Issue: Cellular Connectivity Problems in a Small South Texas Town

Connectivity
1

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a strange connectivity issue with two M-SoM devices located in a small town in South Texas. The devices seem to have partial connectivity:

  • Pings from the Particle Console do not reach the devices.
  • However, data messages from the devices are successfully coming through.
  • We cannot send messages to the devices.

When the devices are used outside of this town, communication works flawlessly in both directions. The vitals don't seem too bad, and both devices are experiencing the same problem in this specific area.

Here are the vitals details:

  • Cellular Signal Strength: 73%
  • Cellular Signal Quality: 33%
  • Operator: AT&T Wireless Inc.
  • Access Technology: LTE
  • Round-Trip Time: 256ms

This is a very unusual issue that I've never encountered before. Has anyone experienced something similar or have suggestions for troubleshooting or potential fixes?

Thanks for your help!

Also a note, the devices appear as Online in the console, but actions such as a force ota update are not occurring.

2

@Support mind taking a look? Looks like it could be a tower exhibiting an annoying but very rare phenomenon. Have you played with keepalive settings at all? Mind DMing Support the device IDs?

3

I have not changed the keep alive settings, they are at the default 23 minutes. I'm most skeptical because in different geographic locations (3+ miles away), the device is working normally.

I will DM support the IDs.

4

Is there any guidance yet? Or at least some firmware code to implement for future edge cases?

The cell_global_identity.cell_id remains the same for both of the devices with this issue. The devices do not seem to know they should switch to another network.

5

Hi @gpatt1 I am looking into this. I hope to have an update shortly.

6

Hi @gpatt1 this seems to be an issue with the keep-alive settings on the specific tower that your failing devices are connecting to.

I am working internally with our team to open a ticket with the cell provider. Can you DM us some of the following details?

  1. Any nearby device IDs that are working as expected.
  2. How often your devices are publishing to the Particle Cloud.
  3. You firmware's sleep configuration. How often (& for how long) are your devices sleeping?
  4. Location information for the failing devices (address or lat/long coordinates).
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