nRF9160 lte passthrough

[fe-hadella]

We are using a custom ARM board which runs Linux and has a UART interface to a nRF9160. 

I'm not how to phrase this exactly so I will just describe what I would like to do. Our goal is to use GPS to access position data and to also update various Linux packages over the LTE interface. We are looking at this cloud service called Mender which can deploy .deb files to a set of devices. This requires TLS to be enabled on the nRF9160 -- Mender requires TLS. I've been able to use this service for devices with Ethernet access - can LTE be used in this manner?

We are looking to deploy sensors in remote locations, but some locations will have cell service available. The serial LTE modem project seems promising. Is there a sample project which does something similar? I opened the serial lte modem project in the segger ide but there is no code to look at. It's just a collection of libraries. Can it be customized?

Regards,

fe-hadella

[fe-hadella]

Thanks Håkon.

I've been using the serial lte modem fw on our custom board for a few weeks. It's a ARM linux system connected to a nRF9160 via a UART interface. So far, I've been able to do basic AT commands, get the GPS position, and do thing like TLS and MQTT so far.

Is there another way to use the nRF9160 for something like Internet passthrough? For example, something like a USB wifi dongle?

I can do some tasks now, but the systems I use are all in remote locations. One of the requirements I haven't figured out yet is how to update software (the Linux system software) using the nRF9160. Ideally, we would use this cloud based service to do this. I can do this on a system with wifi, but some systems just have the nRF9160. It's not clear at all how this can be done.

Regards,

fe-hadella

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

fe-hadella said:

I can do some tasks now, but the systems I use are all in remote locations. One of the requirements I haven't figured out yet is how to update software (the Linux system software) using the nRF9160. Ideally, we would use this cloud based service to do this. I can do this on a system with wifi, but some systems just have the nRF9160. It's not clear at all how this can be done.

fe-hadella said:

Is there another way to use the nRF9160 for something like Internet passthrough? For example, something like a USB wifi dongle?

Unfortunately, we do not have support for PPP, so you cannot hook it into the OS as a network IF, and call apt directly.

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[fe-hadella]

Is there another nordic device which supports this? We are revving the board soon and could migrate to another solution, if there is one.

Much of the documentation I've been reading through is confusing for our use case. To reiterate, it would be desired to have the LTE device look like Linux network interface.

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

fe-hadella said:

To reiterate, it would be desired to have the LTE device look like Linux network interface.

Unfortunately, our nRF9160 does not support this. You can use the serial lte modem to connect to a given server (and download data) using serialized AT commands, but you cannot hook into the nRF9160 as a network interface in your OS.

 

Kind regards,

Håkon