Mobile Modem

Monitor status and configure APN and Protocol on the Mobile interface.

Mobile Status

Access the router, go to Network > Interfaces. You can find the Mobile interface, which corresponds to the cellular modem. Once the 4G router, the mobile interface automatically connects to a cellular network via the default QMI protocol.

After successfully setting up a mobile internet connection, you can find the information below on the status of both Mobile and Mobile_4 interfaces.

Rx/Tx indicates the real-time data stream. They are not the internet speed rate.
IPv4 address is the IP address obtained from the mobile carrier.
- The IP address shows on the Mobile interface while using the PPP protocol.
SIM shows the current working SIM card, Primary SIM1, or Secondary SIM2.
QMI Indicates the mobile operator, mobile network, and signal strength (the unit is dBm).

You can manually Stop use the Mobile interface to disable the mobile connection. If required to Restart the mobile modem, please re-connect with the PoE adapter to force the cellular modem to run a fresh restart.

APN Settings

APN, short for Access Point Name, is the mobile network gateway. Generally, the 4G router can use the default APN parameters prebuilt in the cellular modem to set up a connection.

Some mobile carriers use different APN parameters for the various data plans. You can configure the APN settings on the mobile interface to adapt them to mobile carriers' networks.

Access the router, go to Network > Interface. Click the Edit button on the row of Mobile.
In the tab General Setup Protocol: Keep the default QMI Cellular unless you need to switch to 4G-PPP Modem device: Use the default /dev/cdc-wdm0 Active SIM Card: Switch between the Primary SIM1 and Secondary SIM2 APN: Input the mobile carrier's APN gateway address PIN: PIN code of SIM card *Usually non-required. PAP/CHAP username: The username of the APN gateway PAP/CHAP password: The password of the APN gateway Authentication Type: The authentication type. *Usually use PAP.
Click Save & Apply button on the bottom right corner to apply the new APN parameters.
Back to Network > InterfacesWait 1-2 minutes until the mobile modem reconnects to the mobile network, then check the updated status of the mobile interface.

Example of APN Parameters

Below are examples of APN parameters. You can contact the mobile carrier's customer service to acquire the specific APN parameters of your data plan.

Here are the internet APN settings for some UK mobile phone operators.

When used in some remote areas or using virtual carriers, the Vodafone and EE SIM cards might require the use of the 4G-PPP protocol.

Mobile Protocols

Two different mobile protocols are built into the 4G router. The default mobile protocol is QMI cellular.

QMI-Cellular Protocol

QMI, Qualcomm MSM Interface, is a proprietary protocol that offers more accessible and faster connections to mobile networks.

Due to the difference in the modem chipsets, the different mobile modems might use different QMI proxies. For example, Sierra modems QMI_WWAN proxy and Quectel modems use the GobiNet proxy. These proxies are using the same QMI protocol and provide similar working performance.

The primary difference between them is GobiNet using kernel-space while qmi_wwan uses user-space. And in qmi_wwan, only one process can handle the control port at a given time, while the GobiNet proxy allows multiple processes to access the device concurrently.

4G-PPP Protocol

PPP, Point-to-Point Protocol, is a traditional data link layer communications protocol. PPP protocol has been widely used and is the most flexible for device interoperability.

Some mobile carriers might not support the QMI protocol to connect to their mobile networks. So, we need to change the mobile protocol from the default QMI Cellular protocol to the 4G-PPP protocol.

Switch to PPP Protocol

Under Common Configuration > General Setup of the Mobile interface, choose 4G-PPP on the dropdown menu of Protocol. Then click the confirm button Switch protocol. It will jump to the 4G-PPP protocol setup page.

Comparing with the QMI cellular protocol, the 4G-PPP protocol has two extra configuration fields, Service type and Dial number. The other parameters, including APN / PIN / Username / Password, are the same configuration operations as the QMI cellular protocol.

Mobile device: Choose /dev/ttyUSB2
Service type: Due to differences in mobile network standards, choose the services as below:
- UMTS/GRPS for the UK / European / Australian versions
- CDMA/EV-DO for the American versions
Dial number: Use *99# or default *99***1#

Click Save & Apply button on the bottom right corner to apply the new APN parameters. Then back to Network > InterfacesWait 1-2 minutes until the mobile modem reconnects to the mobile network.

Demo Video Tutorial ▶️ https://youtu.be/6ev38txYjhM

Switch SIM Cards

The 4G router has only one mobile modem inside. Only one of the SIM cards can connect to the mobile network at the same time. The mobile modem connects to the primary SIM1 sim card by default.

Manually Switch SIM

After accessing the router, go to Network > Interface. Click the Edit button on the row of Mobile. In the tab of General Setup, you can choose the Active SIM card.

Auto Switch SIM

To turn on the auto-switching function, please enable the checkbox of Auto Switch SIM card, then click the Save & Apply button on the bottom right corner.

When the active SIM card is offline, the modem automatically switches to the alternative SIM card.

The auto switch SIM card the function conflicts with the Network > Load Balancing module. Please disable the load balancing before turning on the auto-switching function on the SIM cards.

Last updated 11 months ago