Vodafone APN

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pseudogeek2009

66 posts

Master Geek

#61363 15-May-2010 00:04

Hi,

Just a quick question, if I'm using the Vodefone public APN for a M2M application, what kind of issues would I encounter like reliability, connection? I imagine a static IP address would provide a more stable connection than a public.

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Retired Mod

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#330305 15-May-2010 09:00

You can't get static IP's without a private APN - and a static IP isn't necessarily going to improve reliability or the connection.

timmyh

188 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#330307 15-May-2010 09:12

With the public APN's you will have trouble initiating a connection from the internet to the device as it is all firewalled. You would need the device to poll-out to keep the connection open.

If it is a larger M2M deployment then you want to look at a Private APN which can use Static IP addresses and have unrestricted access from each end. You'd need to talk to a Vodafone Account Manager and Pre-Sales engineer.

johnr

19282 posts

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Inactive user

#330319 15-May-2010 10:11

You will have issues with M2M on public APNs you will need to have the corporate connect solution

pseudogeek2009

66 posts

Master Geek

#330326 15-May-2010 10:44

timmyh: With the public APN's you will have trouble initiating a connection from the internet to the device as it is all firewalled. You would need the device to poll-out to keep the connection open.

If it is a larger M2M deployment then you want to look at a Private APN which can use Static IP addresses and have unrestricted access from each end. You'd need to talk to a Vodafone Account Manager and Pre-Sales engineer.

Right now my software connects to the public Vodafone APN and I have been experiencing a lot of problems with disconnections. The other issues is the chipset API does not detect GPRS disconnection so I have to ping a server to ensure the connection is still alive as suggested by the chipset supplier forum. When I get a failed ping, I restart the whole GPRS stack. Also from talking to the FAE, he also suggested restarting if the GPRS fails. Hopefully this works reliably for a public APN. For the m2m deployment, it will be in the 1000s and I believe the client will be using a private APN.

timmyh

188 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#330343 15-May-2010 11:58

Yes there have always been problems with modems detecting GPRS disconnections.

I think you are dealing with two layers of disconnections - one at the IP layer due to firewall rules, and the other on the GPRS connection itself which might be terminated by the network based on various idle rules.

Again, there are resources in Vodafone to talk to about this in much more detail who you would be referred to by an Account Manager. This type of large scale M2M deployment has now been done by a number of customers.

pressF1

77 posts

Master Geek

#330412 15-May-2010 16:22

Where are you located? If you send me your details i can get someone to contact you to discuss the detail and setup