4G LTE as WAN Connectivity

 

Scenario: Retail store T1 is down. No backup broadband Internet service yet available. Long lines at the register causing frustrated customers to leave.

Plenty of choices today for a WAN connection. There’s always the traditional PIP connections like Frame-Relay and now MPLS (and EoMPLS). And there’s always less expensive broadband with VPN (DSL, Cable, FIOS). And there’s even VSAT (satellite) in certain scenarios.

But now there is an alternative – 3G/4G WAN connectivity over the mobile GSM or CDMA cell network.

Example, currently if you are an Enterprise Verizon customer with a PIP (MPLS) network you can subscribe to this service for as little as $10 monthly and then pay a measured-rate based on bytes transmitted. If you are not a non-Enterprise customer, currently you can pay ~$80 monthly for 10GB allowance and then $10 per GB thereafter (a combination flat and measured-rate service).

Don’t want to get a whopping $1,000 bill at the end of the month? Recommend you try to guesstimate average bytes downloaded per month by the office. One way to accomplish this would be out-of-band Wireshark logging to a File Set over an average business day. Another way might be enabling Netflow.

So now you need a CPE device on the your end. Currently, couple good options here. First is the SOHO Cradlepoint device (~$600). If you’re a Enterprise Verizon PIP customer they can configure to integrate right into your MPLS network HTTP configurable.

A second choice is the Cisco C819G-4G-V-K9. This little guy has more functionality. Your going to have your familiar IOS command-line.

Below are the summary steps for getting this guy up and running…

• Purchase device from your Cisco Partner. I recommend also getting 1-year, 8x5 Smartnet service-contract. Suggested IOS version is v15.3.3M.
• Call Verizon and tell them you need a SIM card (there’s two sizes – get the ‘DIRECTSIM4G-D’ – if confusion just ask them to send both). Should be no charge for this.
• Once SIM card is installed, call Verizon to associate the 819G’s IMSI and IMEI number to the SIM cards ICCID.

• Configure the 819G to dial. This config is showing the bare minimum to make the 819G dial and does not consider any VPN requirements you may have.
• After connecting to the VZ tower the first time, the service is automatically activated.

• Now, make the device dial by simply pinging out the Cellular interface. Verify your interface has received an IP (a public IP costs extra).

• Check your signal strength (between –30 and –55 dBm is ideal). Anything north of –128 is just noise…

 

• Lastly, if you are having trouble, here are some suggested debugs…