant chain approached Peplink with high expectations to upgrade their entire SD-WAN setup in the Asia Pacific region, so it can support the bandwidth heavy internal POS as well as provide sufficient bandwidth for staff Wi-Fi use.
Challenge
Connectivity for retail branch stores is often pushed to the limit due to the vast amount of equipment to keep connected. With over 1000 branches in varying locations scattered across the country, the size and scale of this deployment would make it very challenging to manage and troubleshoot should any issues arise.
The company was previously relying on one broadband link, which provides absolutely zero fault tolerance, insufficient bandwidth (at times), and unexpected interruptions.
By upgrading their entire network, they were hoping to achieve full transparency, improve reliability, and even reduce operating costs. Aside from this, the option to upgrade in the future would be beneficial.
Solution
A Balance 20X was installed at each branch, equipping them with an additional cellular link. This device offers the best price-to-performance for branch connectivity with its built-in cellular modem and ethernet WAN support to deliver excellent results. There is even the ability to add a secondary cellular module via the FlexModule Mini slot, or implement additional Virtual WANs for branches that may have even higher demands.
A FusionHub virtual appliance was installed in their datacentre meaning a SpeedFusion VPN tunnel was formed to enable SpeedFusion algorithms to be implemented to suit each branch. For low bandwidth rural areas, the additional LTE link was combined with the broadband link via SpeedFusion Bandwidth Bonding to form a high bandwidth tunnel that can support their POS and Wi-Fi usages simultaneously. For sites with sufficient broadband speeds, the LTE was configured to provide a seamless Hot Failover. This all ensures business continuity with zero downtime.
Since no branch is the same size, the solution included 2x AP One AX Lite for each branch, to enable Wi-Fi Mesh. These Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 access points are perfect for extending enterprise connectivity, meaning lower interference and higher speeds are experienced.
Result
As constant transmission of data was needed, this all went through the SpeedFusion VPN tunnel back to the datacentre. They did not experience any more unpredictable interruptions to their connectivity, even if the broadband link was suddenly unavailable. SpeedFusion Hot Failover made this failover absolutely seamless and transfer all data to the LTE link on standby leading to a decrease in both downtime and expenses to rectify the issue.
To meet growing demands, the Balance 20X also accepts expansions of additional technologies to cater to future requirements, making this entire ecosystem very versatile.
Even their IT team could remotely manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the entire network with InControl 2 for full transparency at any time from any browser.
Deployment
- Installed in each branch
- Provides an additional LTE connection
- Support multiple WAN technologies out of the box
- A pair installed in each branch
- Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 for higher transmission
- Enables Wi-Fi mesh for extended range
- Established in the datacentre
- Enables SpeedFusion technologies
- Rapidly deployable with the devices