I would be more interested if someone managed to build a GRE tunnel bonding solution with open source tools. Multiplexing a data stream over multiple LTE uplinks would be nice.
Holy grail stuff there. Would love that too.
Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#52Not mentioned in the article, but I'd also recommend force-setting DHCP Option 43 to "ANDROID_METERED" to let Android clients know you're on a metered connection (hotspot) instead of a normal landline-based WiFi network. [1] This inhibits some things like automatic updates. I don't know of an equivalent for other OSes, unfortunately. [1]: https://www.lorier.net/docs/android-metered.html
For macOS you need to use an app like TripMode [1] or Little Snitch [2].
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I did this myself not long ago as part of a mobile office rig and ... I didn't write about it or share about it becuase it was mostly just putting USB male connectors into USB female connectors and sourcing the right kind of batteries to charge things. Oh, and learning ethernet cables are a monstrous power draw and you're much better off using wifi for everything. I mean, yeah it's cool to have. But I can't hel…
Everyone's gotta start somewhere.
True.
I confess I screwed up on the battery choices more times than I care to admit.
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Within minutes? Seems optimistic.
I've heard tales of cell towers having more or less automatic interference detection and the owners have a big incentive to let the FCC know. For other things, it's so rarely enforced or "self-policed" (like ham bands) that it's super rare for people to get busted, even with triangulization being what it is. Some kid here in NYC was trolling on the NYPD frequencies (analog FM still) and it took quite a while to track…
There are so many cops going around with stingrays I sort of doubt that the FCC can be too aggressive about this stuff. I'd guess that the interference would have to be relatively major for them to show up very fast.
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#55As for the Huawei stick, most of them support being switched to modem mode using usb-modeswitch. But I'd prefer the "virtual network interface" mode if I had the choice, usb-modeswitch and modem stuff isn't exactly the best documented thing on this planet.
What's the difference? From the sound of it, the VNI would be a USB device identifying itself as an ethernet adapter and usb-modeswitch does... mode switching, like the 'alternative protocol' thingy that USB3 can do?
The difference is that in VNI mode the stick runs its own OS including a router and other crap while in modem mode it directly passes through the modem to the host device, leading to better performance, working "server" connectivity (assuming you can get a publically routed IPv4 address from your provider, though) and less security issues as there is one stack less to worry about.
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#56I don't with to diminish the author's work but there's nothing all that special about the LTE portion. From the perspective of the Pi it's just another interface/network. This is more akin to building a basic consumer all-in-one router -- which I think actually sounds cooler. So the pieces that this article puts together: * Bridging the Pi's ethernet and wireless interface and setting up DHCP pointing to a forwarding…
True. Using "Hilink" is easy mode. Using NCM (in this case) is slightly harder but saves you from double NAT. E3372 can be reflashed to do this.
AFAIK there is no easy way of flashing the most recent firmware (e.g. 21.326.62.00.55).
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#57Not mentioned in the article, but I'd also recommend force-setting DHCP Option 43 to "ANDROID_METERED" to let Android clients know you're on a metered connection (hotspot) instead of a normal landline-based WiFi network. [1] This inhibits some things like automatic updates. I don't know of an equivalent for other OSes, unfortunately. [1]: https://www.lorier.net/docs/android-metered.html
One can also use traffic shaping (iptables and tc) to dry up large downloads:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/229403/rate-limit-n...
As anyone aware of even better solutions than this?
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#58I don't with to diminish the author's work but there's nothing all that special about the LTE portion. From the perspective of the Pi it's just another interface/network. This is more akin to building a basic consumer all-in-one router -- which I think actually sounds cooler. So the pieces that this article puts together: * Bridging the Pi's ethernet and wireless interface and setting up DHCP pointing to a forwarding…
I was also disappointed. This is basically just the following two tutorials combined in one:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/insta...
https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-wifi-bridge/
Secondly, I hoped it was about the using the LTE dongle in modem mode via vwdial (or similar) rather than in RNDIS/network interface mode.
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you comment on Ethernet being more power hungry than Wifi? That's the first time I've heard that.
Ethernet usually requires isolation magnetics and transformers, while WiFi is basically just a wire sticking out of an RFIC.
It's not so much that the transformers consume more power than just radiating it into the air, but that Ethernet is not designed with power efficiency as a goal. Ethernet devices that need more power usually get it from PoE instead.
Without doing any analysis at all, I suspect the idle behaviour is a big difference; Wifi goes silent if there's no traffic, apart from AP beacons, but Ethernet continuously transmits "fast link pulses" every 16 miliseconds to maintain autonegotiation and detect connection lost.
Re: Building an LTE Access Point with a Raspberry Pi
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not about hosting an LTE 'access point'. It's about creating a access point which uses an LTE uplink. I agree, the title is somewhat misleading.
Correct. If you were to create an actual “access point” you will have the FCC and other agencies knocking on your door within minutes.
Here in the US, portions of the 900 MHz band are used for ISM uses. Hypothetically, could one deploy a LTE access point on LTE band 8?