Every row is a minimum we have tested against. Exceed where possible; never under-spec.
Bandwidth
Per-camera sustained bandwidth, single main stream. Double these if you also run a sub-stream. Add 15% overhead for RTP.
| Resolution | Frame rate | H.264 | H.265 |
|---|
| 1080p (2 MP) | 15 fps | 2.5 Mbps | 1.3 Mbps |
| 1080p (2 MP) | 30 fps | 4.5 Mbps | 2.4 Mbps |
| 4 MP | 15 fps | 4.0 Mbps | 2.0 Mbps |
| 4 MP | 30 fps | 7.5 Mbps | 3.8 Mbps |
| 8 MP (4K) | 15 fps | 8.0 Mbps | 4.0 Mbps |
| 8 MP (4K) | 30 fps | 16.0 Mbps | 8.0 Mbps |
Gateway uplink to cloud: (sum of all camera bitrates) × 1.2 minimum sustained upload.
Latency
| Link | Max latency | Note |
|---|
| Camera to gateway (LAN) | 10 ms | Ethernet preferred; Wi-Fi acceptable on 5 GHz. |
| Gateway to cloud (WAN) | 150 ms | Over 150 ms and WebRTC startup degrades. |
| Cloud to viewer (WAN) | 200 ms | Over 200 ms and live-view join exceeds 4 s. |
| NTP drift across gateway + cameras | 2 s | Drift over 5 s breaks clip timestamp alignment. |
Ports
See Ports and protocols for the full list. Outbound from the gateway:
| Port | Protocol | Destination | Purpose |
|---|
| 443 | TCP | NovaVMS cloud | HTTPS + WebSocket to cloud |
| 3478 | UDP | NovaVMS TURN | WebRTC ICE candidates |
| 49152-49252 | UDP | NovaVMS TURN | WebRTC relay range |
| 123 | UDP | NTP pool | Time sync |
PoE
| Camera class | PoE standard | Budget per port |
|---|
| Standard IR bullet/dome, 2–4 MP | 802.3af (PoE) | 15.4 W |
| ColorVu / LightHunter, 5–8 MP, IR | 802.3at (PoE+) | 30 W |
| PTZ, heater, wiper | 802.3bt (PoE++) | 60 W |
| Gateway (Pi 5 + PoE HAT) | 802.3at (PoE+) | 30 W |
Rule: switch total PoE budget ≥ sum of port budgets × 1.25.
DHCP
| Setting | Value | Note |
|---|
| Lease time | 24 h minimum | Shorter and cameras churn IPs, breaking ONVIF discovery cache. |
| Reservation | One per camera, keyed on MAC | Recommended over static IP per camera. |
| Static alternative | Fixed IP set in the camera’s own web UI | Document the IP in the site IP plan. |
DNS
| Record | Required |
|---|
| Public DNS for cloud hostname | Yes (gateway resolves novavms.novalien.com or customer’s tenant FQDN). |
| Internal DNS for cameras | Optional. ONVIF discovery uses IPs, not names. |
| Split-horizon DNS | Supported. The gateway uses the system resolver. |
NTP
| Device | Required NTP source |
|---|
| Gateway | Any RFC 5905 server reachable on UDP 123. Default: pool.ntp.org. |
| Camera | Same source as gateway. Set on the camera’s own admin page. |
If camera and gateway disagree on time by more than 5 seconds, clip timestamps drift and alert-to-clip matching fails.