Rajant Corporation is a pioneer in fully mobile wireless networking and the creator of the patented Kinetic Mesh®technology — the industry’s most adaptable and resilient private network solution.
Founded in 2001 by Robert Schena and Paul Hellhake, Rajant revolutionized wireless mesh networking to deliver continuous, secure connectivity for people, vehicles, and equipment in motion.
Today, Rajant Kinetic Mesh® networks power mobility and autonomy across industries including defense, mining, transportation, energy, and government, enabling real-time data and communications in the most demanding environments.
Interview with Andy Kowalik, Vice President, Strategy & Marketing, Rajant Corporation.
What are the most common challenges your clients face before turning to your solutions?
Andy Kowalik: Most of Rajant’s customers operate in large, complex, and often remote environments and industries like mines, ports, warehouses, and defense operations. In these settings, traditional networks often fall short. They struggle with coverage gaps, high latency, and limited ability to integrate new technologies without costly infrastructure overhauls. These are places where operations depend on real-time data and constant communication between moving assets. Legacy systems like Wi-Fi or LTE alone were never designed for that level of mobility or responsiveness. What Rajant provides is the ability to connect everything seamlessly. Our Kinetic Mesh® technology can work alongside LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, or satellite systems, which means customers can modernize their operations without disruption.
How do you typically discover and define a client’s productivity problem before offering a solution?
A.K: We start by listening and observing. Our team spends time on-site with engineers, operators, and project managers to understand how their systems actually perform day-to-day. We look at where downtime, latency, or data loss is happening and what that means for their workflow.
From there, we map how Rajant’s intelligent edge technology can make those systems more efficient. Sometimes that means reducing dependency on outdated infrastructure, and other times it means enabling distributed computing or real-time analytics at the edge. By understanding the full operational picture, we can identify exactly where improvements will deliver measurable gains in efficiency, uptime, and safety.
In what ways do your products directly address these challenges and remove barriers to efficiency?
A.K: Our technology brings intelligence directly to the edge, right where work happens. The foundation is our Kinetic Mesh® network, which is self-optimizing and self-healing. That means it keeps running even if one node is compromised or blocked. The network automatically finds the next best path to keep data moving.
On top of that, our Cowbell® platform adds distributed computing capabilities so that AI and analytics can run locally instead of relying on a centralized data center. Our Reios® system connects and manages IoT sensors that handle things like predictive maintenance and worker safety. And our BreadCrumb® nodes, such as the Peregrine FE1-2255X, provide the high throughput and low latency needed for robotics, drones, and tele-remote operations.
Together, these systems give organizations continuous, reliable connectivity and the flexibility to grow into new automation use cases without rebuilding their network.
What role does innovation (in design, materials, digitalization, automation, etc.) play in transforming client problems into measurable results?
A.K: Innovation for us always starts in the field. We develop our technology by working side by side with customers who operate in the toughest environments on earth, from underground mines to high-traffic ports. We see firsthand what fails and what needs to work under pressure.
Our BreadCrumbs® and Cowbell® platform combine advanced digital intelligence with the physical durability needed in those environments. The hardware is built to handle vibration, dust, moisture, and extreme temperatures, all while maintaining consistent throughput and low latency. That reliability allows automation and edge computing to perform where traditional networks can’t. Every improvement we make, whether in hardware or software, is designed to produce measurable gains in uptime, efficiency, and resource utilization.
How do you ensure a smooth transition from problem recognition to implementing your solution at the client’s site?
A.K: Our goal is always to integrate, not disrupt. We design Rajant systems to be modular and backward compatible, so customers can deploy them quickly alongside their existing infrastructure.
We also provide configuration tools and remote management capabilities that make setup and maintenance straightforward. During rollout, our technical support team ensures that any adjustments are made with minimal downtime. Once the system is running, our managed services team continues to monitor and optimize performance to keep operations running smoothly long after installation.
Do you adapt your products to specific industries or customer needs, and if so, how?
A.K: Rajant’s technology is used across many industries, but every deployment is customize to that environment. In mining, we enable teleoperation and safety analytic underground. In logistics, our mesh networks support autonomous robotics and real-time tracking. In defense, we provide secure, mobile communication at the edge. The same technology underpins each of these solutions, but how we configure it is specific to the customer’s operational challenges. That adaptability is what allows us to serve so many different sectors effectively.
What key metrics do your clients use to measure productivity improvements after adopting your solutions?
A.K: Most clients measure improvements through uptime, response time, equipment utilization, and overall cost reduction. Many also look at safety indicators and automation reliability. Because our systems deliver data and analytics at the edge, clients can see the impact of those metrics in real time. They can trace performance improvements directly to operational outcomes. It’s not just about faster data speeds; it’s about enabling smarter decisions that reduce downtime and increase throughput.
Can you share a concrete example where your product significantly boosted a client’s productivity?
A.K: One of the clearest examples comes from a large open-pit mining operation that needed to expand its autonomous haulage and drilling systems. The challenge was that their legacy wireless network simply couldn’t keep up. As trucks and drills moved deeper into the pit or across changing terrain, they would lose connectivity, which meant downtime, manual resets, and lost production hours.
Rajant worked with the site team to deploy our Kinetic Mesh® network using ruggedized BreadCrumb® nodes across the fleet and key infrastructure points. Because every BreadCrumb acts as both a transmitter and receiver, the network constantly routes around obstructions or node losses, so communication is never interrupted. Once it was up and running, those same autonomous systems could operate continuously, maintaining live telemetry and video links even several kilometers from the control room. Today, that mine runs 24/7 connected operations. Supervisors have uninterrupted visibility into haulage and drilling data, and they’re able to make faster, safer decisions in real time. The downtime caused by signal loss was effectively eliminated, and the network now serves as the backbone for additional automation and edge-analytics initiatives. For us, that’s the real measure of productivity—taking a process that was stop-and-start and turning it into a continuous, intelligent operation.
How do your solutions not only solve immediate challenges but also support long-term operational efficiency and sustainability?
A.K: Our technology is designed to evolve with our customers. As new IoT devices, sensors, or private 5G systems come online, our network can integrate them without major rework. That protects the customer’s investment and keeps their operations adaptable for the long term.
We also help improve sustainability through smarter data handling. By processing more data locally at the edge, we reduce unnecessary transmission and energy use. That makes networks more efficient and environmentally responsible while improving performance at the same time.
What future client challenges do you anticipate, and how are your products evolving to address them?
A.K: The biggest challenge we see ahead is the growing complexity of distributed systems. As industries become more autonomous and data-driven, organizations will need to process huge volumes of information in real time across multiple sites.
Rajant is investing heavily in intelligent edge computing and data orchestration to meet that need. Our goal is to make it simple for customers to unify communications and analytics at the edge, regardless of the underlying network. We want to give them more autonomy, faster insight, and greater resilience, without forcing costly infrastructure changes. That’s how we’re preparing our customers for the next generation of industrial intelligence.
