Long Distance WAN Solutions?

Kreiger asks: "A client of the 'Big Five' consulting firm I work for is looking to implement a mid to large-scale WAN, the only issue is that some of the sites that they want to extend the WAN to are incredibly remote (some of these places can only be reliably reached via satellite phones). Does anyone know of any proven (or at least non-vaporware) WAN tools or vendors that can handle this sort of thing?"

Comments

I have been doing this for years.

[human bean]

No big deal. All it takes is cash and cojones.

Really, how remote are you talking? How much bandwidth do you need? Realtime, or will short-store-and-forward work? Fixed, switched, or DAMA?What's your limit on latency?

Satellite immediately springs to mind, but there are spots on this earth where footprints don't reach (polar regions behind mountain ranges...) If you have the right sort of data you could meteor burst it, or use old-style RTTY.

AMsat can get you bandwidth in sixty-four K chunks from a portable transceiver, what they don't tell you is the latency, and the bloody thing won't tolerate compression, or multi-link well.

Most vendors of "works anywhere" equipment have not really tested their stuff. It is amazing how many companies would drag their equipment out to one of our remote sites for tests, have it fail, and then say something like "it worked okay at the cabin in Maine...". Let me tell you, there is no place in the contiguous 48 american states that may be considered "remote". When dealing with the vendors, always ask how the gear/method works at higher latitudes and arctic regions. You will most likely get a mixed response. It may work in the middle of the ocean at the equator, but things are iffy at longer reaches.

If worse comes to worse, you could simply mail them the CD-ROM...