Setup network connectivity to nRF5340DK

[vipin das]

Hi,

I wanted to setup a network connectivity to nRF5340DK to send RPC messages to remote server(Blockchain Network). 

Already I tried to setup OTBR using RPi and nRF52840 dongle and I was able to establish network connectivity between the devices but was not successful in establishing connection to remote server.  

Now I connected my nRF5340DK(flashed with nrf Thread:CLI sample) to RPi, just to replicate  the same setup  as OTBR using RPi and nRF52840 dongle. But when I check the  otbr-agent status I could see below issue. 

`pi@pi:~ $ sudo service otbr-agent status
● otbr-agent.service - OpenThread Border Router Agent
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/otbr-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (start-pre) since Wed 2022-11-30 14:15:24 CET; 2s ago
Cntrl PID: 4396 (systemctl)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
CPU: 57ms
CGroup: /system.slice/otbr-agent.service
└─4396 systemctl start mdns.service

Nov 30 14:15:24 pi systemd[1]: Starting OpenThread Border Router Agent...
Nov 30 14:15:26 pi systemd[1]: Started OpenThread Border Router Agent.

pi@pi:~ $ sudo service otbr-agent status
● otbr-agent.service - OpenThread Border Router Agent
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/otbr-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2022-11-30 14:16:07 CET; 3s ago
Process: 4430 ExecStartPre=service mdns start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 4436 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/otbr-agent $OTBR_AGENT_OPTS (code=exited, status=6)
Main PID: 4436 (code=exited, status=6)
CPU: 75ms
pi@pi:~ $

pi@pi:~ $ sudo service otbr-agent status
● otbr-agent.service - OpenThread Border Router Agent
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/otbr-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-11-30 14:24:24 CET; 1s ago
Process: 4874 ExecStartPre=service mdns start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 4880 (otbr-agent)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4915)
CPU: 72ms
CGroup: /system.slice/otbr-agent.service
└─4880 /usr/sbin/otbr-agent -I wpan0 -B eth0 spinel+hdlc+uart:///dev/ttyACM0?uart-baudrate=1000000 trel://eth0

Nov 30 14:24:21 pi systemd[1]: Starting OpenThread Border Router Agent...
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi systemd[1]: Started OpenThread Border Router Agent.
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Backbone interface: eth0
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Running 0.3.0-32a7779
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Thread version: 1.3.0
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Thread interface: wpan0
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Radio URL: spinel+hdlc+uart:///dev/ttyACM0?uart-baudrate=1000000
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-AGENT---: Radio URL: trel://eth0
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [NOTE]-ILS-----: Infra link selected: eth0
Nov 30 14:24:24 pi otbr-agent[4880]: [INFO]-NCP-----: OpenThread log level changed to 4`

I think the service is getting restarted continuously. Is this problem happening because of missing RCP chip?

Would I be able to setup a OTBR with nRF5340DK(nrf Thread CLI sample) and Connect to internet directly from the Router. Can somebody tell how I can setup Network Connectivity in this way using OpenThread. 

Regards

Vipin Das

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi Vipin,

You can get more logs from

journalctl -xe

Can you see anything that seems like an OTBR related error here?

When posting logs, it will be more tidy to use the Insert->Code function here on DevZone.

Did you follow our Thread Border Router setup guide when you setup your OTBR?
If not, there are some additional configurations in this guide, different from the official OTBR guide. Make sure you followed these.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[vipin das]

Hi Sigurd,

As I mentioned in the post, I was able to setup OTBR using RPi and nRF52840 dongle(flashed ot-rcp) and able to ping the devices. 

But my issue here is I am having above problem when I removed the nRF52840 dongle(RCP variant) and connected the nRF5340 DK (Thread CLI sample). My question here is: 

• Is it possible to setup a OTBR with nRF5340DK which is flashed with Thread CLI sample. 
• Does the above problem happens due to missing of NCP/RCP configuration on the target? 

Thanks 

Vipin Das

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi Vipin,

vipin das said:

Is it possible to setup a OTBR with nRF5340DK which is flashed with Thread CLI sample. 

The following should work yes:

Is this the configuration you refer to?

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[vipin das]

Hi Sigurd,

This is the one which I tried before and noticed it is working. 

But the one I mentioned with issues are not like this but nRF5340DK(Thread CLI) directly attached to RPi instead of nRF52840dongle. 

Please ignore my previous question. I will stick to the configuration as shown in the diagram. 

Let me brief my use case and related question to you.

My final goal here is not to setup a Thread Network but I wanted to enable Network Connectivity to nRF5340 DK(my application runs) and send RPC messages to remote server(Blockchain Node). 

Now my doubts: 

• Would I be able to send RPC messages(proper modification on CLI sample)  to remote server from nRF5340 DK end device.
• Similarly would I receive the response from the remote server. 
• Should I have to modify the RCP module also in order to send/receive the RPC messages. 

Thanks 

Vipin Das