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WAN edge and backhaul roles — two-site and off-grid

Purpose

Durable labels for internet / site-to-site paths: WAN customer edge (e.g. satellite or cellular CPE), optional terrestrial links, and backhaul as the uplink segment that carries MQTT/admin when you choose cloud paths—distinct from field RF bridges (RF and telemetry gateway roles).

Scope

  • In scope: Role definitions, degraded expectations when WAN fades, pointers to stop rules and connectivity doctrine.
  • Out of scope: Carrier account details, public IPs, or your contracted speeds.

Knowns

  • The East Tennessee two-site package discusses Starlink / LTE and pilot vs scale posture in the connectivity strategy (named Claxton/Demory anchors).
  • Off-grid doctrine treats W nodes as sheddable relative to Pcrit field spine in the G/R/S/H/W model.

Assumptions

  • Local-first operation remains possible for defined workloads when WAN is absent—see dependency maps.

Outstanding unknowns

  • Final redundant WAN strategy per site after cost/coverage validation (see validation plans—not prescribed here).