CENIC Sentinel: a Disaster Recovery Solution To Ensure CENIC Members Remain Connected During Emergencies

LA MIRADA, Calif. & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CENIC's members rely on their wired circuits through CalREN to provide connectivity to the Internet and to other members. When disasters (such as wildfires) strike—or sometimes simply construction mishaps—these events can cause wired services to go down, and the resulting downtime to members can last days or even weeks.

To ensure that our members stay connected when it matters most, CENIC has developed CENIC Sentinel, a disaster recovery solution that can be temporarily deployed to CENIC members to restore their access to CalREN quickly during extended outages, and thus keeping our members connected to one another and the world without interruption.

CENIC has successfully partnered with Mobile Beacon to deploy cellular LTE connectivity leveraging T-Mobile's network to numerous backbone sites for out-of-band access in support of new deployments in a cost-effective manner. During the last major wildfire to affect Southern California, CENIC successfully deployed a proof-of-concept using LTE to Altadena Library to support their connectivity needs during extended outage caused by wildfire. Expanding on this recent experience, CENIC is currently testing 5G solutions capable of download speeds of up to 320 Mbps as part of CENIC Sentinel. Members can connect their border equipment to CENIC Sentinel directly to seamlessly restore access to CalREN.

A key advantage of CENIC Sentinel is that it connects directly to CalREN rather than the Internet at large, and members can continue using their existing IP addresses. This enables critical campus-hosted services such as DNS, websites, and VPN to remain fully operational, and access controls configured in SaaS platforms and other Internet-based tools that staff depend on will continue to function without interruption. There is no need to re-IP—a complex and time-consuming undertaking that can rarely be executed on short notice.

To further augment CENIC Sentinel, CENIC is in the process of exploring low earth orbit satellite connectivity options for CENIC Sentinel. Although the capabilities are still being explored, possible benefits of satellite connectivity include even faster speeds, greater reach in remote or rural areas, and seamless connectivity back to CalREN, bypassing the public Internet.

About CENIC | www.cenic.org

CENIC connects California to the world—advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. This nonprofit organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity network designed to meet the unique requirements of over 20 million users, including the vast majority of K-20 students together with educators, researchers and others at vital public-serving institutions. CENIC’s Charter Associates are part of the world’s largest education system; they include the California K-12 system, California Community Colleges, the California State University system, California’s Public Libraries, the University of California system, Stanford, Caltech, USC, and the Naval Postgraduate School. CENIC also provides connectivity to leading-edge institutions and industry research organizations around the world, serving the public as a catalyst for a vibrant California.