pfSense

The Direct IP mode is Sierra Wireless only and provide and Ethernet virtual interface trough USB.
This mode is supported on the old Sierra products where the current line support the QMI (Qualcomm Modem Interface) protocol.
Old product support PPP, Direct IP and QMI where current product line support only QMI.

Currently using the new APU2 board from PC Engines with a Sierra MC7710 modem and it's working using PPP with the latest pfSense stable 2.2.6 and last 2.3 Beta.
But ppp has bandwidth limitation around 20-25Mb/s depending the HW config you have, it's not the full speed for a 4G/LTE modem.

The solution is to user the Direct IP mode (DIP) from Sierra to have a sort of ethernet interface where you can control the modem using AT commands.

For this you need the usie kernel module available with FreeBSD 10, coud you add it by default for the different build available ?
With this module we could have a good support for Sierra modem using DIP mode. A complete support could be done later with the AT commands option available in the UI.

I could send a modem if needed to someone for test.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

Nicolas

Chris,

If you use PPP nothing need to be done on the UI like any modem.

But if you want to use DIP mode (Direct IP mode providing a virtual ethernet interface), you need to handle this new interface with :
- ethernet interface to provide the data
- AT commands to configure the modem, change provider, login, password, etc...

We need when you select a Sierra modem with DIP to handle this 2 points this is why we need to have some UI update to handle this isn"t it ?

FreeBSD forum user experience with DIP
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/sierra-wireless-hspa-usb-modem.24719/

we can't test this until we have a module in-hand.

Jim,

OK, I am agree to buy one and to send you for testing.
What is the address ?

I suppose you have all necessary (APU or other, antenna, etc...) ?

Nicolas