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The WAN is the connection that carries data from a remote site to the outside world. For an IoT installation at a water pumping station, the WAN might be a cellular LTE link – the only connection between the site’s local sensor network and the SCADA control centre.
Industrial routers manage the WAN on behalf of all local devices, adding failover, firewall, VPN, and NAT services between the site and the internet.
- Fixed broadband WAN – Ethernet or fibre; low latency, high throughput; depends on physical infrastructure at the site
- Cellular WAN – 4G or 5G; widely available, works at unmanned or remote sites; data cost per GB applies
- Dual WAN – one fixed, one cellular; cellular takes over automatically if the primary link fails
- Satellite – last resort for sites with no cellular coverage; higher latency, higher cost