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Diagnosing Device Connectivity Issues

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This topic provides information on diagnosing Octave devices which are not connecting or communicating properly with Octave.

Device Cannot Obtain a Cellular Network Registration

The following subsections can be used to diagnose an Octave device that cannot obtain a cellular network connection/registration. The steps in each subsection can be used for both newly-provisioned and existing devices.

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Note

Complete the following steps before continuing:

  1. Connect the device to your developer PC.
  2. SSH into the device at address 192.168.2.2.

Check the Modem's Connectivity

Follow the steps below to check the connectivity of the device's modem:

  1. Execute: app status to list the running state of the Octave apps.
  2. Verify that all apps have a running state:
root@fx30s:~# app status
[running] actions
[running] canopen
[running] cloudInterface
[running] dataHub
[running] gpioService
[running] io
[running] location
[running] modbus
[running] util
[running] virtual
  1. If required, execute <app start application_name> or <app stop application_name> to (re)start/stop an application.

Check the Modem's Radio Status

Follow the steps below to check the radio status of the device's modem:

  1. Execute cm radio to display radio information:
  2. Verify each property value listed:
root@fx30s:~# cm radio
Power: ON
Current Network Operator: F-Bouygues Telecom
Current RAT: GSM network (LE_MRC_RAT_GSM)
Status: Registered to a roaming network (LE_MRC_REG_ROAMING)
Signal: Very strong signal strength (5)
PS: Packet Switched Registered, home network (LE_MRC_REG_HOME)

Check the Modem's Connection Status

Follow the steps below to check the Internet connectivity of the device's modem:

  1. Execute: cm data
  2. Verify that the properties indicate a successful internet connection:
root@fx30s:~# cm data
Index: 1
APN: iot.swir (or sierraoctaveprod.com.attz)
PDP Type: IPV4V6
Connected: yes
Interface: rmnet_data0
Family[IPv4]: inet
IP[IPv4]: 10.16.1.164
Gateway[IPv4]: 10.16.1.165
Dns1[IPv4]: 52.17.142.62
Dns2[IPv4]: 52.17.142.62

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Note

  • For ATT SIM cards, Octave uses sierraoctaveprod.com.attz as the default APN.
  • For Sierra Wireless Smart SIM cards, Octave uses iot.swir as the default APN.

The APN is set automatically according to the inserted SIM card.

Verify That the Device can Ping AirVantage

Follow the steps below to verify that the device can ping AirVantage:

  1. Execute: ping bs.airvantage.net
  2. Verify that the address is returning bytes:
root@fx30s:~# ping bs.airvantage.net
PING bs.airvantage.net (10.192.166.95): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.192.166.95: seq=0 ttl=62 time=359.076 ms

Force the Device to get the Latest Full Configuration

Execute the following command to force the device to retrieve the full configuration from the cloud:

root@fx30s:~# rm /data/le_fs/octave/* ; reboot

From Firmware version 3.5.0+:

root@fx30s:~# octave reset

Once your device connects to Octave, your most recent configuration will be re-downloaded to the device. Check the Octave Dashboard's Recent Changes panel for PUSH_CONFIGURATION_FAULT or PUSH_CONFIGURATION_COMPLETE messages.

Check Low-Level Cellular Connection Properties Using AT Commands

Follow the steps below to check low-level cellular properties (e.g., signal levels) by communicating with the Octave device's WP7702 chip using AT commands:

  1. Install SW generic device driver.
  2. Connect the device to your developer PC.
  3. SSH into the device at address 192.168.2.2.
  4. Execute: microcom /dev/ttyAT to enter AT Passthrough mode.
  5. Execute: at!gstatus? to retrieve the low-level connectivity information:
at!gstatus?
!GSTATUS:
Current Time: 1199 Temperature: 37
Modem Mitigate Level: 0 ModemProc Mitigate Level: 0
Reset Counter: 3 Mode: ONLINE
System mode: LTE PS state: Attached
IMS reg state: UNKNOWN IMS mode: Not Support
IMS Srv State: UNKNOWN SMS,UNKNOWN VoIP
LTE band: B12 LTE bw: 10 MHz
LTE Rx chan: 5110 LTE Tx chan: 23110
LTE CA state: INACTIVE
EMM state: Registered Normal Service
RRC state: RRC Idle
PCC RxM RSSI: -55 RSRP (dBm): -89
PCC RxD RSSI: 0 RSRP (dBm): 0
Tx Power: 0 TAC: 4126 (16678)
RSRQ (dB): -16 Cell ID: 0335EA0F (53864975)
SINR (dB): -2.8

For 4G service mode, there are four relevant measurements:

  • RSSI - Received Signal Strength Indicator. RSSI is a negative value, and the closer to 0, the stronger the signal.
  • RSRP - the Reference Signal Received Power is the power of the LTE Reference Signals spread over the full bandwidth and narrowband.
  • RSRQ - Reference Signal Received Quality is a C/I type of measurement and it indicates the quality of the received reference signal (similar to EC/IO).
  • SINR - Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (A minimum of -20 dB SINR is needed to detect SRP/RSRQ). Indicates the throughput capacity of the channel. As the name implies, SINR is the strength of the signal divided by the strength of any interference.
  1. Press CTRL+ x to exit AT Command mode.

Device Doesn't Report to Octave

The following subsections can be used to diagnose an Octave device that has a cellular connection but does not report to Octave. The steps in each subsection can be used for both newly-provisioned and existing devices.

Check the Status of Sierra Wireless Services

See Checking the Health of Octave Services and Connectivity for information on verifying the status of Sierra Wireless services.

Check the Device Status in Octave

See Using the Dashboard to Check the Status to verify when the device last reported. If the value was received within the last 15 minutes, then the device is communicating to Octave cloud:

The device details screen in the dashboard also shows the signal strength bars. If there are one or two bars then there could be periodic outages throughout the day.

Remove and Re-Add Power to Reboot the Device

If none of the suggestions above work, try to reboot the device using one of the following methods:

  1. Physically remove and add power to the device.
  2. Issue the reboot command from the Linux command line. Note that you will lose your SSH session until the device reboots.
  3. If the device has cellular connectivity, you can reboot the device by triggering the util/reboot/trigger Resource from the Octave Resource page. See Utility Resources for more information.

Connectivity Survey

A connectivity survey is integrated in Octave FW 3.3.3 version only.
This is divided in 2 parts:

  • connectivity check,
  • data exchanges check.

This is configured for a device via 2 Resources:

  • Connectivity check: /cloudInterface/connectivity_survey/enable
  • Data exchanges check: /cloudInterface/connectivity_survey/threshold

Connectivity check

Resource: /cloudInterface/connectivity_survey/enable
Aim: to enable or disable the connectivity survey mechanism.
Resource value format: boolean

  • trueto enable the connectivity survey mechanism
  • falseto disable the connectivity survey mechanism (default value)

The connectivity survey checks every hour the connectivity of the Edge (radio, network registration, data link activation, used technology).
During the survey, the Edge:

  • powers up the radio if the radio is powered off,
  • initiates the data attachment if not data attached,
  • initiates the data link activation if the data link is not active.

Data exchanges check

Resource: /cloudInterface/connectivity_survey/threshold
Aim: time threshold without data exchanges
Resource value format: numeric (the unit is second).
Default value: 0 seconds (disabled)
Minimum value: 3600 seconds (1 hour)
0-value is accepted and deactivates the check on data exchanges.
Any value in ]0-3600[ will lead to set a 3600-value.

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Note

The data exchanges check requires the /cloudInterface/connectivity_survey/enable resource to be set to true.

When the connectivity survey checks the connectivity, an additional check is made on the date of the last survey which noticed an effective data exchange, and compares it with the threshold value (if not 0).
If no data exchanges happen during at least the defined threshold, the Edge initiates some actions:

  • check if the data link is active and retrieve date and time from a dedicated NTP (Network Time Protocol) server,

  • send a ping to the Sierra Wireless cloud,

If no data are noticed, the Edge stops the connection from the cloud, closes the data link and reboots.

Updated over 1 year ago