AMARI Callbox mini User guide Version: 2019-07-30
i Table of Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Hardware setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 Connection to AMARI callbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.1 3.2 4 Manage LTE automatic service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ii 8 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 8.1 Access to software monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 8.1.1 Select component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 8.1.2 Exit screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 1 Introduction AMARI Callbox Mini is a 3GPP compliant eNodeB and EPC allowing functional and performance testing of LTE, LTE-M and NB-IoT devices. It also includes an integrated IMS server as well as an eMBMS gateway for VoLTE and eMBMs testing. The callbox mini is a turnkey solution running on Fedora 28 operating system. It embeds one SDR card and all software components and licenses required to emulate your LTE network.
2 2 Hardware setup 2.1 Power supply Plug the external power adapter provided with the callbox in the DC-in Connector located in the right corner of the rear panel and press the Power on button on the front panel to turn it on. Power adapter specifications: Input: 100~240 V AC, 50~60 Hz, max. 2.5A Output: Output: 19.5 V DC, max. 9.23 A, max. 180 W output wattage 2.2 Sim card The callbox is delivered with a test sim card that is already provisioned in the EPC database.
Chapter 2: Hardware setup 3 • Tx1 is the main transmit antenna port. • Tx2 is the diversity transmit antenna port. • GPS is used for connecting an external GPS clock. See trx sdr.pdf document for more details. 2.4.1 RF connection for one cell 2x2 MIMO in FDD mode Note: For SISO test, connection between DUT antenna2 and Callbox Tx2 is not required 2.4.
Chapter 2: Hardware setup 4 This improves the performance of the SDR card as we don’t have to switch the RF several times per radio frame. When rx_antenna: "rx" is set, RF connection is the same as for FDD. 2.4.3 RF Antenna gain In conducted mode, TX and RX gains must be adjusted according to your setup. See [TX/RX gain setting], page 8, for more details.
5 3 Connection to AMARI callbox 3.1 Locally You can connect locally to your callbox by connecting a monitor and a keyboard to the PC. To login as root, please use root / toor as login / password. There is also a user account with user/resu as login/password. Note: The Amarisoft software suit is installed and executed under root account. 3.2 Remotely The Ethernet interface of the callbox is configured with DHCP.
6 4 LTE service Callbox is configured to provide an automatic LTE service. At each reboot of the PC, LTE network is turned on automatically. The default config is : one cell, LTE band 7, 20 MHz bandwidth and MIMO 2x2. 4.1 Manage LTE automatic service 4.1.1 Status You can check the LTE service status this way: service lte status The command will return "active (running)" status if service is running 4.1.2 Stop You can stop all LTE components this way: service lte stop 4.1.
7 5 eNodeB configuration 5.1 Selection of eNodeB configuration file The default file used by the lte automatic service for configuring the eNodeB component is enb.cfg (available under /root/enb/config directory). This file aims to set eNodeB parameters such as frequency, cell bandwidth, number of layer and others.
Chapter 5: eNodeB configuration 8 5.3 TX/RX gain setting TX and RX antenna gain values must be customized in order to avoid saturation when set too high or Bler when set too low. Those two values actually depend on your setup: • Conducted vs wireless conditions • Physical RF attenuator used • Combiner/divider used TX and RX gain values are defined in RF configuration file located under /root/enb/config/rf driver directory. To know which files is used by LTE service, just look at enb.cfg file.
9 6 Core network configuration LTEMME is a LTE MME (Mobility Management Entity) implementation. It has a built-in SGW (Serving Gateway), PGW (Packet Data Network Gateway), PCRF (Policy and Charging Rule Function), HSS (Home Subscriber Server) and EIR (Equipment Identity Register). It is used with the Amarisoft LTE eNodeB to build a highly configurable LTE test network. 6.1 Selection of MME configuration file The default file used by the lte automatic service for configuring the Core network is mme.
Chapter 6: Core network configuration 10 Otherwise, if other test SIM cards with different IMSI or secret key values are used, they must be declared in the EPC database (HSS) For that, open the /root/mme/config/ue_db-ims.cfg and add an entry for each sim card in the ue_db array .
Chapter 6: Core network configuration 11 2. Replace the preconfigured "internet" APN name as instance with the expected APN name or create a new entry in the pdn list array. 3. Restart the system with "service lte restart" command 6.3 VoLTE call AMARI Callbox embeds an IMS server that can be used for running basic IMS tests such as VoLTE, ViLTE or SMS over IMS. For more information about the IMS functionality, please refer to appnote ims.pdf document .
12 7 UE configuration 7.1 Internet setting For connecting your device to internet, APN setting must be configured at UE side to match callbox setting. As described in previous section, the callbox is preconfigured with four APN : • "Default": This APN name is frequently used by the UE when no specific APN is set. However, some UEs doesn’t expose an internet connection when this generic APN is used. In that case, we recommend to create a "internet" apn as described below.
13 However, most of the commercial devices are locked and behave differently. Some devices have a white list of authorized PLMN, some require that "UE operation mode" byte is set to "type approval operations" in USIM Elementary File Administrative Data(EFad). To overcome this issue, a reference UE can be provided by Amarisoft . Please contact support team for more details.
14 8 Monitoring Once all eNodeb and MME parameters have been configured, you can restart the lte service with service lte restart command to reload the configuration files and connect your device(s). To monitor your eNodeB/EPC or troubleshoot any issues, several tools and logs are available as described in the following sections. 8.
Chapter 8: Monitoring 15 Each component screen offers a list of commands that can be used either to get status or trigger action. Each of them are documented in the component documentations (example lteenb.pdf) or inline with the "help" command 8.1.2 Exit screen ctrl+a d 8.2 Command line monitor In eNB component, t command provides key logging information (See the list of parameter using t help command. 8.2.
Chapter 8: Monitoring 16 • cqi is the Channel Quality Indicator reported by the UE, between 0 (bad) and 15 (very good). If there are several aggregated DL cells, the minimum cqi is displayed. • ri is the Rank Indicator (number of layers for MIMO). If there are several aggregated DL cells, the minimum rank indicator is displayed. • mcs (Modulation Coding Scheme) is the average MCS value used in downlink during the measurement interval period. More details about MCS range are available in 3GPP TS 36.
Chapter 8: Monitoring 17 • TX PAPR: stands for Peak-to-Average Power Ratio. PAPR is the ratio of peak power to the average power of a signal. It is expressed in the units of dB. In LTE system, OFDM signal PAPR is approx. 12dB . If RMS + PAPR exceed the max power of the power amplifier, saturation will happen • TX MAX: stands for Maximum. Displays the maximum sample value during the measurement interval period. • TX SAT: stands for Saturation.
Chapter 8: Monitoring 18 8.3 logging eNodeB and MME generate log files under /tmp/ directory (enb0.log, ims.log and mme.log) that could be used for further analysis and debugging. The verbosity if these logs can be customized by modifying the log_options field available in the enb.cfg and mme.cfg configuration files (See lteenb.pdf or ltemme.pdf for more details). Note: We recommend to activate physical layer debug traces by adding phy.level=debug in your eNodeB config file. 8.
19 9 Throughput tests For testing data throughput and reach the maximum uplink and downlink bitrate, please refer to the appnote throughput.
