Using The Teltonika Hsupa Router Rut104 With Hwg Group Ip Based Remote Monitoring Solutions

This is applicable to any Poseidon or Damocles unit on the Sensormetrix site and the Teltonika 3G router on the Sequoia web site.

Introduction
The purpose of this application note is to explain how to configure the Teltonika RUT104 HSUPA 3G router for use with the HWg range of IP based remote monitoring equipment such that the remote monitoring may be carried out over a 3G/GRPS network.

Theory
The Teltonika RUT104 can operate on either a GPRS or 3G data network. It requires a SIM card with suitable airtime contract. Sequoia uses Wireless Logic (wirelesslogic.co.uk) as our airtime provider. The settings shown in this application note have been tested and verified with a Wireless Logic supplied Vodafone SIM card.

When the RUT104 has been configured with a SIM card correctly, it provides a connection to the Internet via the mobile network that it is logged into. By connecting the HWg IP based unit into the router, a connection to the Internet is obtained. This application note assumes that a fixed IP address SIM is used. This will provide the router with a unique IP address.
The firewall in the RUT104 is configured such that the HWg unit is on a DMZ port. This means that all traffic from the Internet into the router will be mapped straight through the firewall and to the attached HWg IP interface.

Implementation
Power up the RUT104 with GSM antenna attached and valid SIM card inserted.
Connect a PC to the RUT104 directly using an Ethernet cable. The PC networking settings should remain unchanged Obtain IP and DNS server addresses automatically. This is because the RUT104 defaults to having a DHCP server enabled to serve the PC with an IP address. If the PC has a wireless LAN interface, this should be disabled while the RUT104 is configured.

While not obtaining Internet access at this stage, the PC is likely to have been assigned the IP address 192.168.0.2 and identify the default gateway and DNS server address as 192.168.0.1.

Open up Internet Explorer and enter 192.168.0.1 as the website address in the address bar. The RUT104 login screen will be displayed. Login using Username: admin; password: admin01. The Easy Setup wizard screen will display.

Static Vs Dynamic IP Gateway address
This application note assumes remote access of the HWg units web interface is required. To do this requires a known IP address to browse which is why a fixed IP address SIM was recommended and the HWg unit was attached to the DMZ.

However, the sending of Email alerts or SNMP traps does not require a fixed IP address as long as the originating device name is unique so that the source can be identified. In this case multiple HWg units can be attached to the router through an Ethernet switch. Set up in this way, the HWg units can use a DHCP address assigned by the RUT104. The units will now sit behind the RUT104s firewall so that security is less of an issue.

The disadvantage is that it will not be possible to remotely access the HWg units attached in any way.

Dynamic DNS
A standard SIM card uses dynamic DNS which means that the IP address that it is assigned to is determined by the network and could change. Sequoia recommends the use of fixed IP SIMs as then there is no uncertainty about the IP address of the router. However, the 3G router also supports Dynamic DNS which avoids the requirement for a fixed IP SIM card as it works by using a third party DNS server.

With Dynamic DNS enabled, the router will periodically contact this server and identify itself by means of a username and password. This allows the server to find out the current address of the SIM card which is then entered into its DNS lookup table. By querying this server, it is possible to locate the IP address of the SIM card. Sequoia has used Dynamic DNS services from dyndns.com in the past and found them to work. Please review their web site for more information on how this works and how to implement it.

Multiple units on one router
This application note has shown how to attach a single HWg unit to the DMZ port. By using DMZ, all incoming ports are mapped to the attached HWg unit. There are 65,535 ports and these will all be mapped to the HWg device. The reality is that the HWg unit only uses a small number of these. By default, the only incoming port connects used will be port 162 (SNMP), port 80 (HTTP) and port 99 (Telnet).

The incoming ports used will default to these port numbers, but the user interface of the HWg units allows these ports to be changed from the default. The standard web interface (http) is on port 80. If 2 units were attached to the router there is no reason why one of the units could not have its http port changed to port 8080 for instance. Then it would be possible to use port forwarding in the RUT104 to forward all the traffic incoming on port 8080 to the HWg unit that has been programmed to respond to http requests on port 8080.

DHCP on the RUT104 would have to be turned off and all the HWg units attached to the RUT104 would have to be given a fixed IP address. This would allow multiple HWg units to be attached to one RUT104 and have their web interfaces visible externally.

Signal Strength
Network signal strength will directly affect the speed of the wireless connection. Network contention will also affect the available bandwidth, but this is beyond user control.

The signal strength is typical for Vodafone at the Sequoia office. This results in very sluggish performance when remotely browsing the attached HWg web interface, but in most cases would be acceptable for sending Email alerts.
When tested at another location (home office) where the signal strength bar was showing full strength, the web interface was as responsive as any broadband connection. Consequently, it is recommended that any site be surveyed before installation.

A survey is in two forms; Network provider and antenna placement. The built in signal strength meter in the RUT104 can be used for this purpose, but to test the different networks requires a SIM card for each network and a re-boot of the RUT104 after a SIM card change which is a lengthy process.

An easier way to do a site survey is with the SWGPRS023 signal strength tester from Siretta Antennas (siretta.co.uk) which allows the signal strength of all networks to be tested simultaneously so that the most appropriate network to use can be selected.
access point vs router