Broadband Cellular Bonded Network Appliance

The Portabella is a Broadband Bonding Network Appliance that provides cost effective Internet connectivity for mobile and portable deployments.When peered with Portabella Server (optional), Portabella provides uplink and downlink bonding for any protocol between a mobile location and the host office via bonding together multiple cellular wireless Internet access cards for increased performance and reliability. Portabella aggregates the capacity of as many as four USB based cellular data cards providing increased access bandwidth in both uplink and downlink directions for the communication link to the host office. The Portabella Server will also act as a transparent proxy, enabling the Portabella with a bonded connection out to the public Internet. Alternatively, Portabella when used with the Broadband Bonding Service subscription, will enable uplink/downlink bonding without requiring any Portabella Server device as the Portabella Server will be hosted by Mushroom Networks as part of the Broadband Bonding Service.

Portabella has 2 models. The standard Portabella 141 is ideal for indoor use and the industrial and ruggedized Portabella 141i is ideal for mobile or portable deployments. The PortaBella has 4 USB based ports for cellular wireless data cards. The 10/100baseT Ethernet based LAN port connects to the local network or devices at the mobile location. With the optional battery pack, the ultra portable Portabella is the fastest available mobile wireless Internet access available today.

For live video uplink over bonded 3G / 4G wireless data cards, please check out our Teleporter solution which integrates Mushroom’s bonding technology that is optimized for live video streaming. For video streaming over bonded 3G / 4G wireless data cards to a video server or CDN for webcasting applications, please check out our Streamer solution.

1. Can I stream video with Portabella? No, PortaBella by itself will not enable video streaming. Teleporter is our turnkey solution for live video streaming. Teleporter is ideal for live video streaming and broadcasting applications.
2. Other than implementing bonding for the communication between the main office and mobile office, will PortaBella accelerate the Internet traffic at the mobile office? Yes. PortaBella will bond all HTTP based downlink traffic for accelerated Internet traffic. PortaBella can also be configured to funnel all Internet traffic through the Bonding Proxy Appliance unit at the main office to enable bonded speed for the mobile location.For scenarios where there is no Mushroom Bonding Proxy Appliance unit in the main office that the PortaBella can peer to, PortaBella can peer with Bonding Proxy Appliances hosted by Mushroom Networks in their data centers. This optional subscription service – Broadband Bonding Service will enable PortaBella with bonded uplink and downlink Internet.In case PortaBella operated in standalone mode (i.e. it does not peer to a Truffle unit at the data center nor to a server in Mushroom Networks operated data center), PortaBella will provide bonded http downlink traffic and will implement intelligent session based load-balancing for other traffic types.
3. Let’s say I have 4 cellular data modems with 1Mbps downlink speed and 250Kbps upload speed each, after I install the Bonding Proxy Appliance in my main office and PortaBella BBNA in the mobile location, how fast will I be able to download/upload files? PortaBella at the mobile locations with 4 cellular data cards will be able to upload with 4 x 250Kbps = 1000Kbps and download with 4 x 1 Mbps = 4 Mbps. PortaBella BBNA can provide aggregate throughputs of up to 35Mbps.
4. How many cellular/wireless interfaces does the PortaBella BBNA support? PortaBella has 4 built-in USB ports.
5. What types of addresses does PortaBella BBNA support? BBNA supports DHCP, PPPoE and static IPv4 addresses assigned from your ISP. The PortaBella BBNA can be configured appropriately through the web-based management interface. In the case of a static address, the LAN port of the PortaBella BBNA can be connected to a switch, and devices connected to the switch can be publicly addressed from the Internet through their statically assigned IP addresses. By default, however, the PortaBella BBNA uses DHCP to obtain a dynamic IP address on each Internet access line.
6. Is the PortaBella BBNA designed to be compatible with my existing LAN equipment such as routers, switches and firewalls? Yes. Any LAN interface on the PortaBella BBNA simply replaces the Ethernet port on a DSL modem or cable modem, in an existing LAN configuration with only one Internet access line.
7. Do I need to order anything special from my ISP to use the PortaBella BBNA? No. The PortaBella BBNA is a stand-alone product that does not require any special software, hardware, or configuration from the ISP.
8. Does the BBNA offer DHCP service on the LAN interface? The DHCP server is enabled by default, but may be disabled, or configured to use a certain range which will not conflict with statically configured devices on your LAN.
9. Will I need to reconfigure my existing network to install the PortaBella BBNA? No. The PortaBella BBNA supports a “Pass Through” mode of installation, for which no changes are required to the existing office data network. No changes to firewall settings or IP address re-assignment is required with the Pass Through mode. The Pass Through mode was designed to accomodate existing local office networks which fomerly had a single WAN connection to the Internet. In the Pass Through mode, the PortaBella BBNA is installed in-line between the legacy WAN modem and the legacy firewall/gateway router. The PortaBella BBNA is configured in this case by entering the IP address of the legacy WAN modem and the IP address of the legacy firewall/gateway router through the web-based BBNA Management Interface. Additional WAN modems can be plugged in to the PortaBella BBNA for enhanced performance and reliability on an as-needed basis, and will automatically be available to the legacy data network in the office.
10. Besides the Broadband Bonding®, does PortaBella BBNA also provide inbound DNS load-balancing? Yes.
11. Does the PortaBella BBNA support port forwarding? Yes; port forwarding on the PortaBella BBNA is configurable through the web-based management interface.
12. Do I need the “Broadband Bonding Service” subscription with my BBNA device? No. All BBNA devices will provide http downlink bonding and load-balancing for uplink and non-http traffic without requiring the monthly Broadband Bonding Service. Broadband Bonding Service will however provide additional bonding capability enabling bonding for all protocols in uplink and downlink.

To download the brochure for PortaBella 141, please click here.To download the brochure for PortaBella 141i, please click here.

Please contact Mushroom Networks sales for the PortaBella BBNA User’s Manual and other documentation.

Phone: 1-858-452-1031
Email: sales@mushroomnetworks.com

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