Recommendations for 4G connected peers / data usage on metered networks

[rgdev]

Hello,

We've deployed Netbird (0.37.1) on a few 4G connected devices as a possible replacement for an older OpenVPN-based solution.

Right off the bat we've noticed a significant increase in data usage we can attribute to obvious things such as the different mesh network architecture, control plane communications and additional features (updates of routes & peers; key exchange; signal relay functionality etc). While OpenVPN typically use a megabyte a day, Netbird will use around 20 MBs.

Our use case is exclusively to enable remote access into those devices so 99% of the time the VPN link doesn't not carry much data (nearly all outgoing traffic goes through the ISP's network, not Netbird or OpenVPN).

We've implemented some generous read, write and idle timeouts on the infra side (Self Hosted Netbird) to ensure Netbird clients don't produce excessive reconnects. We've also tried setting NB_FORCED_RELAY=true (I don't think this is documented yet?) since we rely on Netbird Relay servers to carry the connections as direct P2P connections are difficult on mobile networks.

Do you have tips or recommendations for running Netbird on metered networks to keep the data usage as low as possible ?

Thanks.

[1nerdyguy]

I'm curious as to the answers you end up with here, so following for that.

However, I do feel you may be running into a scope issue. to 99.9% of the target audience for netbird, 20 MB a day is literally nothing. While I get that's not your case here, you can see why extreme bandwidth limitations aren't so much on the roadmap at this time?

[micael-pn]

Hello,

I am also interested in this use case.

We manage thousands of IoT devices connected via 3G and 4G/LTE networks, where bandwidth and data usage are limited.

Currently, we use OpenVPN for remote maintenance access, but we are evaluating Netbird as a potential replacement. Since cellular data is billed per MB, minimizing data consumption is a key factor in our decision.

Compared to OpenVPN, how does Netbird handle data usage? Are there specific configurations to optimize and reduce cellular consumption as much as possible (both on client and server side)?

Thanks in advance for your insights!