NimbeLink Skywire LTE NL-SW-LTE-S7 Series User manual

Configuring Linux ‘pppd’ for Skywire®
LTE NL-SW-LTE-S7xxx Modem Family
NimbeLink Corp
Updated: June 2018
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 1

Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
Introduction 3
Applies to the Following Part Numbers 3
Prerequisites 4
PPP: S7588-V-x, S7618RD and UAV-S7588 Skywire Modems 5
Overview 5
Elevate to root 5
Check for Updates 5
Install the “ppp” package 5
Verify The Modem is Connected 6
Load the “option” Driver (Optional) 6
Write PPP Scripts 6
Take Down the Ethernet Interface 8
Bring up the PPP Interface 8
PPP: S7588-T-x and S7648 Skywire Modems 10
Overview 10
Elevate to root 10
Check for Updates 10
Install the “ppp” package 10
Verify The Modem is Connected 11
Load the “option” Driver (Optional) 11
Setup the APN 11
Write PPP Scripts 12
Take Down the Ethernet Interface 13
Bring up the PPP Interface 14
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1. Introduction
1.1 Applies to the Following Part Numbers
Orderable Device
Description
Manufacturer
Carrier
Network
Type
NL-SW-LTE-S7618RD
4G LTE CAT1
NimbeLink
Verizon
LTE
NL-SW-LTE-S7648
4G LTE CAT1
NimbeLink
AT&T/T-Mobil
e
LTE
NL-SW-LTE-S7588-V
4G LTE CAT4 with HSPA+
Fallback
NimbeLink
Verizon
LTE
NL-SW-LTE-S7588-V-B
4G LTE CAT4 with HSPA+
Fallback
NimbeLink
Verizon
LTE
NL-SW-UAV-S7588
4G LTE CAT4 with HSPA+
Fallback
NimbeLink
Verizon
LTE
NL-SW-LTE-S7588-T
4G LTE CAT4 with HSPA+
Fallback
NimbeLink
AT&T/T-Mobil
e
LTE, GSM
NL-SW-LTE-S7588-T-C
4G LTE CAT4 with HSPA+
Fallback
NimbeLink
AT&T/T-Mobil
e
LTE, GSM
NL-SIM-COM
3FF Commercial Temp
Range SIM Card
Gemalto
Verizon
LTE
NL-SWDK
Skywire Development Kit
NimbeLink
TG.30.8113
Cellular Antenna
Taoglas
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1.2 Prerequisites
This document assumes you have completed the initial setup
of your modem and development kit. If you have not
completed those steps, refer to the Skywire® Development
Kit User Manual and complete the modem setup before
proceeding.
If you are using a device that is communicating via SSH,
Telnet, or any other type of Ethernet interface, you must
connect to it via USB or serial. Step 2.8 requires the Ethernet
interface to be taken down.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 4

2. PPP: S7588-V-X, S7618RD AND
UAV-S7588 SKYWIRE MODEMS
2.1 Overview
This example has been tested on the following distributions of Linux:
- Debian GNU/Linux 7 (wheezy) beaglebone 3.8.13-bone79
- Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) beaglebone 4.4.9-ti-r25
- Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS
Using a Skywire 4G LTE CAT4 modem (NL-SW-LTE-S7588-V). This process is
identical for NL-SW-LTE-S7618RD and NL-SW-UAV-7588 Skywire modems.
This example is written using Debian GNU/Linux 7 (wheezy) beaglebone
3.8.13-bone79.
2.2 Elevate to root
In order to make the changes necessary, it is necessary to login to the root
account. To do so, type the following command into the Terminal:
$ sudo -i
followed by the Enter key. You will be prompted to enter your password: enter it,
followed by the Enter key.
2.3 Check for Updates
Make sure that your Ubuntu system is up to date using the following commands:
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
2.4 Install the “ppp” package
To install the ppp package, type the following command:
# apt-get install ppp
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 5

2.5 Verify The Modem is Connected
To verify that our system can see the Skywire® LTE CAT4 modem, type the
following command:
# lsusb
followed by the enter key, and you should have an entry similar to the one below:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1519:0443
If so, the modem is connected properly. If not, verify the modem is connected
properly and run the command again.
2.6 Load the “option” Driver (Optional)
The Skywire LTE CAT4 modem does not properly enumerate automatically on
some versions of Linux. To enumerate the device, we need to load the “option”
driver.
To get our device’s ID, type the following command:
# lsusb
followed by the enter key, and you should have an entry similar to the one below:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1519:0443
Make note of the eight-character hex code in the device description. To load the
option driver, type the following into the Terminal:
# modprobe option
# echo 1519 0443 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/option1/new_id
2.7 Write PPP Scripts
We need to write two scripts for PPP to reference when initializing the
connection.
Note: We have a GitHub page with the necessary PPP files available for
customers to use located here:
https://github.com/NimbeLink/skywire-ppp-scripts
We highly recommend downloading that repo and following the
instructions in the files related to your modem. The other recommended
option is to click on the file you want and copy and paste directly from
GitHub.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 6

First, clone the repo and navigate to the cloned repo. Next, as superuser (root)
copy the file:
vzw-S7588-V
to:
/etc/ppp/peers/
or copy-and-paste the contents of:
vzw-S7588-V
from the GitHub repo to
/etc/ppp/peers/vzw-S7588-V
The contents of vzw-S7588-V are shown below:
If you are using the NimbeLink BeagleBone Black Cape, you can use the serial
connection for PPP. To connect to the modem over a serial connection (using the
capes default UART4 connection), edit the line
/dev/ttyACM0
to:
/dev/ttyO4
NOTE: The first line containing /dev/tty* is where you can define the serial
port you would like PPP to use to connect to the modem.
Next, copy:
vzw-S7588-V-chat
to:
/etc/ppp/peers/
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 7

or copy-and-paste the contents of
vzw-S7588-V-chat
from the GitHub repo to
/etc/ppp/peers/vzw-S7588-V-chat
Make sure to replace [apn] with your APN. If the device was activated on
go.nimbelink.com, the APN is:
NIMBLINK.GW12.VZWENTP
The contents of vzw-S7588-V-chat are shown below:
Note: The APN for this device is “nimblink.gw12.vzwentp”. Depending on
your device, carrier, or setup, it may be different. Substitute your APN in
place of “nimblink.gw12.vzwentp”. For AT&T devices the APN is commonly
configured as “broadband”; check with your carrier for the correct APN.
2.8 Take Down the Ethernet Interface
A PPP connection requires that any existing Ethernet connection be taken down.
To bring down the Ethernet connection, type the following command:
# ifconfig eth0 down
(Optional) To verify that the Ethernet connection is down, type:
# ifconfig
followed by the enter key. eth0 should not be listed.
2.9 Bring up the PPP Interface
To enable the PPP interface, type the following commands:
# pppd call vzw-S7588-V
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followed by the enter key. You will see the second script you wrote appear on the
screen, followed by the network communication the Skywire modem is going
through to get connected.
Once the process is complete, test the connection:
#ping –c 2 www.google.com
and you should receive a response similar to this:
PING www.google.com (216.58.216.196) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ord31s21-in-f4.1e100.net (216.58.216.196): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50
time=47.8 ms
64 bytes from ord31s21-in-f4.1e100.net (216.58.216.196): icmp_seq=2 ttl=50
time=90.6 ms
--- www.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 47.818/69.237/90.656/21.419 ms
This indicates that your PPP connection is up and connected to the network.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 9

3. PPP: S7588-T-X AND S7648 SKYWIRE
MODEMS
3.1 Overview
This example has been tested on the following distributions of Linux:
- Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) raspberrypi 4.9.35-v7+
Using a Skywire 4G LTE CAT4 modem (NL-SW-LTE-S7588-T) connected via
USB using a NL-SWDK Skywire Development Kit. This process is identical on
NL-SW-LTE-S7588-T-C and NL-SW-LTE-S7648 Skywire modems.
This example is written using Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) raspberrypi
4.9.35-v7+.
3.2 Elevate to root
In order to make the changes necessary, it is necessary to login to the root
account. To do so, type the following command into the Terminal:
$ sudo -i
followed by the Enter key. You will be prompted to enter your password: enter it,
followed by the Enter key.
3.3 Check for Updates
Make sure that your Ubuntu system is up to date using the following commands:
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
3.4 Install the “ppp” package
To install the ppp package, type the following command:
# apt-get install ppp
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 10

3.5 Verify The Modem is Connected
To verify that our system can see the Skywire® LTE CAT4 modem, type the
following command:
# lsusb
followed by the enter key, and you should have an entry similar to the one below:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1519:0443
If so, the modem is connected properly. If not, verify the modem is connected
properly and run the command again.
3.6 Load the “option” Driver (Optional)
The Skywire LTE CAT4 modem does not properly enumerate automatically on
some versions of Linux. To enumerate the device, we need to load the “option”
driver.
To get our device’s ID, type the following command:
# lsusb
followed by the enter key, and you should have an entry similar to the one below:
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1519:0443
Make note of the eight-character hex code in the device description. To load the
option driver, type the following into the Terminal:
# modprobe option
# echo 1519 0443 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/option1/new_id
3.7 Setup the APN
Using a terminal program of your choice, connect to the the ACM port and issue:
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","[apn]"
replacing "[apn]" with the necessary APN. Finally, issue:
AT+CFUN=1,1
to reset the Skywire.
Close the terminal program.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 11

3.8 Write PPP Scripts
We need to write two scripts for PPP to reference when initializing the
connection.
Note: We have a GitHub page with the necessary PPP files available for
customers to use located here:
https://github.com/NimbeLink/skywire-ppp-scripts
We highly recommend downloading that repo and following the
instructions in the files related to your modem. The other recommended
option is to click on the file you want and copy and paste directly from
GitHub.
First, clone the repo and navigate to the cloned repo. Next, as superuser (root)
copy the file:
att-S7588-T
to:
/etc/ppp/peers/
or copy-and-paste the contents of:
att-S7588-T
from the GitHub repo to
/etc/ppp/peers/att-S7588-T
The contents of att-S7588-T are shown below:
The serial connection can also be used for PPP. To connect to the modem over
a serial connection, use the UART port instead of the USB port. For example, on
the NL-SWDK, plug the USB cable into port J14 and edit the line
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/dev/ttyACM0
to:
/dev/ttyUSB0
NOTE: The first line containing /dev/tty* is where you can define the serial
port you would like PPP to use to connect to the modem.
Next, copy:
att-S7588-T-chat
to:
/etc/ppp/peers/
or copy-and-paste the contents of
att-S7588-T-chat
from the GitHub repo to
/etc/ppp/peers/att-S7588-T-chat
The contents of vzw-S7588-V-chat are shown below:
3.9 Take Down the Ethernet Interface
A PPP connection requires that any existing Ethernet connection be taken down.
To bring down the Ethernet connection, type the following command:
# ifconfig eth0 down
(Optional) To verify that the Ethernet connection is down, type:
# ifconfig
followed by the enter key. eth0 should not be listed.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 13

3.10 Bring up the PPP Interface
To enable the PPP interface, type the following commands:
# pppd call att-S7588-T
followed by the enter key. You will see the second script you wrote appear on the
screen, followed by the network communication the Skywire modem is going
through to get connected.
Once the process is complete, test the connection:
#ping –c 2 www.google.com
and you should receive a response similar to this:
PING www.google.com (216.58.216.196) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ord31s21-in-f4.1e100.net (216.58.216.196): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50
time=47.8 ms
64 bytes from ord31s21-in-f4.1e100.net (216.58.216.196): icmp_seq=2 ttl=50
time=90.6 ms
--- www.google.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 47.818/69.237/90.656/21.419 ms
This indicates that your PPP connection is up and connected to the network.
PN 30222 rev 5 © NimbeLink Corp. 2018. All rights reserved. 14