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Can the nRF9106 be used as an always on server ?

NelsonGoncalves

Hello,

[this question is related to this other question]

I am using the nRF9160 SoC, the modem has firmware version 1.3.0 and the Nordic SDK is v1.5.0. 

My goal is to port an existing application to run on the Nordic nRF9160. The application operates under the assumption that the modem is always registered on the mobile network, has a valid IP and is reachable. From a conceptual point of view, the application running on the Nordic nRF9160 is a server and the cloud monitoring application is a client. This is the reverse scenario of the typical IoT applications, where the mobile device is a client and the cloud app the server.

We had no trouble achieving this with LTE CAT-M modems from another manufacturer, but it looks like this is not possible with the nRF9160. In particular it seems that the nRF9160 disconnects from the network after about 50 minutes due to a failed Traffic Area Update. 

My question is: can the nRF9160 be used as an always on server ? I would appreciate if the answer is a clear no or yes, but if not possible then please enumerate the conditions and actions that need to be done by the application for achieve this.

Thanks in advance,

 Nelson Gonçalves

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  • 0

    Hello,

    My question is: can the nRF9160 be used as an always on server ?

    Nordic can't guarantee that this will work flawlessly. You need to make sure that your operator won't disconnect you from the tower, or anything else that is outside of Nordics control. I guess it depends on your definition of "always on server". At least it isn't possible in the literal sense.

  • 0 in reply to Hakon

    Hello Hakon,

    I obviously understand that the network operation is outside the control of Nordic. And that no matter how good the quality control is at Nordic, bugs can still be present. 

    For us, "always on" means that the device runs a server which can be reached at any time by a remote client. In our particular case, this implies that the device is always registered on the network, has a valid IP and has a listening TCP socket always open and always reachable. 

    So far this has been possible with the telecom networks that we have used (mostly in Europe, but also elsewhere) and using LTE CAT-M modems from other manufacturers. 

    What took us by surprise, in the case of the nRF9160, was this issue: the modem is kicked out of the network after about 50 minutes and does not re-connect automatically.

    Our first impression is that our application will need to redo the network setup and registration procedure at least once per hour, and thus will be offline for a couple of minutes every hour.

    Is this considered normal behaviour ? Or is it related to one or more bugs that Nordic is currently fixing ?

    Best regards,

     Nelson Gonçalves

  • 0 in reply to NelsonGoncalves
    NelsonGoncalves said:
    Is this considered normal behaviour ? Or is it related to one or more bugs that Nordic is currently fixing ?

    Do you mean getting kicked from the network is not normal, or not reconnecting after is not normal? You should get reconnected automatically I believe, or at least an attempt to reconnect, so that would be a bug if it doesn't.

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  • 0 in reply to NelsonGoncalves
    NelsonGoncalves said:
    Is this considered normal behaviour ? Or is it related to one or more bugs that Nordic is currently fixing ?

    Do you mean getting kicked from the network is not normal, or not reconnecting after is not normal? You should get reconnected automatically I believe, or at least an attempt to reconnect, so that would be a bug if it doesn't.

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  • 0 in reply to Hakon

    I mean that there is no automatic reconnection after the network kicks the modem out.

    I suspect this was a bug that got fixed between NCS v1.50 (it was present) and NCS v1.7.0 (not present anymore) , because once I use the latter SDK version to build and run my test application I did not experience these issues anymore.

    So, to refine my question a little: are there other known similar issues to this one ? 

  • 0 in reply to NelsonGoncalves
    NelsonGoncalves said:
    So, to refine my question a little: are there other known similar issues to this one ? 

    I don't think so. In fact, it's very strange that the transition from NCS 1.5 to 1.7 made a difference, since the LTE connection reestablishment is handled entirely by the modem. If there was a bug, it would've been in the modem firmware in any case.

  • +1 in reply to Hakon

    Well, updating to the latest firmware on the modem and the latest NCS SDK fixed my issues. So probably it was a bug, maybe it was in the NCS part that interacts with the modem firmware.

    Given that now my setup is working as we expect, and that the root cause was likely one or more bugs that seem to be fixed, this ticket can be closed.

    Hakon, thanks for your time and patience.

    Best regards,

     Nelson Gonçalves

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