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5.7 Cellular Operation
When set up as a console server the 3G cellular modem can be set up to connect to the carrier in either:
- Failover mode. In this case a dial-out cellular connection is only established in event of a ping failure
- OOB mode. In this mode the dial-out connection to the carrier cellular network is always on - awaiting
any incoming access (from a remote site wanting to access to the console server or attached serial
consoles/network hosts)
- Cellular router mode. Again in this case the dial-out connection to the carrier cellular network is always
on, but IP traffic is routed between the cellular connected network and the console server’s local
network ports
- Circuit Switched Data (CSD) mode. In this dial-in mode the cellular modem can receive incoming calls
from remote modems who dial a special Data Terminating number
5.7.1 OOB access set up
Out-of-band access is enabled by default and the cellular modem connection is always on. However to be
directly accessed the console server needs to have a Public IP address and it must not have SSH access
firewalled.
Almost all carriers offer corporate mobile data service/plans with a Public (static or dynamic) IP address.
These plans often have a service fee attached.
If you have such a static Public IP address plan you can also now try accessing the console
server using the Public IP Address provided by the carrier. However by default only HTTPS
and SSH access is enabled on the OOB connection. So you can browse to the console
server, but you cannot ping it
If you have a dynamic Public IP address plan then a DDNS service will need to be configured
to enable the remote administrator to initiate incoming access. Once this is done you can
then also try accessing the console server using the allocated domain name
By default most providers offer a consumer grade service which provides dynamic Private IP address
assignments to 3G devices. This IP address is not visible across the Internet but generally it is adequate
for home and general business use.
With such a plan the Failover& Out-of-Band tab on the Status: Statistics shows will identify that
your carrier has allocated you a Private IP Address (i.e. in the range 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255,
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 or 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
In out of band access mode the internal cellular modem will continually stay connected. The alternative is
to set up Failover mode on the console server as detailed in the next section.
5.7.2 Cellular failover setup
Once you have configured carrier connection, the cellular modem can be configured for failover.
This will tell the cellular connection to remain idle in a low power state. If the primary and secondary probe
addresses are not available it will bring up the cellular connection and connect back to the cellular carrier.
Navigate back to the Network Interface on the System:IP menu specify Internal Cellular
modem (cell modem 01) as the Failover Interface to be used when a fault has been detected
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