4.3 Mobile Modem

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

4.3.1 - MOBILE STATUS

Access the router, go to Network > Interfaces. You can find the Mobile interface, which is corresponding to the cellular modem. Once boot up the EZR23 router, the mobile interface automatically connects to a cellular network via the default QMI protocol.

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

• Rx/Tx indicates the realtime 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 the Mobile interface to disable the mobile connection. If required to Restart the mobile modem, please re-connect with the DC power adapter to force the cellular modem to run a fresh restart.

Mobile Interface Status

4.3.2 - APN SETTINGS

APN, short of Access Point Name, is the gateway to access the mobile network. In general conditions, the EZR23 router can use the default APN parameters prebuilt in the cellular modem to set up a connection.

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

1. Access the router, go to Network > Interface. Click the Edit button on the row of Mobile.

2. 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 APN gateway PAP/CHAP password: The password of APN gateway Authentication Type: The authentication type. *Usually use PAP.

3. Click Save & Apply button on the bottom right corner to apply the new APN parameters.

4. Back to Network > Interfaces, wait 1-2 minutes until the mobile modem reconnect to the mobile network and then check the updated status of the mobile interface.

Mobile APN Settings - QMI Cellular & 4G-PPP Protocols

Example of APN Parameters

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

United Kingdom

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

Carrier	APN Gateway	Username	Password	Authentication
GiffGaff	giffgaff.com	giffgaff	password	PAP
O2	o2.co.uk	o2web	password	PAP
Tesco Mobile	prepay.tesco-mobile.com	tescowap	password	PAP
3 Three	three.co.uk	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP
Virgin	goto.virginmobile.uk	user	<Not set>	PAP
EE	everywhere	eesecure	secure	PAP
Vodafone	internet (or) wap.vodafone.co.uk	wap	wap	PAP

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

United States

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

Carrier	APN Gateway	Username	Password	Authentication
AT&T	broadband	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP
T-Mobile	fast.t-mobile.com	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP
Sprint	cinet.spcs	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP
Verizon	vzwinternet	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP
Twilio	wireless.twilio.com	<Not set>	<Not set>	PAP

4.3.3 - MOBILE PROTOCOLS

There are two different mobile protocols built-in the EZR23 router. The default mobile protocol is QMI cellular.

QMI-Cellular Protocol

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

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

The primary difference between them is GobiNet is using kernel-space, while qmi_wwan uses user-space. And in qmi_wwan, only one process is capable of handling 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 very widely used and most flexible for interoperability with devices.

Some of the mobile carriers might not support 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 configure 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 > Interfaces, and wait 1-2 minutes until the mobile modem reconnect to the mobile network.

4.3.4 - 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 enabled 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 will automatically switch to the alternative SIM card.

The auto switch SIM card function is a conflict with the Network > Load Balancing module. Please disable the load balancing before turn on the auto-switching function on the SIM cards.

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