Remote monitoring becomes particularly challenging in locations with no reliable fixed network infrastructure \u2014 remote water treatment sites, mountain weather stations, offshore platforms or agricultural land. Multi-communication IoT devices solve this by combining several radio technologies in one unit, automatically selecting the best available connection at any moment.<\/p>\n
A multi-comm device integrates two or more communication interfaces \u2014 typically a combination of 4G\/LTE, NB-IoT, LoRaWAN and sometimes satellite (such as Iridium or Orbcomm). The device selects the available interface based on signal quality and priority rules, ensuring that measurement data reaches Sensor-Online even in locations where any single network might be unavailable.<\/p>\n
Common configurations include:<\/p>\n
EWS (Early Warning System) multi-comm devices are designed for exactly these challenging environments. They combine compact, weatherproof hardware with the ability to log data locally during connectivity outages and push the stored buffer to Sensor-Online once the connection is restored. This ensures no data is lost even during extended network interruptions.<\/p>\n
All EWS devices supported by Sensor-Online use the platform\u2019s standard device type library for automatic payload decoding \u2014 no custom configuration required to get measurements into dashboards and alarms.<\/p>\n
Multi-comm IoT deployments in remote locations almost always require off-grid power. Sensor-Online tracks battery voltage and solar charge status as separate data channels, enabling proactive battery replacement or solar panel maintenance before a site goes dark.<\/p>\n
Typical power configurations for remote monitoring:<\/p>\n
Most multi-comm devices include local flash memory to buffer readings during connectivity outages. When the connection is restored, the device uploads the stored data to Sensor-Online, which accepts and timestamps historical backfills correctly.<\/p>\n
Yes. Sensor-Online has a configurable heartbeat alarm \u2014 if a device does not send a message within a defined time window, an alert is triggered via SMS, email or webhook. This covers both sensor failure and network outage scenarios.<\/p>\n
Yes, as long as the satellite modem delivers data via a supported protocol (typically HTTP\/MQTT). The platform receives and processes the data identically regardless of the underlying transport.<\/p>\n
Explore Sensor-Online\u2019s sensor catalogue<\/a> or learn more about remote industrial IoT solutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n