Simplified configuring for multiple Cellular Modems (Eg PDX & MBX & EPX)

[mldowling]

Hello Peplink Collegues,
Lately, we have been doing a lot of factory resetting of our demo systems and reconfiguring them again for a variety of clients. As we are also testing new firmware, it is one of the ways to see how the devices behave with new firmware releases.

We are looking for a way to streamline & optimise the time it takes to configure all of the WAN connections.
These are what you get presented with currently when doing a manually cellular configuration

MAX HD4 MBX

Peplink SDX + 1 x Cellular

Peplink EPX + 5 x Cellular

When you have a multi-cellular system such as an MBX/PDX with only eight SIMs, it may not be too much an issue when deploying a single unit. For an EPX with thirty SIMs to configure, it takes considerable time to go through and do the initial configuration. The time to do this is considerably more with the new Cat-18 Chipsets. Now attempt to multiply that out for a fleet with a mixture of models.

We have considered creating templates (configure one model then save the config and upload), though this requires a template for each models variation. To push out a template, we would like something like InControl2 to as is done with Firewalls and Outbound policies.

What we currently manually do is:

• Choose LTE Only (3G is progressively getting shut down in Australia now and unless a client request 3G we disable it by default).
• Turn off all the frequencies bands except those used by the carriers in Australia (there are only six bands for LTE 4G used in Australia, a few more will get used for the upcoming LTE 5G).

Cat-6 Chipsets

Cat-12 Chipsets

Note: Band 40 is missing for Cat-12, this was a design oversight by the chipset vendor, not Peplink. It is not solvable without a complete chipset re-design/change by the vendor and can not get fixed through firmware in the cellular chipset. So check what bands you need for your region/locations before committing to a particular chipset.

Cat-18 Chipsets

Has anyone worked out a script for configuring the cellular options doing these in the EPX, SDX, PDX & MBX models yet? Is this worthy of a feature request and more considerable community discussion?
Happy to Help,
Marcus

[Dylan-e]

Hi Marcus,

I don’t have a script for it but if someone wants to make it hopefully this will help them

You could do it with the Device API. But unfortunately the API that changes most of the cellular config is not documented…
But with some poking around I found a way. To configure band 1,3,7 and 8 you would have to do a POST to:
http://192.168.50.1/api/config.wan.connection?accessToken=[YOUR_ACCESSTOKEN]

With as body:

{
“agent”:“webui”,
“action”:“update”,
“instantActive”:true,
“list”:[
{
“id”:2,
“cellular”:{
“sim”:[
{
“id”:1,
“mobileType”:“LTE”,
“bandSelection”:[
“LTE_B1”,
“LTE_B3”,
“LTE_B7”,
“LTE_B8”
]
}
]
}
}
]
}

Full JSON: data.json.txt (2.8 KB)

This first ID in the json is the WAN ID for the cellular (in my case 2) will be different for each device. second ID is for 1 for SIM A and 2 for SIM B.

I was wondering what the reason is that you turn off the not used frequencies? If the frequencies is not available it will not connect or use it. At least that’s how it works here . So we usually leave them on.

Kind regards,

Dylan van Elst
Forntier Computer Corp BV.

[mldowling]

@Dylan-e

I was wondering what the reason is that you turn off the not used frequencies? If the frequencies is not available it will not connect or use it. At least that’s how it works here . So we usually leave them on.

Hello Dylan, (@Dylan-e)
We turn off the frequencies to gain that bit of extra speed in acquiring a service instead of scanning through all of the options. In many deployments, we even turn off more when we know that frequency is not practical or problematic in the service area.
Happy to Help,
Marcus