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whitebengal
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USB Tether: lte1 connect to bridge1

Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:00 am

I'm trying to bridge a CCR2004-16G-2S+ to an Inseego M2100 for wired connection sharing. When I plug the unit into the Cloud Core Router, the lte1 device is started and attached to the WAN side with the proper DHCP client configuration. On the ethernet port side, I can bridge all the ports together, but it won't show me the lte1 interface for bridging. I can see the WAN interface, but that isn't exactly what I want. The M2100 does not support full passthrough to a wired device, only DMZ to a known private IP of the M2100. I need the CCR2004 to have an IP address for local management. All of the devices plugged into the CCR2004 need to use the M2100 for a default gateway. I have a maximum address space of 30 private IPv4 and a routed /64 IPv6 public DHCPv6. I do not wish to double NAT. Later I will be running ZeroTier to bridge this CCR2004 to a CCR3016 at another site, pending ZeroTier being ported to the Tile architecture.

For those not familiar, Verizon Wireless is the carrier and this unit currently handles about 150GB per month with very few issues. I'm expecting to raise that to 300 GB per month late next year. With a proper n261 5G mm-wave signal, I'm showing 2.8 Gbps download at 2 - 3 bars when the cell isn't packed. This would be simpler if MikroTik supported later generation 5G standards. I'd need n261, n260, n77, n66, n5, and n2.
 
whitebengal
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Re: USB Tether: lte1 connect to bridge1

Sat Nov 13, 2021 5:16 am

So, as a follow-up to this, I still can't figure out how to use this in bridge mode, but DMZ is ok when it works. Verizon seems to have many problems with DNS lookup, so do Cloudflare DNS and Google DNS. You will probably need to run a local caching DNS server from the root DNS servers on something else because everything randomly breaks when Mikrotik tries to use the provided or public DNS resolvers. Not Mikrotik's fault, but still unusable sometimes.

As to the M2100, this thing is so broken; it's basically not useable as anything but a WiFi 6 hotspot most of the time. It violates the USB standard on negotiating power requirements and experiences random brownouts and lockups with nothing showing up in their "logs". While the Mikrotik will "talk to it," it will never work correctly to power it. So far, I can't even get this to work long term, except with a ThunderBolt 3 port operating as USB C 3.1 10G with up to 15W of power that somehow isn't tracked or reported by the operating system. I'm currently waiting on a CoolGear Power Delivery Injector; it mangles the USB negotiation and upgrades the connection to USB 3.1 10G PD2 60W. Currently, it's the only product I can find that does this. And availability, much like every other tech item, is highly random.

Ultimately, I'm replacing this hotspot with a Quectel RM502Q-AE in USB3 mode, whenever I actually get one shipped (more severe product availability problems). The mounting case for it unsurprisingly needs a power injector to bump things from 4.5W to 9W. I'd love to use the RM510Q-GL instead, but that requires figuring out how to set up 39 GHz antenna modules that also seem to be a miracle to find a source for. 5G, in general, seems to be a technical mess for anything outside of using tether mode on an iPhone 13 or a later generation Android phone. Since this normally makes USA cell phone carriers pretty upset, normally, this isn't an option. On the software side, Mikrotik has pretty much gotten every detail completed for this in Router OS v7. However, I've read some of the initial card setup procedures can be a mess for something not officially supported. The AT command set for initial setup is available in the Quectel forums, but good luck getting anything official out of Quectel without a business relationship.

Ideally, we would be using MIMO in an 8x8 configuration at 39 GHz for something like this, and yes, that would be pushing over 5gbit of WAN network traffic. If Mikrotik wanted in on this market, they would have to modify their routers to offer at least PCIe3.0 1x (USB3 may not be able to handle these speeds as info on MBIW driver throughput speeds is pretty limited), 7W on the M.2 port 3.3V power spec (May have to be bumped to 9W), use a 3052 card mounting format, and leave room for a heatsink with a fan that needs to be placed on the WAN card. Since 39 GHz or 28 GHz antenna modules are about as rare as gold and very difficult to properly install, I wouldn't expect this to be a user-added addition. I'm also not sure how tolerant the MHF4 card antenna connectors are when handling mechanical vibration or shock when installing the router in something like a trailer or vehicle, let alone shipping it across the world.
 
whitebengal
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Re: USB Tether: lte1 connect to bridge1

Fri Nov 19, 2021 2:15 pm

Ok. The Quectel RM502Q-AE does work with Router OS 7.1rc6 as a basic plugin and it works. You will need to flash the latest version of the firmware and I'm pretty sure the guy I bought mine from did me a solid and reconfigured the startup options on the card so I had only a few hiccups. You do need the external power supply for the card and make very sure you apply enough heat transfer tape or the modem will overheat in seconds. I've narrowed down some problems with the distributed antenna system and I'm going to try different spots to see if it's just all of the steel around me, but I suspect another less than well-thought-out install by a contractor. As a side note, on the APN sub-menu, you must unselect "Use APN", or it will connect, but do nothing but DNS.

When it comes to connecting the MHF4 connectors, there is a video on YouTube explaining how to snap on the stubborn connector of all things. Mine required quite a bit more force than I was expecting.

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