Access Point Name (APN) management is a part of the cellular IoT solution that allows a device to connect with the internet. Managing the APN allows organisations to ensure the reliability and security of the mobile device network. This post summarises what a managed APN is and how it helps mobile connectivity.
APN stands for Access Point Name — the gateway that connects the mobile network with the internet. It shows the identity of your mobile carrier so the device knows which network to connect to.
The carrier or connectivity management platform then assigns the device an IP address and the corresponding encryption method. This information is stored in the SIM card so the mobile device only needs to read it.
There are different types of APN:
The APN is the collection of all the information the device uses to connect with the carrier’s network. The APN lists the address the device uses to connect to the network, the ports it uses to handle messages and which type of data this specific APN uses, among other things.
An Access Point Name has two parts:
What’s the use of APN in mobile?
The APN holds the information the device needs to connect to the internet. It contains the address the carrier uses to identify the device and to give it an internet connection. Normal consumer mobile phones will usually have APN settings right in the SIM. For IoT devices, these need to be configured on the device. Most IoT devices will allow for OTA (over the air) updates of APN settings so that these can be managed remotely.
Traditional cellular carriers provide dynamic private IP addresses to SIM cards. This means that every time the phone sends data, it gets a different public IP address.These IPs are not unique to the device. The next time the device sends data it will get another address, and another device gets the old IP.
This is no problem for certain devices that don’t need to access remotely via a specific IP address. But for some devices, one of the issues of dynamic IPs is that they make it practically impossible to troubleshoot remotely. Managed Private APNs usually offer private IP addresses within a set IP range.
For organisations with a fleet of mobile devices, there are several factors that make public and private APNs a challenge:
Managed APNs offer several benefits in terms of data security compared to using the public APN:
Organisations using IoT and mobile devices require connectivity reliability and cost control for various applications. SIMcontrol provides end-to-end connectivity for mobile and IoT devices as a fully managed APN solution.
Some of the key features of the Managed APN platform include:
A managed APN service offers organisations the control, flexibility, security, and visibility they need over their mobile and IoT devices. It secures the data by controlling access to the customer network to provisioned devices. SIMcontrol Managed APN services allow organisations to know exactly how much they are spending on data, to scale up or down without the hassle of long-term APN contracts and to manage multiple networks on a secure and reliable connectivity solution.
Learn more about how SIMcontrol enables reliable connectivity. Speak to a consultant today.
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