Cloud platform to monitor and configure multi-WAN routers

About the client

A start-up in Norway. Its software turns consumer and industrial Wi-Fi routers into multi-WAN routers. Its customers use these routers to build resilient networks for critical infrastructure.

Objective

The client ran a cloud management system written in PHP. The system had reached its limit. Performance was hard to control and each new function was hard to add. The client wanted a rewrite without those limits.

What we built

The product is a cloud system that tracks and configures multi-WAN routers on OpenWrt/LEDE. The client’s customers see their router fleet and its failover state in real time. A router accepts two mobile networks at once, or up to eight fixed-line broadband lines. Two web developers have worked on the system for more than six years.

Dashboard

• Rebuilt the customer dashboard in Angular and TypeScript. It shows each router of the fleet and its failover state in real time.
• Added configuration screens. A customer changes the settings of a device from the browser.
• Built a management and support view for CSPs and system integrators. They manage many customers’ devices and VPN from one screen.

Server and API

• Rewrote the backend in Node.js. The PHP code did not let the client control performance or add functions.
• Sized the server to take the expected load on modest hardware and to grow with the fleet.
• Published a REST API. Customers connect their own applications to the router data.

Result

The system is in production. Two web developers have worked on it for more than six years (client data). Each router joins up to 8 fixed-line links or 2 mobile networks (client data). Customers see the fleet and its failover in real time from one dashboard (client data). The client’s customers are satisfied with the REST API. The work continues.