MV72 Cameras over Mobile Data

[Boulder38]

Morning,

Has anyone successfully deployed and used an MV over Mobile Data?

We have a possibility of installing some cameras in a remote location of a warehouse externally, where no network is currently available and would be a long-ish run of fibre so thinking data maybe a possibility if a decent data plan can be sorted.

This may open up further deployment possibilities too, if it's viable

[BrechtSchamp]

I haven't myself, but this topic may be useful:

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Security-Cameras/Bandwidth-consumption-of-MV/td-p/5841

GeorgeB's comment states expicitly that the hybrid design they built should allow for deployments over limited WAN connectivity like cellular. The answers below it conclude that the daily bandwidth usage when idle is about 20MB per day. That'll change when you actively view footage remotely of course.

[Boulder38]

Thanks BrechtSchamp, had missed that thread.

One thing I should of added is that we'll be viewing the camera 24x7x365 to our local onsite security team via a videowall to match our other site so will be live viewing the camera

[BrechtSchamp]

When you say onsite, does that mean that the subnet on which that team is can have local L3 connectivity to the camera subnet? Because if that's the case you can use local streaming instead of cloud proxy streaming (and that won't use mobile data then):

https://documentation.meraki.com/MV/Viewing_Video/Video_Streaming

[Boulder38]

Security would be on the same site, but there's currently no network in the location required, so options are run fresh fibre, or set up a mobile data spoke.

But there's also places we might want to monitor where power is an option but network isn't due to location

[BrechtSchamp]

All right, I see. Well I guess it will depend on the number of camera's and the quality and cost of the mobile network. A single camera can use up to ~3Mbps when viewing its stream. For video walls and smaller browser windows a smaller bitrate is used per stream (400kbps).

Let's say you have 40 camera's on the video wall and their resolution on screen is smaller than 540p. Then their bandwidth usage would be 1600kbps. That's about 16GB per month, so it adds up.

Sources:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MV/Viewing_Video/Video_Streaming

https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design/...

Maybe someone with real-world experience will hop in.

All that having been said, you could just trial an MX and test it in practice? And if it doesn't work, pull a cable?

[Boulder38]

Thanks for the info there, that's the kind of info I was looking for.

I've pulled data usage off a current camera, running a low bit rate to a video wall, and it suggested around 32GB a month

[Priesty]

 We did, a temp solution, have 4 cameras at a site running over a LTE connection. 

worked well no doubt, in fact here in Australia some of our cable connections  for WAN are worse than mobile.

Obvious concern is the data usage, but we didnt have any issues on this front has only certain people had access to them and it was mostly inside the LAN anyway.

We did have an MX firewall with the LTE sim card in it that was handling the connection.

[Boulder38]

Hi Priesty,

Thanks, just what I needed 🙂

We’d be running them just out on the internet, rather than through an MX, possibly through a new Meraki mobile device, it’s good to know they worked happily on mobile though, thanks 🙂