No CA with MAX BR1 Pro 5G [Verizon]- Yes CA with MAX Transit Pro [Verizon]

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

Greetings,

I am setting up a MAX BR1 Pro 5G and unable to get carrier aggregation to work with LTE Bands 13 and 66 (Verizon). Yet, using the same SIM card, and in the same exact location, including antenna pointing, I can get carrier aggregation to work with LTE Bands 13 and 66 (Verizon) without issue using a MAX Transit Pro.

I have tried multiple setting options (Auto, LTE only, manual band selection) on the BR1 to no avail thus far - with the Transit Pro, manual selection of both bands works as expected for carrier aggregation.

Anyone else have the same or similar experience with a BR1 Pro 5G - or is there something I am missing/overlooking?

TIA

2

Update - I stand somewhat corrected…

It turns out that in fact, it is doing carrier aggregation (verified by running separate tests on each band, then with both bands selected again). However… neither the WAN Connection Status page, nor the carrier details show the two connected bands.

In addition, the connection (and/or) display seems to be unstable, as it fluctuates periodically from “Connected to Verizon Wireless” with the cellular signal bars, to “Connected”, no bars.

This was a brand new (unopened box) model - upgraded to firmware 8.2.1 (same issue occurs with firmware 8.2.0).

Do I have a flaky unit, bad firmware, or expected behavior with this model?
Again to note: I have a new MAX Transit Pro with none of these issues.

bars.jpg
bars.jpg829×98 28.4 KB

carrier.jpg
carrier.jpg791×138 24.9 KB

no-bars.jpg
no-bars.jpg830×96 26.9 KB

min-carrier.jpg
min-carrier.jpg787×136 21.5 KB

bands.jpg
bands.jpg509×645 35.3 KB

3

You are going to need to open a ticket with engineering for them to confirm the situation either way I would suggest.

I do know that there were considerable firmware changes needed with the move to the 5G modems when it came to frequency management and monitoring.

The cellular team would be very interested to be able to do a compare and contrast I would think.

4

Thanks - (A ticket was opened earlier this afternoon, referencing this thread content).

6

Lee,
When I went from a Max Transit CAT-18 to a MAX BR1 PRO (CAT-20 4G version) , one of the things I noticed was the absence on the UI of the channels that were being aggregated on either of the SIMs. I was using (AT&T and Verizon).
A ticket was opened & the response was, as I understand it, it will be fixed with Firmware update 8.3. Based on the significant improvement in download speeds, I have to assume the device was aggregating the signals.

7

Appreciate the response and affirmation that mirrors my experience(s); I also have AT&T, but have not traveled yet in an area when CA is an option [for AT&T]. Glad to hear my experience is not (potentially) an anomaly and is expected to be rectified with an upcoming firmware update.