Today’s web is full of articles and discussion about Mobile Broadband. We like to read Om Malik, whose crew of subject matter experts frequently add value on the topic. But what exactly is Mobile Broadband? How do wireless operators provide it? What makes it fast? Or slow? We’ve implemented stat-of-the-art 3G Mobile Broadband for a tier 3 regional CDMA operator in the US, and we’ll be providing insight into how this fiendishly complicated technology works, and what, if anything, you might do to improve your experience. (more…)

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We recently had an opportunity to add an IP Pool to the Starent 16000 PDSN in our Nortel CDMA network. It is standard procedure that any network activity that has the potential to impact service must be performed during a low traffic period, (aka “the maintenance window”) and must be accompanied by a written method of Procedure (”MOP”.) Writing a MOP is not a very exciting activity, and in fact, takes a significant effort to get right. However, on the few occasions when the procedure went sideways, a well-written MOP was handy for resolving the issue, and in the worst cases, keeping us out of trouble in the post-mortem that followed.

Procedures that are frequently done benefit from a MOP by serving as a guideline for new engineers. Infrequently done procedures benefit by having a detailed reminder of what to, and not, do.

Read on for those details. (more…)

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Today Nortel presented their solution for monitoring and billing high bandwidth users of the wireless broadband network.  Software running directly in the Starent PDSN  basically uses deep packet inspection to implement traffic shaping.  The product is called Enhanced Charging Services (ECS) and it claims to provide integrated content-based billing.  The solution as presently sold might not truly be called “deep” packet inspection.  It only looks as deeply as layer 4, TCP and UDP packets.
(more…)

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Purpose

The purpose of this Method Of Procedure (MOP) is to add ranges of IP Addresses, called “pools”, to the Starent 16000 PDSN. An IP address from an IP pool is assigned to a subscriber by the PDSN when a data session is initiated.

Procedure

Begin this procedure by creating a backup of the PDSN configuration file. Use the copy command to create a new configuration file.

[local]pdsn1# copy /flash/system.cfg /flash/system.backupfile.cfg <CR>

The file called system.backupfile.cfg is created as a contingency in the event a problem occurs during execution of this method.
(more…)

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I’ve been working for a couple months now to create the software infrastructure for allocating wireless data network resources based upon the product purchased by the subscriber. This means granting them access to the purchased resources, and denying access to other resources. This is one of the functions of the PDSN, in cooperation with the AAA server.
I post trouble reports and questions as they arise to the TeleTips Message Board for the Starent PDSN. Here is a step-by-step procedure for testing on the PDSN. (more…)

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We continue working to deploy new Wireless Data plans. This week we’ve stumbled on an issue in the edge router. It does not appear to be properly detecting the OSPF routes. This problem manifests itself when the 4th octet of the IP address assigned by the PDSN to a handset exceeds “128″. Whenever a higher number gets assigned all data calls fail. Doing a stare and compare with other IP address ranges in the router shows the difference. But so far the cause cannot be explained.

Nortel has proposed flushing the OSPF cache on the PDSN with this command:

clear ip ospf process

After the command has been entered, we’ll monitor use of the use of the erring address space to see if data sessions having an IP Address above .128 succeed.

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For the last few days I’ve been working on defining new data products in a CDMA network. This is my first foray into wireless data so most of the actions are completely foreign. There seems to be no comprehensive procedural guide. Our vendor has Subject Matter Experts (SME) for each of the various components. But their expertise is defined by the platform for which the are responsible, and no one has been able to provide a cogent over view of the overall process for defining and implementing these product in the network. I plan to take a few posts to try creating a comprehensive guide.

First let’s cover the systems and hardware that’s involved. I’ll emphasize those that must be manipulated as part of the implementation process. We’ll start from the handset and work in towards the cellular switch and then outward towards the service application.

• Handset. Must be capable of interacting with the service application.
• The radio network, aka “Base transceiver Sub-system” (BSS.) Not generally manipulated on a per-product basis, mentioned here only for completeness. We’ll focus on a 1xRTT network for now.
• The Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN.) Basically a router on steroids.  We have a message board on the Starent 16000 PDSN.
• The Authentication Authorization and Accounting server (AAA.) IT folks will recognize this as a RADIUS server.
• Core or Edge router, depending on your perspective. Fire-walled access to the Internet.
• Mobile Telephone Exchange (MTX.) This is the switch, which includes the HLR.
• Service Application. This can be the MMS-C, WAP Gateway, ASP, hosted content, or any of dozens of application servers. Which one depends on the actual data service being deployed.

In this series of posts we’ll detail the roles and configuration requirements of the PDSN, AAA Server and Edge Router. Others will be discussed in support of various examples.

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