Watch our recorded webinar with Digi International’s Field Applications Engineer Manager, Patrick Kelly, for an informative Tech Talk on the advanced capabilities of our Digi Mobile VPN service. Patrick provides a technical overview of Digi Mobile VPN and how you can seamlessly integrate multiple independent networks into a single secure connection.
In this presentation, Digi Mobile VPN expert Patrick Kelly discusses the common hurdles posed by disconnected and unreliable networks and the impact these challenges have on your day-to-day operations. He delivers a detailed overview of our Digi Mobile VPN solution designed to address these challenges, so you can leverage our technology to enhance your organization’s connectivity and security infrastructure.
To learn more, visit the Digi Mobile VPN solution page, check out our Digi Cellular Router product page, or review our comprehensive offering of end-to-end connectivity solutions for enterprise, industrial and transportation applications.
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Follow-up Webinar Q&A – Tech Talk: Enhanced Privacy and Security with Digi Mobile VPN
Thank you again for attending our session with Digi technical and field experts. If you have additional questions, be sure to reach out.
Moderators:
- Corey Brenner, Channel Marketing Manager, Digi International
- Philip De Carlo, Senior Field Applications Engineer, Digi International
Presenter:
- Patrick Kelly, Field Applications Engineering Manager, Digi International
Can you go into more detail on how the Mobile VPN feature makes the secure connection more robust?
Patrick: Certainly. Digi Mobile VPN utilizes the more modern IKEv2 connectivity, and IKEv2 uses MOBIKE, or Mobile Internet Key Exchange. It's a modern industry standard to create those persistent connections, to allow those handshakes between the remote router and the server, and to maintain that same connection, despite migrating from one IP address to another, from one network to another. And so, it's all built into IKEv2.
So, do all Digi routers support Mobile VPN?
Patrick: Yes. While Digi Mobile VPN is primarily a transportation-focused offering, the capability is actually built into the Digi router operating system. So, other Digi routers would be able to utilize this feature as well.
I use Digi SureLink®. Why would I need Mobile VPN as well?
Patrick: Digi SureLink is a feature built into the Digi router to test and challenge its cellular or other wide-area network connection, and then to take some actions based upon the result of that testing. It is independent and unrelated to the Mobile VPN. Digi SureLink is specifically designed to validate that mobile connection, challenge it, and take some action if it's not working properly, whereas Mobile VPN is to provide that seamless connection over one or more mobile interfaces, back into the enterprise or municipal network. So, they are different things. We have a great video that illustrates the capability.
The name is "Mobile VPN," but is there anything that would prevent me from using this feature in a more fixed environment, like, say, with a remote store or a kiosk, something like that?
Patrick: Like I said previously, this was really designed to be a transportation-focused offering, but there is nothing about it that would not function in a more static environment. So, placing it into a store or some other environment would work fine. There's nothing preventing that.
As far as connections, can the Mobile VPN server handle other connections, say, from client mobile phones, or other devices that aren't Digi routers?
Patrick: Absolutely. So, the purpose of having Mobile VPN on the Digi router would be to allow the end users to tunnel all of their traffic through to that Armada server, but if they've already got Armada, or devices that connect to the Armada server on their own, there's no reason why that wouldn't work. The Digi router would just be another device, not a server. As you saw when I was in the Armada server, there were multiple devices listed there. Not active connections at that time, but certainly could have been, you know, or could be telephones, tablets, and PCs that are connecting to that same Armada server that the Digi router itself is.
What device from Digi will we install at the base side?
Patrick: So, on the base site, it wouldn't be a Digi device per se. What it would be is a server-class machine, to allow for the aggregation of all those incoming connections, whether it's from Digi routers that are out in the field, or mobile devices, other mobile devices that are out in the field to terminate those incoming connections would be a server-class machine running the Radio IP Armada software. So, it wouldn't be a Digi device per se. It would actually be a Radio IP server. And this could be a virtual server. It would not necessarily have to be a physical server.
Can Mobile VPN connections be made with other devices outside of that ecosystem?
Patrick: Absolutely. When we were talking previously, we would allow, or I should say the Armada server would allow connections from multiple devices. And if you needed to make connections to other destinations beyond the Armada server, it would be possible as well. So, there are multiple answers to that question, but the ultimate answer is yes.