Network configuration

Axon Body Cameras capture video and audio recordings. Place the camera in an Axon Dock to securely upload the content securely to your agency’s Axon Evidence or Evidence Local instance.

An Axon Body Camera can be docked in any compatible Axon Dock and still connect to your evidence repository to upload video. When docked, the camera obtains its own IP address to establish a direct encrypted communication channel. The dock functions as an ethernet adapter, unmanaged network switch, and charger.

To get a dock up and running, you may need some assistance from your IT department.

If you have questions, contact Axon customer service.

Warning

Never connect a dock directly to the internet. The dock must be connected behind a firewall or secure network.

Network infrastructure

Note

If you are moving from previous generation Axon body-worn cameras to Axon Body 3, Workforce, or later cameras, you may need to make changes to your network infrastructure. If you have network questions, contact your Axon representative in advance of your deployment so they can help as early as possible.

  • An Axon Body 3 or later camera is capable of upload speeds up to 25 Mbit/s per device if not regulated.
  • Each camera requires its own IP address when docked. The Axon Body 3 Dock itself has no IP address, but each bay has its own Media Access Control (MAC) address. The list of MAC addresses for each bay is on the end of each dock.
  • Static IP addresses are not supported, as the camera is a true mobile device that can be docked anywhere.
    • Use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to provision the IP address and network settings. Each dock bay functions as an ethernet card with its own MAC address.
    • If your agency currently uses static IP addresses for older Axon docks and other equipment and you want to continue using specific IP addresses for devices in specific dock bays, use DHCP reservations. Because each Axon Body 3 or later dock bay has its own MAC address, these addresses can be used for DHCP reservations. The list of MAC addresses for each bay is on the end of each dock.
  • Axon Body 3 or later docks do not support upload bandwidth restrictions. If your agency requires upload rate-limiting, here are two options:
    • Recommended – Deploy rate-limiting restrictions in your layer-3 networking infrastructure. Your network switches have an aggregated view of devices and traffic and can allocate all available bandwidth to a single device or small number of devices when they are the only ones with uploads queued, while limiting the total bandwidth when large numbers of devices are uploading at once.
    • Not recommended – There is an agency-wide Axon Body 3 or later camera setting in Axon Evidence that can limit the upload rate of all cameras when docked. While available, it is not optimal, since all Axon Body 3 or later cameras will honor this restriction even when there are few or no other devices uploading.
  • Cameras require direct access to Axon Evidence through their dock; they do not support use of a proxy server.

Network requirements

The dock for Axon Body 3 or later acts as a custom molded USB-C-to-ethernet adapter for the camera to connect to an Axon Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS). The dock does not have an embedded computer and provides no functionality beyond facilitation of data connection and charging of the camera battery over the same physical connection.

While the dock should be deployed in accordance with agency policy, it is inaccessible and transparent from the network perspective and does not require it to operate behind a firewall or router to prevent unauthorized connections. As such, this gives upi greater flexibility in how these units are deployed, including authorization of trusted individuals for home use.

Firewall configuration

The dock and Axon devices do not require any incoming data ports for regular operation. All dock communications are outbound. All video and data files transmit securely using HTTPS (SSL) and TLS1.2 AES encryption. For proper operation, the dock requires the following outbound firewall ports:

  1. Port 443 (TCP) opened for outgoing traffic to your agency’s Axon Evidence instance (youragency.evidence.com). This is used to send video and data files to Axon Evidence or Evidence Local using the HTTPS protocol.
  2. Port 80 (TCP) for time synchronization.