Use Cases
Staex' main features are global connectivity over unreliable physical networks and robust service orchestration for a system with unreliable network and nodes. These two features enable the use cases described on this page. The main outcome of using Staex is radically simplified infrastructure due to a "flat" network, fully distributed architecture and zero configuration.
Autonomous Moving Robots (AMR)
Autonomous Moving Robots (AMRs) are like regular computers, but move from one access point to another, can be stuck in the changing warehouse environment, lose connectivity, and need regular software updates. Staex delivers data reliably even if the roaming between access points results in a loss of network connectivity. Staex network provides global connectivity between warehouse network and the network of the robot manufacturer for monitoring, logging, observability, and software updates. Staex provides end-to-end encryption and contains optimizations for lossy global networks. Staex improves the reliability and the robustness of your robots software and streamlines configuration and maintenance of the robot fleet.
Network roaming (robotics / manufacturing)
Mobile robots often roam between different wireless access points in a large warehouse. The roaming may result in intermittent loss of network connectivity which in turn may result in software failures. Staex ensures that the loss of connectivity is invisible to software applications and services that run on robots: each message is delivered to the destination when the connectivity is restored. This prevents a whole class of software failures: e.g. a software developer no longer needs to implement retries and timeouts for simple HTTP clients, with Staex they work reliably out of the box.
Software-defined SIM cards for IoT
SIM-card based authentication in telecom networks works very well for human clients, but is costly for machine clients (e.g. IoT devices). The identifier and the private key are everything the machines need for secure end-to-end encrypted communication. For them we can go further and completely remove the need for specialized hardware. This helps to reduce the cost of ownership for the clients and actually make off-the-shelf hardware capable of connecting to telecom networks thus attracting more clients to use telecom networks for IoT applications.
Staex offers a solution for machine-to-machine communication that is secure, end-to-end encrypted, and does not require hardware support for the encryption (although, you can use hardware modules to further improve security). This solution can be operated at the same cost as non-cellular networks and provide the same or even higher security level.
Staex offers a solution for machine-to-machine communication that is secure, end-to-end encrypted, and does not require hardware support for the encryption (although, you can use hardware modules to further improve security). This solution can be operated at the same cost as non-cellular networks and provide the same or even higher security level.
5G site-to-site connectivity
Proliferation of private 5G networks created a problem of connecting two different 5G sites to each other in order to configure, maintain and orchestrate services in a unified way. Staex solves this problem. Compared to usual solutions involving VPN and possibly Kubernetes, Staex offers robust global connectivity even for unreliable network and unreliable network nodes, which is not possible with VPN alone; it also offers service orchestration on top of the global network which enables configuration and maintenance of the infrastructure in a unified way.
Improved LoRaWAN security
LoRaWAN sensors connect to the gateway which in turn connects to network configuration and update server (CUPS) and network server (LNS). The packets in the LoRaWAN network are encrypted using AES-128 encryption. While Staex cannot operate on sensors, it can provide AES-256 encryption between the gateway and CUPS/LNS servers, and thus improve security for mission critical data.
Kubernetes multi-cluster networking
Kubernetes is a mature software for container orchestration which is built for microservices and clouds. Unfortunately Kubernetes does not work reliably in unreliable networks with unreliable nodes and is not efficient for multiple local area networks. This is where Staex adds value. Staex unites all nodes from different networks into one overlay network. After that any two nodes communicate transparently with each other overcoming physical network boundaries. Staex network is robust in case of intermittent outages and packet losses, and provides orchestration capabilities that are easier to configure. This can be an attractive replacement of Kubernetes for multi-cluster networking.
Cost-efficient smart city with Staex
Smart city projects have unique requirements, among which global multi-party connectivity plays a major role. Cities have to accumulate information from sensors, vehicles, cameras — all of which are located in different local area networks that are owned and administered by different parties. In this context collecting the data is challenging. The usual solution is to set up a gateway in each network and establish ad-hoc tunnels to each gateway. Gateways and tunnels are costly to configure and maintain, not to mention that the whole system has to reliably function over an unreliable network.
Staex offers a product specifically tailored to smart cities. The product consists of an overlay software-defined network that ensures secure global connectivity across physical local area networks and service orchestrator that simplifies configuration and maintenance of the system. These two components are fully distributed, fully decentralized and are designed for unreliable networks and resource-constrained IoT devices. Together with end-to-end encryption and certificate-based trust this makes them ideal to provide global multi-party connectivity for smart cities.
Staex's role in this use case is to lower the costs of configuring and maintaining the network infrastructure. Recent case study shows that the cost is 70% lower compared to a solution involving ad-hoc tunnels, gateways and Kubernetes: the infrastructure that was previously managed by a team of 3-4 engineers, now can be managed by only one.
Staex offers a product specifically tailored to smart cities. The product consists of an overlay software-defined network that ensures secure global connectivity across physical local area networks and service orchestrator that simplifies configuration and maintenance of the system. These two components are fully distributed, fully decentralized and are designed for unreliable networks and resource-constrained IoT devices. Together with end-to-end encryption and certificate-based trust this makes them ideal to provide global multi-party connectivity for smart cities.
Staex's role in this use case is to lower the costs of configuring and maintaining the network infrastructure. Recent case study shows that the cost is 70% lower compared to a solution involving ad-hoc tunnels, gateways and Kubernetes: the infrastructure that was previously managed by a team of 3-4 engineers, now can be managed by only one.
Flat automation pyramid for Industry 4.0
In manufacturing old insecure protocols are still used. As a result security in manufacturing plants is often implemented by air-gapping the whole system. However, there are modern factories that want to get rid of this legacy and implement Industry 4.0 today. Staex helps to accomplish that. With Staex there is no need to air-gap the system: all communication inside the network is end-to-end encrypted and external connectivity is limited to the nodes that are part of the Staex network (the nodes that you fully control). This opens up the possibility to monitor and manage the plant using your mobile device or office computer, there is no need to constantly be on the shop floor. Staex effectively flattens the hierarchical automation pyramid that is still used in the industry and helps modern factories to enter Industry 4.0 age.
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