I have three different Sierra Wireless PCIe LTE cards. All for Verizon in the US. MC7750, MC7354, and MC7455. I would like to use the MC7455 since it's the newest CAT6 LTE model that covers all of the current bands.

I have all of them mounted in a simple WWAN to USB enclosure. They all work fine plugged into a Windows PC. I've tried plugging the into the USB plug on the front of my 3011 but I don't know how to make the 3011 use them as it's WAN connection.

What am I doing wrong?

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Do you see a lte interface ?

Do you see a lte interface ?

I see a tab that says LTE. But when I click on it nothing is there. When I say nothing I mean the drop-down menu is blank.

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All the above will not show up as LTE interfaces, you have to configure them through the PPP menu, like this:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Option_G ... _USB_Modem

You can tell if the interface will show up in the LTE menu if you check this page of the manual:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Supporte ... and_modems

Awesome! So it says the Sierra Wireless MC73xx modems will show up in the LTE menu if on version 7 Router OS!

I'll also try my MC74xx because those two series use the same family of Qualcomm baseband chip. The only difference is on the radio interface.

So I need to update to a version 7 of Router OS.

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I just searched for Router OS v7 and see it has been in the works for over 2 years so.... I guess it will be a bit.

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It also looks like my 3011 won't support any of my cards as it doesn't say "USB" next to the Sierra Wireless MC73xx cards.

I'll have to get a unit with a PCIe slot to make this happen. I would like to get a wAP R as soon as they become available. Still so many obstacles!

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I'll have to get a unit with a PCIe slot to make this happen. I would like to get a wAP R as soon as they become available. Still so many obstacles!

mPCIe WWAN cards (3G, LTE) actually work as USB devices. that's why the mentioned "external enclosure" is priced so attractively - it's just a set of wires, SIM breakout and voltage regulators to provide 3.3V to the card. there's no PCIe communication in the game. this is the reason why mPCIe WiFi cards do fit into those enclosures, but do not work, as they expect real PCI singling, not just plain USB.

check out this [url=http://pinoutguide.com/Slots/mini_pcie_pinout.shtml]page[url]. you will find the familiar USB_D+/USB_D- pins, and even static breakouts for activity indicator LEDs for WWAN on the mPCIe connector itself. so it does not make no difference where do you put your mPCIe WWAN cards, into mPCIe slot or into external USB enclosure; if there's no driver to detect it, it won't work.

mPCIe WWAN cards (3G, LTE) actually work as USB devices. that's why the mentioned "external enclosure" is priced so attractively - it's just a set of wires, SIM breakout and voltage regulators to provide 3.3V to the card. there's no PCIe communication in the game. this is the reason why mPCIe WiFi cards do fit into those enclosures, but do not work, as they expect real PCI singling, not just plain USB.

check out this [url=http://pinoutguide.com/Slots/mini_pcie_pinout.shtml]page[url]. you will find the familiar USB_D+/USB_D- pins, and even static breakouts for activity indicator LEDs for WWAN on the mPCIe connector itself. so it does not make no difference where do you put your mPCIe WWAN cards, into mPCIe slot or into external USB enclosure; if there's no driver to detect it, it won't work.

Right. I gathered that reading up on some other documents. That makes what Mikrotik is saying confusing.... If all of these WWAN cards are USB, why do they specifically separate the two interfaces?


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If all of these WWAN cards are USB, why do they specifically separate the two interfaces?

they don't. it depends on how the driver detects the WWAN device.
- some work as native LTE. you have full speed, direct connection (/interface lte)
- some work as LTE "hilink" - where the WWAN device acts as a _router_ and does NAT44 and there is a DHCPv4 server listening on it, so your routerboard must run DHCP client on the LTE interface. you have full speed, but no direct connection, e.g. you can't reach the router from the outside. (/interface lte)
- most stuff works through ppp emulation (interface ppp-client) - you will have direct connection, so the address received from the EPC/GGSN will be visible in the router, but you will be limited to ~20-25Mbps top speed
- some stuff is not detected as modem. they might pop up in "/sys resource usb" but is not recognised as supported WWAN device by routerOS

this separation does not depend on the modem form factor, but on the driver available for the respective device in routerOS.

they don't. it depends on how the driver detects the WWAN device.
- some work as native LTE. you have full speed, direct connection (/interface lte)
- some work as LTE "hilink" - where the WWAN device acts as a _router_ and does NAT44 and there is a DHCPv4 server listening on it, so your routerboard must run DHCP client on the LTE interface. you have full speed, but no direct connection, e.g. you can't reach the router from the outside. (/interface lte)
- most stuff works through ppp emulation (interface ppp-client) - you will have direct connection, so the address received from the EPC/GGSN will be visible in the router, but you will be limited to ~20-25Mbps top speed
- some stuff is not detected as modem. they might pop up in "/sys resource usb" but is not recognised as supported WWAN device by routerOS

this separation does not depend on the modem form factor, but on the driver available for the respective device in routerOS.

Oh man.... Well? Maybe I should just get a MoFi and call it a day. I've been stumped by Router OS since my first Mikrotik box and it's not getting any easier.

My hurdle right now is the fact that VZW uses NAT. So anything that uses port forwarding isn't getting through the double NAT. It took me a week just to get Plex working when I got my 3011 so I know this won't be easy.


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My hurdle right now is the fact that VZW uses NAT. So anything that uses port forwarding isn't getting through the double NAT. It took me a week just to get Plex working when I got my 3011 so I know this won't be easy.

my take on this scenarios is to run a central box (maybe a CHR in AWS for free) with public IPv4 address, enable L2TP server or SSTP server on it, and configure a single ppp secret that has "routes=x.x.x.x" attribute filled with your LAN address space.

then set up the router behind the NAT44 or NAT444 to initiate an L2TP or SSTP connection towards the central device w/o dial-on-demand and masquerade.

then your home router will be almost exposed, and you will have a "dedicated" IPv4 public address on the central box, where you can just simply do the port forwarding stuff.
on your router with mobile uplink you need to set up policy routing, so the packets received via the tunnel shall go back to the tunnel - this is easy by using firewall mangle rules.