[sxt lte] lte passthrough getting IP / slow band reconnection

[miko385]

Hello,
i have switched to LTE access and mounted an sxt lte in my location.
the easiest way to continue using my network with minimum re-config was to set up sxt lte to use lte passthrough.
everything can be seen on the screenshot.
i’ve setup a vlan interface, and selected that vlan to be on eth1 port. then i selected vlan1 to be used as lte passthru interface.

on the other side on openwrt router i selected dhcp client with vlan ID 2, and now i get an IP from my provider.
problem: i keep getting 2 ip addresses - one is on mikrotik (no dhcp client anywhere but lte interface get’s IP), and then my openwrt gets a 2nd IP.

i requested to have public IPv4 on my sim card, and i will get 1 public IP once my request is done. but as of now, i’m getting 2 ip addresses on my connection.
is it possible to somehow “lose” IP on mikrotik, and have just 1 public IP on my openwrt router?

question 2 - why is band switching so slow?
it takes roughly 3 minutes for the lte modem to reconnect to another lte band. my tower has 4 bands (1,3,7,20) and depending on load i will manually switch them. i installed the last stable ros and updated modem firmware also.
huawei b525 (cat6 modem) can change bands / aggregations in ~ 15 seconds, with lte inspecteur i tested different bands and each time take about 10-15 seconds for the modem to reconnect. with mikrotik it’s almost 3 minutes. can that be faster?
thanks

[SiB]

i requested to have public IPv4 on my sim card, and i will get 1 public IP once my request is done. but as of now, i’m getting 2 ip addresses on my connection.
is it possible to somehow “lose” IP on mikrotik, and have just 1 public IP on my openwrt router?

This is how this feature work. Your ISP Public IP is at your main router not as /32 but bigger subnet for pass it to you. LTE unit fix this on his side and this is how they do the trick. Watch more here: Passthrough | Make your LTE interface shine
.

question 2 - why is band switching so slow?

Because this is his nature. It’s because lte SoC works that way and MikroTik change supplier OEM and now it’s differ, better, faster like in Chateau.
You can have enabled 4 bands and switch active one by Freq Lock, the at*cell=1,3,earfcn what is done in 10-15s

[miko385]

@SiB

This is how this feature work. Your ISP Public IP is at your main router not as /32 but bigger subnet for pass it to you. LTE unit fix this on his side and this is how they do the trick. Watch more here: Passthrough | Make your LTE interface shine

I must say i didn’t get anything , the guy was just talking something quite vaguely. for someone who is not INTO this, it’s not really helping. no tutorial, no wiki page, no demo config… so i figured i have to keep it like i have and not touch it.

@SiB

Because this is his nature. It’s because lte SoC works that way and MikroTik change supplier OEM and now it’s differ, better, faster like in Chateau.
You can have enabled 4 bands and switch active one by Freq Lock, the at*cell=1,3,earfcn what is done in 10-15s

i kinda understood this one, but will keep manually selecting bands. for the most part it’ll stay on b7, i’m getting 55-80mbit / 45mbit.
also antenna gain on B7 is highest. on B20 the sxt lte has 0 (zero) db gain

[SiB]

miko385

I must say i didn’t get anything , the guy was just talking something quite vaguely. for someone who is not INTO this, it’s not really helping. no tutorial, no wiki page, no demo config… so i figured i have to keep it like i have and not touch it.

Documentation about LTE: https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/LTE
Support from Seller who should be distributor at mikrotik.com/buy and not amazon etc., next support should be community or directly support@mikrotik.com or https://mikrotik.com/support
.

i kinda understood this one, but will keep manually selecting bands. for the most part it’ll stay on b7, i’m getting 55-80mbit / 45mbit.
also antenna gain on B7 is highest.

sxt lte can be

• SXT LTE 3-7 who is old and can be at Band7 or Band3 and ~85/45 is max you can get
• SXT LTE Kit who is SXTR + R11e-LTE lte module in mPCIe form factor. ~170/45 is max with bonding of both ethernet ports and 2CA at B3+B7

Remember that you can do a Cell-Monitor to detect other antennas at the same/differ BTS and thanks to Cell-Lock connect/stick/lock to that only one what means you can connect/force speed from other BTS/Antenna. Sometimes we can connect to other antenna with lower signals but better speed because default BTS can have to many users/FAP/FUP policy on it.
.

on B20 the sxt lte has 0 (zero) db gain

It’s low but not zero, low-freq below 1000Mhz from documentation of product is:

[miko385]

mine is sxt lte , product code RBSXTR, it’s the 2g/3g/4g sxt with r11e-lte card inside, but that one is not doing aggregations, it’s a cat4 modem. it DOES go faster than ISP routers but i think mostly because it sits outside and has better signal (and it’s outdoor device, so much easier to mount outside and less visible to neighbors than a normal huawei router with outdoor log antennas, thick black cables etc).

for the price of a sxt lte, i could have bought a cat19 indoor huawei, and i still hate myself for not buying it, because i’d now have over 200mbit speed. we have 4ca aggreggations here. but this sxt is still way faster than my dsl connection, now in disuse.

as for the beggining of the topic - on the video you linked, the guy was showing a powerpoint slide named “passthrough in lte passthrough” saying the IP can be removed from mikrotik while still having public ip on the router itself , but it’s not explained how it’s done, and no word about it on the wiki page, or actually anywhere. when i manually remove the public ip from the mikrotik, also my openwrt router looses ip address so i have to restart the lte modem to get again public ip, and then the openwrt router also gets a new public ip.

also, lte scanner is not working with my sim card. i noticed there is this option, but with a1 sim card it’s not working. when i use t-com sim, it was working. doesn’t really matter here, only 1 tower is pointed to my direction.

well, i said on b20 gain was 0, but ok, it’s 1.5dBi on 815mhz. still it’s almost nothing , you can’t deny that. when i select b20, i get about 15mbit, so not really usable. b1 and b3 are most crowded so depending on time of the day they go even below 10mbit.
anyway, looks like i DO get 2 public IP (one on openwrt, one on sxt) so i won’t touch the config. i would like to know how to use a true lte passthru option , so i’ll be thankful for help if someone DO know how to config that.
would be nice seeing cheaper mikrotik lte options too. r11e-cat6 modem (just the modem) costs more than the entire sxt lte device.

[SiB]

for the price of a sxt lte, i could have bought a cat19 indoor huawei, and i still hate myself for not buying it, because i’d now have over 200mbit speed. we have 4ca aggreggations here. but this sxt is still way faster than my dsl connection, now in disuse.

.

would be nice seeing cheaper mikrotik lte options too. r11e-cat6 modem (just the modem) costs more than the entire sxt lte device.

I mostly buy LHGR without lte module, and insert EM12-G - those combo works well. This is my way.
.

as for the beggining of the topic - on the video you linked, the guy was showing a powerpoint slide named “passthrough in lte passthrough” saying the IP can be removed from mikrotik while still having public ip on the router itself , but it’s not explained how it’s done, and no word about it on the wiki page, or actually anywhere.

This is a research of that person and he say what to do todo that manualy, but this can be understand by people his level of networking. For normal case we use normal passthrough mode inside ROS.
.

when i manually remove the public ip from the mikrotik, also my openwrt router looses ip address so i have to restart the lte modem to get again public ip, and then the openwrt router also gets a new public ip.

Why you remove that "virtual IP at SXTR? Of course this will breake communication. Setting the passthrough mode disable internet at that unit, he not have internet via this “pseudo PublicIP”.
.

anyway, looks like i DO get 2 public IP (one on openwrt, one on sxt) so i won’t touch the config. i would like to know how to use a true lte passthru option , so i’ll be thankful for help if someone DO know how to config that.

I always config RouterOS from null, but todo is like:

• connect via WinBox by MAC Address
• create a bonding of both ether1&2
• create a vlan2 for mgmt and vlan3 for passthrough mode
• not use dhcp server, you can use dhcp-client at vlan2-mgmt to provide internet from main router for ros itself purpose like updates..
• set in APN passthrough mode at vlan3-wan

I ignore that Public Ip what I see at IP>Addressation because it’s just must be.
In some example with MTU you must fix clamping MSS.

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/LTE#Passthrough_Example
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/LTE#Avoiding_tethering_speed_throttling

[miko385]

that mini-pcie card is even more expensive than the r11e-cat6… it’s waaaay out of my budget. i’ll keep the current setup for a while, will see how speeds will be during summer, i hope b7 won’t get crowded. we’re slowly getting fiber and my street is in plans for 2021 so i plan on getting fiber as soon as it’s available.

about vlans, i have just vlan2 for lte passtru interface on eth1. and of course i can’t access the sxt via IP, but only via MAC. if i create a new vlan for management access, let’s say vlan3 - how do i access the sxt? i don’t use vlans in my home network.
thanks

[SiB]

that mini-pcie card is even more expensive than the r11e-cat6…

? I just buy from China AliExpress EP06-E ~40$ or EM12-G ~90$ who is cat.12 and do reach more speed.
.

about vlans, i have just vlan2 for lte passtru interface on eth1. and of course i can’t access the sxt via IP, but only via MAC. if i create a new vlan for management access, let’s say vlan3 - how do i access the sxt? i don’t use vlans in my home network.

when you create a vlan with id 2 and do passthrought to your openwrt main router then he should at dhcp reach Public IP and get internet access.
You should still have access to RB by MacAddress and IP Layer3 via ether1 directly. This just work. Probably in OpenWrt should be some added maybe.
For confirmation you can use a nornal laptop with ether port and check this, I not see any problem in diagnose that stuff.

[miko385]

thanks for info, i was looking on wrong places (ebay).
i will consider the cat12 in the future. it supports 256qam and is more future proof.
sxt is only 100mbit lan, but has 2 x lan ports. so i believe i can do a trunk, eth1+eth2 on sxt, and do the same on hex lite , and this would get me 200mbit lan speed. and then do a vlan on trunk. but this is for future, i don’t want to invest in it if in 6 months we’ll get fiber.

for ip connectivity you were right, it’s up to a setting in openwrt. i can’t connect if i’m on wifi via the openwrt router (probably has some internal routes problem) but if i connect the pc with lan cable to a switch that is connected to the sxt, then i can connect via ip adddress to the sxt lte. thanks for the hint.

[SiB]

i don’t want to invest in it if in 6 months we’ll get fiber.

True,
Fiber is Fiber !
In LTE the KEY is External Antenna, and we always are limited by FUP/FAP ISP policy, CA limits, etc… It’s like in wifi.. you buy best WiFI router but clients are still slow in garden :).

[miko385]

i pulled a pci-e modem out of a cat6 zte router, there is not much info on the modem itself - just “e99006 type2BL”.
do you think it could work inside mikrotik too?

[SiB]

I have no idea, it’s just to test.
If you not have a AT Command documentation, then better is not try by invest into Quectel EP06-[E/A] ~40$ or EM12-G ~90$ and those are just works with all feature we need and bands. Check them if you must replace the MikroTik to other one.

[miko385]

today i tested that zte modem - no, mikrotik sxt don’t see the lte modem at all. no lte device. pity, because the modem is capable of b3+b7, b7+b20 and b7+b7 intraband.
i returned the r11e modem and it continued to work normally. with some tweaking i was able to get up to 85mbit downlink. quite happy for now.

[miko385]

@SiB - how do you fit the EM12-G card in mikrotik ? with pci-e to m.2 adapter or you buy a em12 card that is native in pci-e format?
on aliex i found only m.2 card.
thanks

[SiB]

@SiB - how do you fit the EM12-G card in mikrotik ? with pci-e to m.2 adapter or you buy a em12 card that is native in pci-e format?
on aliex i found only m.2 card.
thanks

http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/quectel-ep06-e-and-wap-r-ac-rbwapgr-5hacd2hnd/131724/1 in #30 you have a URL to AliE… the EM12-G is the King with SXTR/LHGR ! I hope some new SXTGR/LHGGRv2 will have m.2 on-board - this will be revolution.