Rajant, a pioneer of innovative mobile mesh technology for private wireless networks, has a powerful new tool, BC|Enterprise, that adds historical data analysis to Rajant’s management and monitoring functionality, giving administrators strategic insights into their networks. Rajant makes mobile, scalable and highly reliable kinetic wireless mesh network technology, which provides an always-on communications network so critical applications can be accessed in real time.
BC|Enterprise augments BC|Commander, a desktop application that provides a real-time view of a mesh network as well as other management functionality.
Used for networks of any size, the web-based tool monitors and graphs the individual performance and environmental attributes of mesh radio nodes and administratively designated groups of nodes over various time periods.
“BC|Enterprise lets administrators know what the network has been doing over time, a strategic perspective not available before,” said Marty Lamb, Vice President, Software Engineering at Rajant. “These insights include the current state of the RF environment as well as data for individual nodes or groups of nodes, such as those on trucks and shovels, loading docks, or specific drilling sites. The result is the ability to identify and address potential issues before they impact users, adding huge value to the network environment. For Rajant Kinetic Mesh partners, BC|Enterprise strengthens their servicing capabilities because the tool reduces the time needed to diagnose potential network issues.”
In addition, it addresses queries like, “What transpired on the mesh last March or 15 minutes ago?” Its default dashboards, based on years of Rajant experience providing support services, graph the most useful data for network operators.
Such data is crucial on large networks running many applications. For example, if users tell the administrator they see issues with a video monitoring application, he or she can examine graphs to determine activity. If the administrator sees more LAN traffic than expected, he or she can go back in time to determine traffic spikes and root causes. Such insights will drive solutions, such as adding network capacity or isolating a troublesome device or app.
“BC|Enterprise is an amazing add-on to our Rajant toolset,” said Dustin Jurman, CEO of Rapid Systems, a full-service Internet and IT company. “It’s extremely responsive and allows us to drill down deep into large scale Kinetic Mesh networks. We’re able to optimize all aspects of our Rajant networks as well as provide performance metrics on individual nodes. The ability to select a single node, subset of nodes, or an entire network gives us visibility above and beyond other Mesh NMS platforms, lets us build bigger networks and helps us provide better solutions.”
Providing a complete history of every BreadCrumb on a network, BC|Enterprise also minimizes overhead traffic and enables administrators to get to the root of problems. It monitors BreadCrumb radio-specific functionality, including BreadCrumbs that comprise the Internet of Things (IoT). For IoT devices that are clients of a Rajant mesh network, BC|Enterprise helps ensure backbone availability.
The tool, which replaces Rajant’s Remote Advanced Diagnostic System (RRADS), typically resides on a locally hosted web server in lieu of the cloud, meaning it is not necessary for data to leave the network for monitoring or analysis. Together, BC|Enterprise and BC|Commander provide a complete mesh management and monitoring solution.