Cases
Maritime

Surveillance Boats Sail Past Dropouts with Peplink

The Municipality of Amsterdam operates electric surveillance boats for various tasks, including maintaining law and order, ensuring public safety, and conducting environmental assessments along the city’s canals. To support these operations, the municipality partnered with Peplink partner Network Innovations to implement a robust onboard communications network.

Challenge

Reliable connectivity onboard the surveillance boats was critical for internet access, real-time communication with headquarters, and emergency responses. However, patrolling Amsterdam’s canals posed significant challenges as the boats frequently moved below ground level, obstructing the line of sight between the transmitter and receiver onboard. Previously, basic cellular-enabled phones were used, but frequent signal dropouts and dead zones limited operational efficiency and reliability.

Solution

Network Innovations, in collaboration with Peplink’s European distributor Frontier EU, deployed HD2 MBX 5G router and Mobility antennas on the surveillance boats. All devices were configured via InControl, enabling seamless fleet monitoring and management. The strategic placement of routers and antennas optimized signal reception on each vessel.

The HD2 MBX 5G’s dual cellular capabilities allowed connections to multiple carriers, while the Mobility antennas boosted signal reception, ensuring redundancy and access to the strongest available 5G or LTE signals, even in obstructed areas. Combined with SpeedFusion technology, connections could be bonded for increased bandwidth or instantly failover to active links, ensuring uninterrupted communication.

Result

While some surveillance boats were still under construction, Network Innovations collaborated closely with engineers to ensure a smooth installation of the Peplink devices. The InControl platform made scaling the solution easy, allowing the Municipality of Amsterdam to save manpower while maintaining visibility of network and vessel status.

The new connectivity solutions improved the operational stability and effectiveness of Amsterdam’s mobile surveillance system. With enhanced access to multiple connections, the surveillance boats can monitor and report data without interruptions, while the onboard crew confidently communicates with headquarters.

''With the Peplink routers in place for a stable and resilient network, our client's problem was completely solved. The Peplink routers support multiple cellular connections using different carriers and technologies. This redundancy has helped ensure that those on board vessels can connect to the nearest and strongest available cellular tower to maintain a reliable connection, even when dealing with obstructions and line-of-sight issues.''

- Leon-Marc Roefs, Account Manager Government and Defence, Network Innovations

Deployment

HD2 MBX 5G

  • Deployed to surveillance boats for dual cellular connectivity
  • Increase network redundancy for reduced downtime
  • Fleet management via InControl

Mobility Antennas

  • Connected to the HD2 MBX 5G
  • 5G compatible and high efficiency
  • Improves signal reception underground
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