Connect ModuCop to Internet using LTE

Overview

In this section, you will use ModuCop’s integrated LTE module to connect with the internet.

You will:

Setup SIM Card
Connect to the mobile Network
Check Internet connection

You will use Linux ModemManager/Networkmanager and their command line tools mmcli and nmcli.

Prerequisites

What you need:

ssh access from your development PC to ModuCop’s Linux Terminal
At least one LTE Antenna
Activated Nano SIM Card
- Pin for your SIM Card
- APN (access point name) for your SIM Card

Step 1: Prepare Hardware

Insert SIM Card

Remove the service flap from Modcops front panel.
Insert a Nano SIM Card into the SIM Card slot.

Attach LTE Antenna

Attach LTE antenna to ModuCop’s antenna connectors labelled LTE1 and LTE2. One antenna is enough, a second antenna can improve signal quality.

Step 2: Unlock SIM Card

Now, unlock your SIM card (disable PIN), so that ModuCop can immediately establish the LTE connection after each startup.

From ModuCop’s Linux Terminal, enter

# mmcli -m 0

This will list the status of the first Modem (ModuCop has only one, so -m 0 is valid).

If the SIM has a pin, and the SIM is not yet unlocked, you will see the SIM state as locked.

  Status   |              lock: sim-pin
           |    unlock retries: sim-pin (3), sim-puk (10), sim-pin2 (3), sim-puk2 (10)
           |             state: locked
           |       power state: on

If the SIM is already unlocked, you’ll see state: registered and you can directly continue with step 3.

To unlock your SIM, you need your SIM pin, usually a 4 digit code (e.g. 1234):

To unlock the SIM, enter

# mmcli -i 0 --disable-pin --pin=<pin>

successfully disabled PIN code request in the SIM

Step 3: Create LTE Connection

In this step, you’ll tell the NetworkManager that you want to connect via LTE to your provider.

You need your APN name (e.g. something like web.vodafone.de).

# nmcli c add type gsm ifname * con-name lte apn <apn-name>
Connection 'lte' (7c444550-a259-4072-97af-b06c38152a45) successfully added.

Step 4: Verify Your Setup

First, let’s check the LTE signal quality:

# mmcli -m 0

You should see something like this:

  Status   |                 lock: sim-pin2
           |       unlock retries: sim-pin (3), sim-puk (10), sim-pin2 (3), sim-puk2 (10)
           |                state: connected
           |          power state: on
           |          access tech: lte
           |       signal quality: 100% (recent)

Verify the IP address you have received from the mobile provider:

nmcli will show you all known network interfaces. Just look at the cdc-wdm0 interface:

# nmcli
...
cdc-wdm0: connected to lte
        "cdc-wdm0"
        gsm (qmi_wwan, option1), hw, iface wwan0, mtu 1500
        inet4 <YOUR-IP>
        route4 100.70.25.32/28
        route4 0.0.0.0/0
...

NOTE: The connection settings you have entered are stored on ModuCop’s internal disk. So, when you restart your ModuCop, it will automatically re-connect to your mobile network.

Step 5: Verify Internet Connection

Now try to ping a server on the Internet. To ensure that you ping over mobile network, specify the LTE device with the -I option. This ensures that the ping uses the LTE interface and not your local Ethernet for the Internet access.

root@moducop-cpu01:~# ping -I wwan0 -c 4 www.wikipedia.com

You should see a result like this:

PING www.wikipedia.com (91.198.174.194): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 91.198.174.194: seq=0 ttl=54 time=146.044 ms
64 bytes from 91.198.174.194: seq=1 ttl=54 time=49.958 ms
64 bytes from 91.198.174.194: seq=2 ttl=54 time=49.432 ms
64 bytes from 91.198.174.194: seq=3 ttl=54 time=48.603 ms

--- www.wikipedia.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 48.603/73.509/146.044 ms

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