Info on Alcatel Femtocells

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Alex allexander.alex at gmail.com
Tue Nov 27 18:56:47 UTC 2018


 Hi,
thanks for the answer!

This femto seems to have a discrete simcard (it has empty slot accessible
from the external).

I don't know the setup used by the original operator (TelecomItalia),
because I bought it from ebay.

I found a possible reset procedure (still to be tested), but I don't think
it will "unlock" the board.
Now I'm trying to find the UART on the board, but on the testpoints i only
see "control" signals and clocks. Nothing seems to be a serial port pattern
on my oscilloscope.

On this site
https://web.archive.org/web/20170707063235/https://wiki.thc.org/vodafone
there are some information on a really similar cell (9361 I think) from
Vodafone, which has a relly similar IPSEC config, but there ins't any spec.

No one tried to disassemble it or do have just the serial pinout on the
board?

On the other side I've already deployed the CN part (HLR + MSC + SSGN +
GSGN + STP + MGW + HNBGW), which seems to be fully operational, but i can't
test without a test cell.
I also thing the IuH protocol of this femto is little out-of-standard, but
from ALU documentation I can't understand the differences with standard IuH.

The idea is to implement ALU's IuH variant on HNBGW if i can take traces
from a "lab" env, but without the femto it's just impossible.

Il giorno mar 27 nov 2018 alle ore 18:17 Tomcsányi, Domonkos <
domi at tomcsanyi.net> ha scritto:

> Hi Alex,
>
> Femtocells are provisioned with operator data - certificates/keys to be
> able to talk to the gateway.
> Some femtocells use EAP-SIM with an embedded SIM card, others just rely on
> the configuration. If your femto supports a SIM card you can use a SIM card
> with a known Ki to connect it to your gateway (strongswan I assume).
> If however there is no SIM card support in the femtocell then you need to
> somehow re-provision the device - probably using a proprietary software and
> method.
> Sorry, this is probably bad news for you.
>
> Kind regards,
> Domi
>
>
> 2018. nov. 27. dátummal, 9:33 időpontban Alex <allexander.alex at gmail.com>
> írta:
>
> Hi to everyone!
>
> I'm a new member and I really appreciate the work done here!
>
>
> I'm trying to use Alcatel Femtocells (ALU 9361/9362/9363) with osmo-hnbgw,
> but I'm still blocked at the IPSEC tunnel step.
>
> I've created an IPSEC server with EAP support, but I suspect there is a
> problem with my  self signed certificate.
>
> Probably the femtocell has an internal trusted CA which validates server
> certs.
>
>
> I din't find the console pins on the board also, so I cannot simply
> connect to it and have a look at the system level.
>
>
> Has anyone any experience with this kind of HW or just an idea about a
> possible  work around?
>
>
> Thank you and best regards
> Alex
>
>
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