Asian Development Bank Typifies Out-band LAN/WAN Connectivity Problems
"...Our technical support headquarters in Manila needed an efficient means of
connecting to the async console of file servers, routers and hubs located on the
remote South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu." --- Jorge P. Alcances, ADB
LAN Support
Asian Development Bank's LAN Support
headquarters in the Philippines has a typical remote out-of-band LAN/WAN
connectivity problem... however their application gave new meaning to the
definition of a "remote site."
Asian Development Bank has offices throughout Asia and the South Pacific.
Each office is equipped with an ethernet LAN which is linked using VSAT to
ADB headquarters located in Manila. On the more remote islands, power outage
and related LAN lock-up problems are frequent and local technical personnel
are few. This situation requires costly trips to remote sites and/or
dedicated async lines to the RS232 control ports of remote equipment for
monitoring and configuration sessions.
Just such a situation was present on the small island nation of Vanuatu.
Vanuatu is located 1,300 miles north of New Zealand, and the local ADB
branch required frequent visits for LAN re-configuration and other tasks
which could be accomplished via connection to the RS232 console ports of the
LAN control equipment. The problem was the cost-prohibitive option of
dedicating an async modem and dial-up line per each piece of LAN control
equipment so Manila could dial in for remote monitoring and
configuration.
ADB was able to find a cost-effective solution using the Western
Telematic Inc. CPM-1600 Remote Site Manager. By placing the CPM at the
remote site, technical managers only needed to dedicate one dial-up line and
one async modem in Vanuatu. Technical personnel in Manila are able to dial-
in on the line and switch to any of up to 15 async console ports connected
to LAN file servers, work stations, hubs or routers. Each port can be
individually named and speeds may vary, password protection and site ID are
provided and all communication parameters are held in non-volatile memory.
With the help of the CPM-1600, ADB is now able to conduct remote
configuration and monitoring sessions with ease -and they stayed well within
budget.
The CPM-1600 is now replaced with the
TSM-24 remote site manager.