Product Brief

Modem Management Agent

F3 Wireless, a leading innovator of IoT solutions, recently announced the industry’s first IoT Modem Management
Agent (MMA) software for embedded Linux. Adding cellular data to a product is a complicated process. A modem
can be on or off, connected or not, roaming, denied registration, in a sleep mode, misbehaving, or any other numberof states. Each one of these states may require different behavior or response that is dependent on upper levelapplication requirements. A service is needed to control the modem, the mobile data channel, and its relatedfeatures. This software intelligence is what we refer to as the Modem Management Agent, or the MMA.
The major benefit of this first of its kind software, is that it allows companies to bypass the time-consuming exerciseof having to learn all the corner cases and special situations presented by cellular radios, cellular networks andrelated device features such as power management. The MMA software program runs on an IoT focused embedded
or standard computer and manages and directs the cellular radio.
Having an off the shelf solution through F3 Wireless’ MMA software, helps companies take advantage of these timeand money savings components:••••••

Comprehensive engine: Advanced state machine that manages the power modes, configuration, initialization,
APN management, registration, roaming, and mobile data enablement, with robust error recovery.
Control and configuration: Control current power state, registration state (or force roaming to certainnetworks), mobile data state, or set a custom APN, all through a simple key-value configuration
structure that is applied in real-time.
Transparency to modem and network status: Expose the detailed state of the cellular system in a simple keyvalue format, including power/registration status, technology (2G/3G/LTE), SIM/modem ID, signal quality, andnetworking/IP parameters.
SMS message store: Easily send/receive messages through a local message store system. The MMA
automatically receives incoming text messages and stores them to the inbox, and sends any messages inthe outbox.
Networking: MMA software works whether a company is running a Linux PC with a USB connection to themodem, or using a tiny microcontroller with no IP stack capability. It can handle attaching the mobile data
context to a Linux machine so it shows up as a standard network interface, or make use of the internal
modem stack with the MMA NetworkStack module, which exposes the stack to an application.
HAL: Allow a single application/system to be deployed with more than one cell radio without changing
application software. Once support for a new modem is added to the MMA, systems can use any supported
modem that includes the features required for the application. The MMA acts as an abstraction layer to let
the application software always work the same way, regardless of modem attached.

www.f3wireless.com+1-763-219-1380

211 St. Anthony Pkwy, Minneapolis MN 55418

Product Brief

Modem Management Agent

3 Example Cases Addressed by the MMA
Case: The AT command terminal requires a non-trivial command parser
to handle the syntax of both asynchronous (unsolicited) and synchronous(command -> reply) communications.
MMA: The "ATHandler" component of the MMA is a command parser
engine intended to work with Cellular modems by providing not only thebasic terminal I/O, but the ability to handle both synchronous ATcommands as well as asynchronous Unsolicited Result Codes (URC's)from the modem. It handles the string-matching, field parsing of the AT
syntax, timeouts, CME/CMS error handling, and detection of URC's fromthe modem.

The MMA is the interpreter and controller
between the application software and cellmodule.

Case: There are many edge cases of a cellular modules state flow that are
not obvious until they occur. For example - what is the correct course ofaction when your terminal fails to get a proper reply from the module, or if
the PDP context is deactivated while the module is still registered withgood signal quality?
MMA: The primary state machine of the MMA will handle all operational
states of the modem, including the power on and off sequences. It handles
setting up the modem for usage on your type of host system (Linux, etc),
and applying any of your config values. Continuous monitoring of themodem with the correct sequence of recovery protocols run in thebackground, to make sure dependencies are torn down and set up
accordingly when one of these events occurs.

The MMA is a collection of wisdom andexperience for handling a wide array of
special situations.

Case: Configuration and Status of the modem is required by upstream
applications. Real-time control of the modem state is required.
MMA: The MMA uses the commonly known "ini" style configuration file, aswell as a key-value status file to configure and view the status of themodem in real-time. For consumption by any system application, itexports IMEI, SIM ID, registration status, access technology, signal quality,operator, and IP information.

www.f3wireless.com+1-763-219-1380

The MMA talks to the cell module andmanages the appropriate processes andresponses.

211 St. Anthony Pkwy, Minneapolis MN 55418