Mushroom’s Broadband Bonding Device Adds Cellular Support

Upstart Mushroom Networks Inc. today announced it has added support for wireless connections to its Broadband Bonding Network Appliance (BBNA), which pulls together multiple links to form a larger Internet access channel for businesses and service providers.

The company’s original TRUFFLE unit, which is only required at the origination, can pull together up to six wireline links (including T-1, DSL, cable and satellite) to form a connection that can support download speeds at up to 65mbps.

Mushroom claims the addition of cellular wireless connectivity boosts network reliability and availability in the event of one or multiple land-link failures.

The Ethernet-based device sits between the broadband modems and the local network at the customer’s premises. It supports port-forwarding, static IP, dynamic IP, PPPoE, DHCP, DMZ, UPnP, Dynamic DNS, and other Internet services. Since the bonding is single-sided, the solution does not require any equipment or software at the ISP premises.

By adding a PCMCIA port to the standard TRUFFLE device, cellular data cards supporting EV-DO, HSPA, EDGE or GPRS are configured as an independent WAN connection supporting either always-on or fail-over-only functionalities.

In the always-on mode, the wireless data card is broadband bonded with other high-speed services managed by the TRUFFLE device, said Mushroom, adding that, in the case of fail-over-only mode, TRUFFLE will automatically switch to wireless data card services when all other wired broadband connections have failed.

The TRUFFLE BBNA with cellular wireless access capability is available now for $3,195. The cellular data module upgrade is also available for current TRUFFLE users, but the vendor did not provide pricing.

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