Connecting Mobile Devices Transparently with the Customer Network in a User-Friendly Manner
(This article belongs to the Special Issue on SP7 (Special Issue on Multidisciplinary Sciences and Advanced Technology (SI-MSAT 2025)) and the Section Telecommunications (TEL))
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Henrici, D. and Boose, A. (2025). Connecting Mobile Devices Transparently with the Customer Network in a User-Friendly Manner. Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, 4(10), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.55708/js0410001
Dirk Henrici and Andreas Boose. "Connecting Mobile Devices Transparently with the Customer Network in a User-Friendly Manner." Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences 4, no. 10 (October 2025): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.55708/js0410001
D. Henrici and A. Boose, "Connecting Mobile Devices Transparently with the Customer Network in a User-Friendly Manner," Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 1–8, Oct. 2025, doi: 10.55708/js0410001.
The mobile data service in cellular networks can be more than just providing Internet access: it can connect mobile devices seamlessly and transparently to private networks like company intranets and home networks. Such a service is nowadays provided to usually larger customers based on customer-specific access point names and connecting the private data path via virtual private network (VPN) to a remote company network. A market study suggests that mobile network operators can monetize such an ability also for Small-Office / Home-Office (SOHO) customers. As also non-tech-savvy customers shall be able to connect their mobile devices to their private local networks without requiring support, it is essential to provide a plug&play solution for installation. We explore usual approaches for connecting remote devices to local networks as a basic building block. These are not only applicable in this scenario but can be used beyond it. As these approaches are not satisfactory for the purpose, we present an alternative concept based on so-called surrogate devices that are implemented based on Linux MACVLAN interfaces, policy-based routing, and network address translation. For this innovative approach, we provide technical details and a clean implementation for the wide-spread router operating system OpenWrt. Results of a friendly-user trial suggest that the goal of providing a plug&play approach for connecting remote mobile devices to a private local network is reached this way.
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