Frequently Asked Questions
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General FAQ
The Highway 9 Mobile Cloud is a comprehensive solution for enterprises to build, operate, and manage their own secure, high-performance private cellular networks. It consists of cloud-hosted network services, on-premises edge appliances, and a private 5G/LTE radio access network – all centrally controlled and monitored through a unified management interface.
The Highway 9 Mobile Cloud is comprised of three main elements:
1. Mobile Center: The cloud-hosted core network functions that provide connectivity, mobility management, and other services. This includes the control plane, user plane, and management capabilities.
2. Mobile Edge: On-premises or cloud-based network appliances that extend the Mobile Services to the local environment and connect end devices. The Mobile Edge handles tasks like traffic forwarding, security enforcement, and protocol translation.
3. Mobile Network: The private 5G/LTE radio access network that connects mobile assets, users, and IoT devices to the Mobile Edge. This wireless infrastructure is owned and operated by the enterprise.
- Identity and Access Management: Support for SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) integration with identity providers like Okta, allowing enterprises to leverage their existing user directories and access policies.
- Network Security: Integration with RADIUS servers and 802.1X authentication to enforce robust access controls and security policies across wired and wireless clients.
- IoT/Industrial Integration: APIs, protocol gateways, and data integration tools to ingest sensor data, enable command and control, and connect with industrial automation systems.
- Monitoring and Analytics: Centralized dashboards and reporting capabilities that provide visibility into network performance, client activity, and security events.
- Fully Cloud-Hosted: The entire platform, including the core network functions and management, is hosted and operated by Highway 9. Only Small Cell Radios are deployed on-site.
- Hybrid Cloud: The Mobile Services are cloud-hosted, while the Mobile Edge appliances are installed on-premises at the customer’s facilities.
Security is a top priority for the Highway 9 Mobile Cloud, which employs various measures to protect the enterprise network:
- End-to-end Encryption: All cellular traffic is encrypted using industry-standard protocols to prevent eavesdropping or tampering.
- Access Controls: Robust authentication and authorization mechanisms, including RADIUS, 802.1X, and SIM-based authentication, to ensure only authorized devices and users can access the network.
- Threat Monitoring: Integrated security services that monitor the network for anomalies, detect and mitigate threats, and provide detailed logging and reporting.
- Secure Hardware: The Mobile Edge appliances feature secure boot, tamper-resistant design, and other hardware-based security features to protect against physical attacks.
- Regulatory Compliance: The Highway 9 Mobile Cloud is designed to meet industry standards and regulations, such as NIST, IEC, and other applicable security frameworks.
- Industrial Automation: Enabling reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity for automated guided vehicles (AGVs), robotics, and industrial IoT devices in smart factories and warehouses.
- Campus Connectivity: Providing secure, seamless wireless coverage across large enterprise campuses, supporting both fixed and mobile devices.
- Remote Site Operations: Delivering cellular connectivity to remote or temporary locations, such as construction sites, field operations, or pop-up facilities.
- Public Safety and Emergency Response: Rapidly deployable private cellular networks for first responders, disaster recovery, and temporary event coverage.
- Healthcare and Logistics: Powering mobile patient monitoring, asset tracking, and supply chain automation in medical and logistics environments.
Mobile Center
Mobile Center are the cloud-hosted core network functions that provide the orchestration, mobility management, and control plane capabilities for the overall Highway 9 Mobile Cloud. This includes the 5G/LTE core network, policy server, authentication server, and other centralized services.
The Mobile Center component is responsible for several critical network functions:
- Mobility Management: Handling device registration, authentication, and seamless mobility across the private cellular network.
- Session Management: Establishing, maintaining, and terminating user and device sessions, including IP address allocation.
- Policy Enforcement: Applying granular policies for security, Quality of Service (QoS), and network access control.
- Authentication and Authorization: Integrating with enterprise identity providers to verify users and devices accessing the network.
- Subscriber Management: Maintaining the database of authorized users, devices, and associated profiles. SIM lifecycle management.
- Charging and Billing: Tracking network usage and providing detailed reporting for billing and chargeback purposes.
Mobile Center act as the control plane and central brain of the Highway 9 Mobile Cloud, interfacing with the following components:
- Mobile Edge: The Mobile Center provides the core network functions that are extended to the local environment through the on-premises Mobile Edge appliances.
- Mobile Network: The Mobile Center controls and manages the private 5G/LTE radio access network, allocating resources and enforcing policies.
- Management and Analytics: The Mobile Center exposes APIs and interfaces for the centralized Highway 9 management system to configure, monitor, and gain insights into the network.
By hosting the core network functions in the cloud, the Mobile Center component offers several key advantages:
- Scalability: The cloud-native architecture allows Mobile Center to elastically scale up or down based on changing network demands.
- Resiliency: Redundant cloud infrastructure and automated failover mechanisms ensure high availability and fault tolerance.
- Simplified Operations: Mobile Cloud is actively managed and maintained by Highway 9, reducing the operational burden on enterprise IT teams.
- Continuous Innovation: Regular software updates and feature enhancements are automatically delivered to Mobile Center without any disruption.
Security is a top priority for the Mobile Center Cloud, which employ various measures to protect the enterprise network:
- End-to-End Encryption: All cellular traffic between the Mobile Edge and Mobile Center is encrypted using industry-standard protocols.
- Secure Access: The Mobile Center integrate with enterprise identity providers for robust user and device authentication and authorization.
- Compliance and Certification: The Mobile Center are designed to meet industry standards and regulations, such as NIST, 3GPP, and other applicable frameworks.
- Threat Monitoring: Integrated security services monitor the Mobile Center for anomalies and detect/mitigate potential threats.
In a typical enterprise deployment, the Mobile Center would be hosted in a public cloud environment, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. This allows the enterprise to leverage the cloud provider’s global infrastructure, high availability features, and automatic scaling capabilities to ensure the Mobile Services can handle fluctuating network demands.
Alternatively, the Mobile Center can also be deployed in a private cloud environment, either within the enterprise’s own data centers or in a co-located facility. This on-premises cloud model may be preferred by organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements or those desiring more control over the underlying infrastructure.
Regardless of the cloud deployment model, the Mobile Center integrate with the enterprise’s existing IT systems, such as identity providers, network security tools, and monitoring/analytics platforms. This ensures a seamless connection between the Highway 9 network and the broader enterprise technology ecosystem.
Mobile Edge
- Network Termination: Terminating the cellular connections from endpoint devices.
- Traffic Forwarding: Handling local traffic flows, including user plane data, and control plane signalling.
- Security Enforcement: Applying access controls, firewalling, and other security policies to protect the local network.
- Protocol Translation: Bridging between the 5G/LTE protocols used in the Mobile Network and the enterprise’s existing IT infrastructure.
- Local Services: Hosting specific network services and applications at the edge to optimize performance and reduce latency.
The Mobile Edge appliance serves as the critical link between the cloud-hosted Mobile Center and the on-premises private cellular network:
- Mobile Center Integration: The Mobile Edge communicates with the Mobile Services to exchange control plane signaling, retrieve policies, and relay user plane traffic.
- Mobile Network Integration: The Mobile Edge connects to and manages the 5G/LTE radio access network, handling tasks like cell selection, mobility, and quality of service.
- Enterprise IT Integration: The Mobile Edge integrates with the enterprise’s existing networking infrastructure, such as VLANs, firewalls, and identity providers.
- Secure Local Breakout: By terminating traffic locally, the Mobile Edge can apply granular security policies and reduce the load on the central Mobile Services.
- Low-Latency Services: Hosting certain network functions and applications at the edge enables faster response times for time-sensitive use cases.
- Reliable Connectivity: The Mobile Edge ensures continued network operations, even during temporary disruptions to the cloud-hosted Mobile Services.
- Simplified Deployment: The pre-configured and pre-integrated nature of the Mobile Edge appliance streamlines the installation process.
The Mobile Edge incorporates several security and manageability features to protect the enterprise network:
- Secure Boot: The appliance features hardware-based secure boot to ensure the integrity of the software stack.
- Encrypted Communications: All traffic between the Mobile Edge and Mobile Services is encrypted end-to-end using industry-standard protocols.
- Access Controls: The Mobile Edge enforces robust authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as 802.1X, to control who and what can connect to the network.
- Remote Management: The Mobile Edge can be centrally monitored and updated through the Highway 9 management console, reducing the need for on-site maintenance.
In a typical enterprise deployment, the Mobile Edge appliances would be located at strategic points within the organization’s facilities, such as manufacturing plants, warehouses, or campus buildings. This allows the Mobile Edge to provide local termination, security enforcement, and low-latency services for devices and users connected to the private cellular network.
The number and placement of Mobile Edge appliances can be scaled to match the enterprise’s specific coverage and capacity requirements. For larger or geographically distributed environments, multiple Mobile Edge appliances can be deployed and managed centrally through the Highway 9 Mobile Cloud.
The Mobile Edge appliances integrate with the enterprise’s existing networking infrastructure, such as VLANs, firewalls, and identity management systems. This ensures a seamless extension of the enterprise’s security policies, access controls, and other network services to the private cellular network.
In some deployment scenarios, the Mobile Edge appliances may also be co-located with other IT equipment, such as edge computing nodes or industrial automation controllers, to enable low-latency, on-premises services for specific use cases.
Mobile Network
The Mobile Network is comprised of the following key components:
- Radio Access Nodes: These include a combination of 5G/LTE small cells and macro cells that are strategically placed throughout the enterprise’s facilities to ensure seamless cellular coverage.
- Backhaul Network: The radio access nodes connect to the enterprise’s existing Ethernet switch and router infrastructure, providing backhaul connectivity to the Mobile Edge appliances.
- Spectrum Resources: The enterprise can leverage licensed, shared, or private spectrum allocations to power their Mobile Network, depending on regulatory requirements and availability.
- Mobile Edge Integration: The radio access nodes connect to the on-premises Mobile Edge appliances, which act as the termination points for the cellular connections.
- Enterprise IT Integration: The Mobile Network leverages the enterprise’s existing wired network infrastructure for backhaul connectivity, allowing for the simple extension of VLANs, security policies, and other network services.
- Centralized Management: The Highway 9 management platform enables the enterprise to configure, monitor, and optimize the Mobile Network to meet their evolving connectivity requirements.
In a typical enterprise deployment, the Mobile Network would be comprised of a combination of 5G/LTE radio access nodes strategically placed throughout the organization’s facilities. These nodes would be connected to the enterprise’s existing Ethernet switch infrastructure, providing backhaul connectivity to the Mobile Edge appliances.
The enterprise has the flexibility to deploy the Mobile Network in various ways, including:
Regardless of the deployment model, the Mobile Network is designed to be owned and operated by the enterprise, giving them full control over the cellular infrastructure and the ability to tailor it to their specific connectivity requirements.
The Highway 9 management platform enables the enterprise to configure, monitor, and optimize the Mobile Network, including adjusting radio parameters, managing spectrum resources, and monitoring network performance and utilization.
By integrating the Mobile Network with the rest of the Highway 9 Mobile Cloud, enterprises can ensure a unified, secure, and centrally managed private cellular solution that meets the needs of their dynamic business environments.
