Best way to setup mobile IP camera connected over 4G/LTE

[tweiss 0]

Hello,

 

... says a new member

I'm happy that I found your forum since I'm unexperienced regarding CCTV. However, I didn't found an answer to my usecase:

 

I need to select the IP camera hardware and connect that camera to a 4g/LTE router.

Since the camera is mobile, there can be more or less bandwidth available.

It would be nice to have a solution that transmits more video details if enough bandwidth is available - otherwise the camera should reduce the resolution.

 

Is there a way to realize something like adaptive resultion depending on the available bandwidth?

Is there a system or a camera designed for such a usecase?

Which codec would you use?

Any other hardware you can recommend?

 

The video should be accessible via browser => build in web server would be nice.

 

Thanks in advance for your time,

Thorsten

[varascope 0]

Yes this is very possible BUT first who is your carrier ?

 

Sprint and Verizon recently changed how they do it using a dual routing technique. Basically they use a non-routable in the card that talks to their outside gateway.

What this means: You cannot control the gateway firewall to port forward as they do not want you to host servers on their network.

Secondly, if you could get it work, your bill would be astronomical as it would surpass your monthly allowable or so called throttle limit and your speeds would suffer.

On the camera side, any IP camera would work as long as you can adjust the bitrate and/or frame rate to match your service. H.264 preferred.

 

But I never say never.

1. Longshot. Find an old Sprint PCMCIA air card. Not 4g/LTE but it does not have the routing restriction. This does work.

2. Camera push. We have taken a HD-SDI camera with a push encoder then streamed to an Amazon Cloudfront Instance. (Your looking at over $2k without the camera to do this)

Revision: Ok did a little more digging and somethings may have changed. I was right on the earlier part but it appears you can purchase a static IP address which bypasses the NAT. But check with your provider as this may go back to cost and contract TOS for hosting a server.

 

I spoke with my contact and looked into your inquiry a bit more. So basically our network with that router works as essentially a private network ip address and translation. The only way we can change the way we can alter the way our network works is by purchasing a static ip address as an alternative solution. Otherwise, you would have to configure your server or SIP applications to work with the way our network is designed which we don’t have support for. As another alternative that was mentioned to me, VPN or possibly a STUN or 3rd party server, but again that’s not something we have support for."

 

Verizon Support-

I spoke with my contact and looked into your inquiry a bit more. So basically our network with that router works as essentially a private network ip address and translation. The only way we can change the way we can alter the way our network works is by purchasing a static ip address as an alternative solution. Otherwise, you would have to configure your server or SIP applications to work with the way our network is designed which we don’t have support for. As another alternative that was mentioned to me, VPN or possibly a STUN or 3rd party server, but again that’s not something we have support for."

This was for hosting VOIP but same principal.

 

It does however appear the Verizon Jetpack supports port forwarding so using a wireless bridge and an IP camera or wireless IP camera may work.

 

I will follow this post to see if anyone has successfully tried this: If so, please advise on configuration, your monthly bill amount and any caveats.

[buellwinkle 0]

You can have cameras record locally like to a NAS or even an SD card at full resolution but use a second stream that's much lower resolution and frame rate for remote access. For example, I have 3MP cameras recording at 3MP, but when I connect to the camera, I use the sub-stream and it's VGA resolution at 5 fps which is certainly good enough to check on the camera or change a configuration.

 

As for remote access via 4G/LTE, we use a Cradlepoint mobile broadband router with a VZW USB stick. To use that, you have to pay their $500 ransom for a fixed IP address. Smaller providers then to be more flexible in this area.

[thewireguys 3]

We do this a lot.

 

If your plan is to stream the camera 24/7 you're going to have a problem. Unless you have a government account you will not have unlimited data. Verizon (our partner) has a max of 10GB per month. Sprint has unlimited if your a government account.

 

Buellwinkle is a little confused about the Verizon setup because this is not entirely true"$500 ransom for a fixed IP address"

 

The $500 fee for the setup of your M2M account which gives you all the static IP addresses you want. This is not a $500 per IP fee.

 

The M2M account is designed for solution providers like us who package Verizons LTE service with our products. One really nice feature is with with account our contracts with Verizon are only month to month.

[varascope 0]

As for remote access via 4G/LTE, we use a Cradlepoint mobile broadband router with a VZW USB stick. To use that, you have to pay their $500 ransom for a fixed IP address. Smaller providers then to be more flexible in this area.

 

Yes for the entire account setup.

 

Has anyone come across an IP camera that "pushes" vs pulls? There was some chatter about it but didn't see a final economical solution. The only one was over $2k but it could bond up to 5 air cards or OSPF the traffic.

 

@thewireguys

What is the damage for overage fees? Had any customers drop their jaw when the bill arrived?

[thewireguys 3]

We are just starting out with Verizon and in the process of launching a new solution so I don't have the numbers yet. Our other customers where using Sprint and they have unlimited data do it hasn't been an issue yet.

 

Also with the M2M account the plans are ours not the customer but all of our accounts are pooled so overages will not been an issue for us.

 

Yes there are solutions that will "push" the connections. PM me for more info.

[need2shave 0]

TWG,

 

We do the M2M account also for our customers. You can get up to 50gb on a shared account. We find putting all of our clients into a shared account is nice to prevent from overages, etc. You can also open multiple accounts.

[varascope 0]

TWG,

 

We do the M2M account also for our customers. You can get up to 50gb on a shared account. We find putting all of our clients into a shared account is nice to prevent from overages, etc. You can also open multiple accounts.

 

Have you experienced overages? If so how bad was the bill?

[need2shave 0]

No, we haven't. That said, our clients aren't streaming 24/7 nor are they streaming in HD. If I recall correctly, it runs $15 per GB of overage.

[buellwinkle 0]

M2M stands for mobile to mobile, usually free calls between calls on the same carrier. The $500 pays for as static IP, don't take my word for it, a former Principal Engineer for Airtouch, then Vodafone which became Verizon Wireless for 6 years, call them.

 

Try Millenicon, they charge about $70 for 20GB of data on VZW's 4G LTE network and I believe $10/mo for the static IP address.

 

We use VZW's 4G only because our priority is feeding the access control system and camera access was not important. Given the $20 per connection + 4GB data, it was actually the cheapest way to go. We've been using it for over a year now, works well.

 

Also check out Page Plus, they are also on VZW's network and charge less. They very recently launched 4G LTE.

 

If carrier is not important, I use 4G on FreedomPop, also very low rates on Sprints 3G/4G or ClearVision's 4G network.

[thewireguys 3]

M2M stands for mobile to mobile, usually free calls between calls on the same carrier. The $500 pays for as static IP, don't take my word for it, a former Principal Engineer for Airtouch, then Vodafone which became Verizon Wireless for 6 years, call them.

 

I think you have this confused with a different M2M account.

 

The one the rest of us are talking about means Machine 2 Machine. https://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/business/shop/machine-to-machine.html