nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Carlos Salinas — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:19:23 GMT

Were you able to connect Anritsu with nRF9160 longer than 3-4 minutes? I am also in the WRCNC trying to measure TIS and TRP in NBIoT Mode. It seems like you are using CAT-M1, right? I opened a case and read yours to see if you had a resolution but see none. My case ID is 257594. Thanks!

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 10:35:41 GMT

[quote user="jlienau03"]Any idea why it won't work on the Verizon bands? Or why it would only connect for a few minutes on the AT&T band?[/quote]

It is hard to tell without a modem trace. Is it possible for you to do a modem trace from the same setup?

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 14:11:16 GMT

Here's the feedback from the lab:

"The 2 suggestions that were made by Nordic, were not possible to do on our Anritsu MT8821C callbox. Integrity protection can only be changed from NULL to Snow 3G, we have it set to Snow 3G. The RRC connection is either on or off, we normally have it defaulted to Off."

I've also attached to this message screen shots of their settings on the callbox.

Ultimately, the test lab was able to get the nRF9160 to work for AT&T but not Verizon. However, the calls on AT&T would only stay active for 3-4 minutes before the nRF9160 would drop the call.

Any idea why it won't work on the Verizon bands? Or why it would only connect for a few minutes on the AT&T band?

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 11:32:18 GMT

Update from IoT;

"There are 2 options :

1. Try to change integrity protection from NULL to AES (for example) in tester GUI selection (for tracking area update procedure)

2. Try to change RRC connection release's release cause from 'load balancing TAU required' to some other cause (like 'other') in tester GUI selection

If not possible then Anritsu needs to be contacted"

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 15:21:01 GMT

Ok, I will forward the trace file.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 19:00:31 GMT

Sorry for the delay, I had to program another board and send it down to the test lab for testing. I've re-taken the logs, this time you should see the issue. We attempted to run a conducted power test. The nRF9160 attached to the call-box, but when the test began it disconnected. This is the behavior we are routinely seeing. We tested on Band 13.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../Trace-File-6.15.20.zip

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 11:41:06 GMT

The log wasn't properly decoded so you can just ignore what I just wrote. It has been decoded properly this time and it seems that no cells were found. Which band and channel (EARFCN) should tester be broadcasting?

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 11:26:10 GMT

The trace file you provided appears to not include relevant modem information, or so I was told. There is a chance that it was not decoded properly though. But could you please check if you did the procedure correctly, and refer to this document?

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 08:49:55 GMT

Thanks, the trace is being investigated by a dedicated team. I will inform you when there is progress.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 19:53:52 GMT

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../trace_2D00_2020_2D00_06_2D00_10T19_2D00_12_2D00_44.760Z.bin

Modem trace logs are now attached. However, I"m not sure if this is going to be useful. The lab said they didn't even see it try to register on the network. Previously they saw it try to register.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 08:46:23 GMT

[quote user="jlienau03"]When you say modem log, are you talking about using the Trace Collector in nRF Connect? Or logs from the LTE Link Monitor like I provided earlier? [/quote]

I assume he's talking about modem trace, that would make the most sense.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 18:25:50 GMT

Another update: I had the test lab run the AT+CFUN=12 command as suggested by Matt above. They said they were able to connect to the device, but then it would immediately detach from the base station when TRP testing started. On an surprising note, they did successfully do TIS testing though on band 13. Any ideas why TIS would work but not TRP? They were attempting to do band 13 for all tests.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 15:02:02 GMT

When you say modem log, are you talking about using the Trace Collector in nRF Connect? Or logs from the LTE Link Monitor like I provided earlier?

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 14:19:10 GMT

"Q: Is Nordic limiting the max power at all

A: Yes, for example 3GPP TS 36.521 Ch. 6.2 specifies several conformance tests for Transmitter, including UE Maximum Output power, which nrf9160 has passed"

I was also asked if you could provide modem log from boot till connection failure.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 09:18:32 GMT

Thanks for the log. I have reported this internally, and I will contact you once I get a response.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 02:12:50 GMT

I was not able to get the Link Monitor to connect to my board. So I loaded my firmware onto the nRF9160 dev board and used the same iBasis sim. Below is the output. At the end it connects to Verizon's network, band 13.

AT+CFUN=1
OK
AT+CFUN?
+CFUN: 1
OK
AT+CGSN=1
+CGSN: "352656100223174"
OK
AT+CGMI
Nordic Semiconductor ASA
OK
AT+CGMM
nRF9160-SICA
OK
AT+CGMR
mfw_nrf9160_1.1.1
OK
AT+CEMODE?
+CEMODE: 2
OK
AT%XCBAND=?
%XCBAND: (1,2,3,4,5,8,12,13,14,17,18,19,20,25,26,28,66)
OK
AT+CMEE?
+CMEE: 1
OK
AT+CNEC?
+CNEC: 24
OK
AT+CGEREP?
+CGEREP: 1,0
OK
AT+CIND=1,1,1
OK
AT+CEREG=2
OK
AT+CEREG?
+CEREG: 2,4,"FFFE","FFFFFFFF",7
OK
AT%CESQ=1
OK
AT+CESQ
+CESQ: 99,99,255,255,255,255
OK
AT%XSIM=1
OK
AT%XSIM?
%XSIM: 1
OK
AT+CPIN?
+CPIN: READY
OK
AT+CPINR="SIM PIN"
+CPINR: "SIM PIN",3
OK
AT+CIMI
204080813519279
OK
%CESQ: 33,1,13,1
+CEREG: 2,"A902","0980FE01",7
+CSCON: 1
+CNEC_EMM: 11
+CSCON: 0
%CESQ: 28,1,13,1
%CESQ: 33,1,13,1
+CEREG: 2,"D113","03319203",7
+CSCON: 1
%CESQ: 38,1,13,1
%CESQ: 38,1,18,2
+CGEV: ME PDN ACT 0,0
+CNEC_ESM: 50,0
+CEREG: 5,"D113","03319203",7
AT+CGDCONT?
+CIND: "service",1
+CIND: "roam",1
+CGDCONT: 0,"IP","ibasis.iot","10.160.208.228",0,0
OK
AT+COPS=3,2
OK
AT+CGACT?
+CGACT: 0,1
OK
AT+COPS?
+COPS: 0,2,"311480",7
OK
AT%XCBAND
%XCBAND: 13
OK
AT+CGDCONT?
+CGDCONT: 0,"IP","ibasis.iot","10.160.208.228",0,0
OK
AT+CGACT?
+CGACT: 0,1
OK
+CSCON: 0
%CESQ: 38,1,13,1

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

Hakon — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 11:29:53 GMT

Hello,

can you please provide a link monitor log where you run 'AT+CFUN=1' and 'AT+CFUN?' ? It would be nice to have some information about the modem settings for debugging purposes.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

matt.heins — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:23:34 GMT

One command you might try is AT+CFUN=12 to reset all the stored settings in the 9160. It may default some settings that are preventing it from connecting or settings that may have been stored when you used the iBasis SIM.

RE: nRF9160 Unable to Connect to Anritsu Callbox

jlienau03 — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 18:58:09 GMT

I was able to get a log file of what the serial terminal for the program is outputting while it tries to connect to the callbox, I've pasted it below in case that helps. I can have the test lab send some AT commands over the interface too to try and get more information. But it looks like it's searching for a connection and simply fails.

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v2.1.99-ncs1-2954-g479376885055  ***
The AT host sample started
Establishing LTE link (this may take some time) ...
+CEREG: 2,"0028","00000000",7,0,0,"11100000","11100000"
+CSCON: 1
+CSCON: 0
+CSCON: 1
+CSCON: 0
+CSCON: 1
+CSCON: 0
+CSCON: 1
+CSCON: 0
+CSCON: 1

Some additional information I got from the test lab:

They said that they can see the device attempting to register on their callbox. Their callbox sees the nRF9160 and begins the registration and after a little bit that fails. Then, it seems to just continuously attempt to register, and then fail over and over. The UART log file I provided is the output from one those sessions of repeated attempts and failures.

One thing they brought up, is the nRF9160 'locked' or prevented from using test sims after it's registered to a network? Before sending the units out to the test lab, I tested them at home using an iBasis sim and it connected to the Verizon network. The test lab suggested that possibly the device is locked out and unable to use test sims after first registering on a network.