NB-IoT Arduino Shield from AIS (Thailand) First Impressions


 
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# 8  
Old 01-06-2020
Note for AIS network engineers:

Here is a very small example of how poorly AIS NB-IoT performs on the East side of my building (pictured above), from my UDP server logs.

In my sketch, every time a UDP message is sent, the sequence number is incremented by one. On the UDP server side, it logs each time it receives a package, including the RSSI and Sequence #:

Code:
waiting to receive message
1578313941.2: received 42 bytes from ('119.31.119.163', 33333)
1578313941.2: my signal csq: N/A rssi: N/AdBm   seq: 677
1578313941.2: sent 24 bytes back to ('119.31.119.163', 33333)

waiting to receive message
1578313941.54: received 41 bytes from ('119.31.119.163', 33333)
1578313941.54: my signal csq: 29 rssi: -55dBm   seq: 678
1578313941.54: sent 25 bytes back to ('119.31.119.163', 33333)

waiting to receive message
1578314106.17: received 41 bytes from ('119.31.119.163', 33333)
1578314106.17: my signal csq: 31 rssi: -51dBm   seq: 686
1578314106.17: sent 25 bytes back to ('119.31.119.163', 33333)

waiting to receive message
1578316246.96: received 42 bytes from ('119.31.119.254', 33333)
1578316246.96: my signal csq: N/A rssi: N/AdBm   seq: 759
1578316246.96: sent 25 bytes back to ('119.31.119.254', 33333)

waiting to receive message
1578316263.66: received 42 bytes from ('119.31.119.254', 33333)
1578316263.66: my signal csq: N/A rssi: N/AdBm   seq: 760
1578316263.66: sent 25 bytes back to ('119.31.119.254', 33333)

waiting to receive message
1578317185.86: received 42 bytes from ('119.31.119.254', 33333)
1578317185.86: my signal csq: 30 rssi: -53dBm   seq: 1168
1578317185.86: sent 25 bytes back to ('119.31.119.254', 33333)

I find it interesting (but not very interesting) that AIS coverts the BC95 RSSI / CSQ of 99 (undetectable) to "N/A" in the AIS library, but it can still (sometimes) transmit / receive even at 99:

NB-IoT Arduino Shield from AIS (Thailand) First Impressions-screen-shot-2020-01-06-85101-pmjpg


... anyway, I hope AIS network engineers find this helpful in their analysis of this area.

This issue only happens on the East side (city side) of this building, the West side (ocean facing side), does not experience this problem and no UDP messages are lost.

I'll leave this NB-IoT shield on the East side of the building for the next 24 hours, transmitting and receiving on the NB-IoT network, so AIS can troubleshoot their network:

NB-IoT Arduino Shield from AIS (Thailand) First Impressions-img_8841jpg
This User Gave Thanks to Neo For This Post:
# 9  
Old 01-07-2020
Update:

Since writing AIS, I have not (yet_ received any support or assistance, either from the main call center or the direct email into the NB-IoT team.

I'm close to putting this AIS-NB-IoT project on the shelf (since it was only meant to be a "quick impression" test), and moving on to (1) the SIM5360E 3G Shield and a scheduled (2) LoRaWAN gateway test on Thursday.

My initial impression with AIS NB-IoT is that the service and network coverage is not ready for "serious" Arduino shield development; and so it is better to move on to LoRa testing and SIM5360E_3G testing.

NB-IoT (at least this in the context of these test results) can be summarized as a line-of-site, low data rate, low bandwidth messaging technology with spotty network coverage, at least the network I tested this past weekend.

It's time to move on to other tests and put the AIS NB-IoT shield on the shelf until the coverage and support improves, or I decide that LoRaWAN or the .SIM5360E_3G_Shield do not perform well, comparatively speaking.
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