Category Archives: Fixed Wireless LTE

Using MikroTik LHG as a UE With a Baicells eNodeB

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MikroTik LHG – RBLHGR&R11e-4G

This has been a dream for a long time, and a DIY project for those industrious individuals willing to cobble it together, but now it is a reality in a production device.

First of all why would you want to do that? Well, would you like advanced features at the customer location like Layer2 via EoIP or VPLS, rate limiting at the UE, advanced queueing, a more directional antenna and on an on, all the cool features we enjoy with RouterOS? It is here in the MikroTik LHG.

To make the LHG work with your Baicells eNodeB, first understand what it will not do. First, it will not show up in the CloudCore as a UE. So, to manage it remotely you will need to use an ACS with TR-069 or Unimus or some other management system. Secondly, some people have reported it will not connect to the base station as fast as other UE’s but the throughput speeds are generally better.

The only real configuration required is to insert a registered SIM card in the device and boot it up. There has been some debate whether or not the default APN has to be changed in the LTE setup. We have seen it work with no changes to the APN and other times the APN Name has to be changed to 1 . Some people claim you have to uncheck bands other than Band 43.

So, we are going to set one up here at our office and test it on our Baicells LTE network and post the results back here. If you have any experience, please email me through our Support System and let me know. I will include your experiences and comments here. Good luck!

UPDATE 5-1-19

I set up one here in our office. The only setting I made was to set the Band to Band 43 only. I used the default APN and it connected immediately. The one challenge I had was getting the SIM in correctly, it is not obvious. It did not work the first way I had it. I called Jim Bouse and he sent me his config which matched mine and so I tried flipping the SIM and it came right up. Here is how it goes in the slot:



Here are the property pages of my LTE interface:

I think this is a great setup!

New Baicells LTE Nova 436

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We are excited about the latest product from Baicells, the Nova 436. We received our first shipment late last week and this new LTE Base Station has some really cool features, never before seen from Baicells and not at this price point. The Nova 436 is the first Baicells LTE product to deliver carrier aggregation, even across discontiguous channels. Carrier aggregation is used in LTE-Advanced in order to increase the bandwidth, and thereby increase the bitrate or throughput. This is critical for the upcoming CBRS bands, where “PAL” and “GAA” channels allocated by the SAS may not be contiguous.

Quick Facts: Max peak rate of the aggregated carriers is 224 Mbps DL.  Fully featured, these ship with everything you need (except antenna and power cabling) which lets you rack up more savings and simplify ordering and delivery
The Baicells dual carrier base station has some significant advantages over the competition:

One Gig-E copper AND one Gig-E SFP Cage: In split sector mode, the Nova dual carrier base station has independent 20 MHz channels. This is 2x the capacity our main competition only splits with two 10 MHz carriers. Lower weight and less power draw than others, so it’s less expensive to build battery back up support. Better pricing and still no games. No feature restrictions, so you get what you pay for. And, of course, unlike our competition, our Novas come with GPS, modules, and everything needed all for one low price.

The New Nova 436 may also be used in “split sector” mode for maximum footprint and capacity in one package. And, unlike competitive products, each carrier can have as high as 20 MHz of independent channel width. In split sector, you utilize two of the bas station antenna connectors to serve one sector and the other two to serve a second sector. This is a great way to cover 360 degrees with one base station and without an omni. As your cell density increases, you can add a second base station and do carrier aggregation, and increase your total capacity tremendously. This allows operators to “grow into” LTE.

The Nova 436 is available now at ISP Supplies. We are a full service Baicells distributor, ready to serve your LTE needs.

MikroTik RBwAPR-2nD&R11e-LTE-US with LTE Modem With Verizon HowTo

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NOTE: Although I was able to make this work, it not work on all of Verizon’s US network outside large metro areas because the LTE card will not run Band 13.  They are also not certified on Verizon so use them at your own risk.  Check with your cellular provider before using on that carrier’s network.  Email [email protected] and complain to them about this limitation.

I grabbed one of these RBwAPR-2nD&R11e-LTE-US off the shelf today at ISP Supplies  and wanted to see how hard it would be to make it work with Verizon Wireless.  I had an active SIM card from an old Verizon Jetpack to use with it.  I inserted the SIM card and fired it up and attached to the onboard 2 GHz WiFi.  As suspected, it did not work out of the box.  I did a little Googling and figure out Verizon uses an APN which is basically a way  LTE carriers differentiate themselves from other carriers on the same technologies.  I created the APN profile, applied it to the LTE interface, disabled the DHCP Client and I had internet.  This is simple and here are the steps:

  1. Start with the default configuration, no changes.  Upgrade to the latest version of RouterOS.  This is covered a million other places. Reboot.
  2.  Click Interfaces-LTE-LTE APNs and delete the APN’s there. Make a new one named whatever you like.  Fill in the AOPN value to “vzwinternet”.

3.Ok out of everything.  Double click the LTE interface and select your APN profile you just created.

Count to ten and your device will connect to Verizon.  Modify as you wish.

The DHCP Client is not needed (and will be red so delete or disable it so it doesn’t bother you…) as the LTE interface will get it’s IP from the authentication process.

Source: Blog

Baicells LTE Adds Halo B Support

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HaloB is a feature that Baicells LTE introduced in February of 2018. Any Baicells eNodeB (eNB) can be purchased with or upgraded to HaloB through software feature activation. A HaloB eNB eliminates the transport layer between the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and the eNB by embedding a “Lite EPC” directly on the eNB. Therefore, critical control plane signaling is kept local.

With HaloB installed, S1 (transport) failures are eliminated. This removes wireless PTP backhaul failures, fiber outages, or routing mistakes from causing customer service disruption. CloudCore is still available for OMC monitoring and upgrade functions, as well as the BOSS HSS functions. SIM card activation and bandwidth package assignment are still performed by the BOSS. Operators using the Baicells API for billing software integration will see no change. When a UE attempts to attach to a HaloB eNB, the HaloB contacts the BOSS to verify the IMSI is valid and active and collects the bandwidth packages. All information is downloaded to the HaloB memory bank. Once stored, the UE will remain attached indefinitely. In the event of an eNB or UE reboot, attachment only needs to check the local HaloB memory data for the UE to reattach.

SIM card IMSIs can attach to multiple HaloB eNBs, and each will store the SIM data for future attachments. In the event of a rare CloudCore outage, new installs may not be able to attach during the outage if the SIM data has never been downloaded from the BOSS before. This is not a mission-critical event in most cases and once the CloudCore connection is resumed, the HaloB eNB will collect the SIM data for the new install and commence attachment.

With HaloB:

  • Operators entering the world of fixed LTE wireless have a lower initial investment.
  • The simplified structure means there is no need for professional design and maintenance.
  • The self-configuration, plug-and-play deployment model means a shorter time-to-market (TTM) and faster return-on-investment (ROI).
  • Operators can provide a Layer 2 environment for SMEs and LAN gaming.
  • The eNBs and the core network functions are decoupled.
  • The control plane is processed within HaloB; user equipment will always be online.

What does Halo B Cost?

Per eNodeB: BAICELLS-HALOB-1 $249.99
Per 10 eNodeB’s: BAICELLS-HALOB-10 $1999.99.

Ready to add Halo B?  Now in stock at ISP Supplies HERE.


Source: Blog

Baicells LTE Adds Halo B Support

Posted on by
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HaloB is a feature that Baicells LTE introduced in February of 2018. Any Baicells eNodeB (eNB) can be purchased with or upgraded to HaloB through software feature activation. A HaloB eNB eliminates the transport layer between the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and the eNB by embedding a “Lite EPC” directly on the eNB. Therefore, critical control plane signaling is kept local.

With HaloB installed, S1 (transport) failures are eliminated. This removes wireless PTP backhaul failures, fiber outages, or routing mistakes from causing customer service disruption. CloudCore is still available for OMC monitoring and upgrade functions, as well as the BOSS HSS functions. SIM card activation and bandwidth package assignment are still performed by the BOSS. Operators using the Baicells API for billing software integration will see no change. When a UE attempts to attach to a HaloB eNB, the HaloB contacts the BOSS to verify the IMSI is valid and active and collects the bandwidth packages. All information is downloaded to the HaloB memory bank. Once stored, the UE will remain attached indefinitely. In the event of an eNB or UE reboot, attachment only needs to check the local HaloB memory data for the UE to reattach.

SIM card IMSIs can attach to multiple HaloB eNBs, and each will store the SIM data for future attachments. In the event of a rare CloudCore outage, new installs may not be able to attach during the outage if the SIM data has never been downloaded from the BOSS before. This is not a mission-critical event in most cases and once the CloudCore connection is resumed, the HaloB eNB will collect the SIM data for the new install and commence attachment.

With HaloB:

  • Operators entering the world of fixed LTE wireless have a lower initial investment.
  • The simplified structure means there is no need for professional design and maintenance.
  • The self-configuration, plug-and-play deployment model means a shorter time-to-market (TTM) and faster return-on-investment (ROI).
  • Operators can provide a Layer 2 environment for SMEs and LAN gaming.
  • The eNBs and the core network functions are decoupled.
  • The control plane is processed within HaloB; user equipment will always be online.

What does Halo B Cost?

Per eNodeB: BAICELLS-HALOB-1 $249.99
Per 10 eNodeB’s: BAICELLS-HALOB-10 $1999.99.

Ready to add Halo B?  Now in stock at ISP Supplies HERE.

Using Baicells LTE L2 Mode

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Baicells LTE provides an L2 mode to bridge the UE’s.  To change LGW mode, navigate to the Network -> LGW page. In LGW L2 mode, the eNB will create a virtual interface for every UE that attaches. Each virtual interface will then do a DHCP request and create a 1:1 mapping between the UE IP (from Cloud EPC) and LGW IP. In L2 mode, the MAC address that the CPE uses is generated from the IMSI number. To calculate the CPE Mac address, convert the last 12 digits of the IMSI number to hex, then prefix it with 8A. For example, if the IMSI is 311980000002918, you would take the last 12 digits “980000002918” and convert it to hex which would equal “E42C8D5366”, which brings us to the MAC address of 8A:E4:2C:8D:53:66. Once you know the MAC address, you can provision your networking accordingly.

Note:

About the LGW, the CPEs will get private IPs from the cloud EPC. Since the operator has no control over this, LGW is used to translate the IPs to match your own network. You can find some more details on this in the Nova LGW User Guide. We currently do not support VLANs using LGW. With LGW, your options are: NAT mode (L3 w/ NAT), where all CPEs will share the same IP address as the eNB, or Router mode (L3), where you can route to the LGW subnet.

To access the CPE remotely.
First, you have to do some settings on eNB and CPE before you can access into the CPE remotely.

From base station web GUI:
Under LTE Settings->LGW Settings, you can select either NAT (default) or Router mode. Under either mode, you can remotely access the CPE. Details of which are included in the attached LGW User Guide. Also, as described in this guide, you can statically assign an IP address to each CPE based on the SIM card’s IMSI number.

From CPE web GUI:
To enable remote access to the CPE, please remember to enable the “Allow HTTPS Login from WAN” parameter on the System->Web Setting page.

Baicells LTE Attachment(s)
Nova LGW User Guide (8).pdf
LGW Bridge Flowchart (5).png
CPE Working Mode.docx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Using Baicells LTE L2 Mode appeared first on Steve Discher.


Source: Blog

Getting Started With Baicells LTE

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Baicells has created a new “LTE How To” for new WISP operators.  As you may already know, Baicells equipment is Plug & Play and by far the easiest LTE devices to set up and add to your current network. Many common startup problems evolve from the operator making too many changes during startup. Keep it simple to start with and tweak settings after the system is live.

The new guide can be found HERE.

One thing you will notice in the guide is that the simplicity of the product is enhanced by the fact that UE’s (CPE devices) and eNodeB’s (Base Stations) must be associated with the new owner’s CloudCore account to operate.   ISP Supplies is the only distributor that automates that process through our custom application, SIMPro. SIMPro allows us to scan the serial numbers of eNodeB’s and the IMSI’s of UE Sim Cards into our database, tie them to your SIMPro account and automatically email them to Baicells for provisioning.  You can even add notes to the devices in the SimPro app.  When your product arrives, it is ready to deploy.

Baicells LTE SimPro

LTE is the future of fixed wireless and you can learn more on my blog.

ISP Supplies is one of the largest Baicells LTE distributors in North America with hundreds of successful LTE deployments.  Our knowledgeable sales engineers are standing by to assist you in designing and deploying LTE in your existing or startup network.  For access to SimPro or to discuss fixed LTE, call us today at 855-947-7776.

The post Getting Started With Baicells LTE appeared first on Steve Discher.


Source: Blog