Installation Manual

nanoBTS Installation Manual

Getting Started with BTS Installer

BTS Installer also has a manual mode of operation, in which the user performs just one

operation at a time on just one nanoBTS at a time, and has immediate feedback as to the

success or failure of the operation.

The various manual operations are available from pressing the Action button in the BTS

Status section of the user interface.

Some example scenarios are:

• A number of operating nanoBTSs are to have their software upgraded. Automatic

mode is used to download the new version of software to all of them at once.

• A particular nanoBTS is not operating correctly. Manual mode is used to investigate

its configuration and diagnose and fix the problem.

3.2.2 Unknown BTS Mode

Normally the BTS Database contains entries for specific nanoBTSs. In particular the

DHCP server will only normally only supply an IP configuration to a nanoBTS whose MAC

address matches that explicitly specified in the BTS Database entry.

There is a special “Unknown BTS” mode of operation in which the BTS Database contains

just one special entry. This special entry acts as if it had a wildcard MAC address, and the

DHCP server will recognise any nanoBTS that asks for an IP configuration.

IN THIS MODE THERE IS NOTHING IN BTS Installer TO STOP THE

CONFIGURATION OF ANY nanoBTS THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE

NETWORK FROM BEING CHANGED.

This special mode of operation is designed to be used when only one nanoBTS at a time is

connected to the computer running BTS Installer, usually on a tiny private network,

perhaps just a crossover cable. It bypasses the normal safeguards that BTS Installer uses

to ensure that it makes configuration changes only to BTSs that are identified as those that

the user has specified.

There is no way to create this special BTS Database entry from the graphical user

interface; it must be loaded from a configuration file. There is no particular indication to the

user that BTS Installer is in Unknown BTS Mode, except that the Find and New buttons in

the BTS Status section of the user interface are disabled.

3.2.3 Proxy and Direct Operation

There are various network configurations in which BTS Installer may be used, and the

general design of the IP network configuration is outside the scope of this document.

In some network configurations BTS Installer is on the same network as the nanoBTSs, in

that there is an IP route from BTS Installer to the nanoBTSs. In such configurations BTS

Installer can communicate directly with the nanoBTSs in direct connection mode.

There are two different types of direct connection that BTS Installer can make to a

nanoBTS: a normal TCP connection or a secure SSL connection.

In other network configurations BTS Installer and the nanoBTSs are on different networks,

and there is no IP routing between the two. Typically in this scenario the BSC will be

multihomed, and will have an interface to each network but will not route IP packets

between the two networks. An optional system component, the BTS Installer Proxy, can be

installed as part of the BSC, and will forward requests from BTS Installer to the nanoBTSs