Applicable Products Part number Description ZETA-GEP-LTE4 (EU) Low Power LTE Cat 4 European Modem with GPIO and GNSS
ZETA-G-GPRS Entry Level GPRS Modem with GNSS (GL)
ZETA-N2-GPRS Entry Level GPRS Modem (GL)
ZETA-NEP-LTE4 (EU) Low Power LTE Cat 4 European Modem with GPIO
ZETA-NEP-LTEM (GL) Low Power Global LTE Cat M Modem with GPIO
ZETA-NLP-LTE1 (EU) Ultra Low Power European LTE Cat 1 Modem
ZETA-NLP-LTEM (GL) Ultra Low Power Global LTE Cat M Modem
ZETA-N-LTE (EU) High Performance LTE Cat 4 Modem with GPIO
ZETA-NSP-LTE1 (EU) Low Power European LTE Cat 1 Modem
Objective To connect embedded systems together using the internet requires the use of data sockets to send information from one location to another. This process has been around for a long time and there are methods available to communicate with servers and devices using sockets to establish a bi-directional communication link between two endpoints.
In general, there is a listening device and a dialling device. Servers are generally setup as listening devices and remote modems as dialling devices, but this is not always the case and there are many examples which differ from this generalisation.
There are certain requirements with both the listening devices and dialling devices which must be taken into consideration when setting up a communication link between two endpoints. This application note will discuss these points in more detail.
Solution Listening Device Requirements The listening device must be accessible on the network and be able to accept incoming data socket requests from remote devices. This usually means having a firewall with a few specific open ports to allow incoming requests to be accepted through the accessible ports. Devices on the internet which have open ports are immediately susceptible to attack from hackers, spammers, viruses and bots which exploit specific vulnerabilities in the listening device's operating system. As a result, many security measures have been developed to prevent unauthorised access, but care must be taken to ensure that these measures are effectively managed.
For a device listening on the internet, it would usually have a fixed IP address which does not change over time. This IP address can then be used by any remote device to communicate with the listening device in a comparable way to a phone number is used on a telephone.
This fixed IP address would be publicly available and any device legitimate or otherwise would be able to communicate with it. On a HTTP webserver, the server would have a fixed IP address and would be listening for incoming data traffic on port 80. Mapped to this IP address would be a domain name such as www.example.com'. When the user types in www.example.com' to their web browser, the web browser looks up the IP address using DNS and it returns the IP address of the server. The web browser then contacts the server's IP address directly on port 80 and the https webserver responds with the web page.
The exact same process can be applied to data socket connections using mobile devices.
The mobile device uses a fixed IP address SIM card.
The mobile device is setup to listen on a specific port i.e. 1024.
The mobile device opens its firewall to specific devices.
The mobile device waits for an incoming data socket connection.
The dialling device attempts to open a socket on the IP address of the fixed IP address SIM card on the listening port i.e. 1024
Dialling Device Requirements The dialling device can use any standard SIM card and does not require a specific setup or fixed IP address SIM card. As the dialling device is dialling out to the server it is not listening for incoming data connections and therefore does not need to be as concerned about security as the listening device.
Demonstration of Solution Resources:
PC with an installed Terminal Emulator' program: A Windows 10 laptop installed with Tera Term was used for the purpose of this guide.
Siretta Part Number: 61057 -ZETA-GEP-LTE4 (EU) Starter Kit (any ZETA starter Kit is suitable for this application)
Insert SIM card to the modem
Power on the modem
Connect the supplied serial port cable to the PC
Connect the antenna
As described in the Starter Kit Quick Start Guide
Open Hyperterminal on the PC (or your preferred terminal emulator: PuTTY, TeraTerm).
Select new connection. Name the new connection for reference in the future.
Name your port.
Choose the correct COM port. From the drop-down list, select the correct COM port your modem is connected to.
Configure the port with the following settings (These settings are standard for all of the ZETA Siretta modems):
Bits per second: 115200
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
Flow control: Hardware
Note: The above procedure is set out in Initial Modem Set Up application note
GPRS Connection COM3 - Tera Term VT
File Edit Setup Control Window Help
//Set extended error messages
AT CMEE=2
//Set GPRS APN Name
AT CGDCONT=1, IP , APN Name
Outgoing Connection COM3 - Tera Term VT
File Edit Setup Control Window Help
//Set packet size and timeouts on context 1-6
AT#SCFG=1,1,300,90,600,50
//Open GPRS context 1-6 with GPRS Username and GPRS Password. (This will return your ISP assigned IP address)
AT#SGACT=1,1, username , password
//Open Socket on Port Number at IP Address
AT#SD=1,0, Port Number, IP Address ,255,0
// Close GPRS context 1-6
AT#SGACT=1,0
AT CGDCONT=1, IP , APN Name
AT#SGACT=1,1, username , password
AT#SD=1,0,1024, 080.080.080.081 ,255,0
Incoming Connection COM3 - Tera Term VT
File Edit Setup Control Window Help
//Open GPRS context 1-6 with GPRS Username and GPRS Password
AT#SGACT=1,1, username , password
//Setup Firewall
AT#FRWL=1, IP Address , Subnet Mask
