Cellular Network Infrastructure » Radio Access Network » OsmoPCU

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h1. OsmoPCU Debugging

In order to debug issues with [[OsmoPCU]], it is important to have protocol traces from all related interfaces.

Fundamentally, this includes

# the Gb interface (NS-over-IP from PCU to SGSN, showing NS/BSSGP/LLC and higher layer protocols)

#* this one is easy, you just have to capture the UDP traffic on the ip/port as specified in your configuration for this NS-VC (from [[OsmoBSC:]] or [[OsmoNITB:]]

# the Um interface (RLC/MAC between MS and PCU)

#* Um frames transmitted/received via OsmoPCU (on PACCH, PTCCH, PDTCH)

#* Um frames transmitted/received via OsmoBTS on behalf of OsmoPCU (on PCH and AGCH)

The instructions below will help you to set this up

h2. Required configuration

h3. NS-over-IP traffic

Simply set up @tcpdump@ to capture the UDP port you're using for the NS-VC.  If you're using port 23000 (which is the default), the capture filter would include @udp port 23000@.

h3. Um frames of OsmoPCU via GSMTAP

You must call the specific [[OsmoPCU:]] binary for your BTS hardware with the @-i@ option to enable GSMTAP and specify a remote IP address where to send it to[1].

The IP address could be the localhost/loopback device, in case you want to capture packets locally.

For example, on a sysmoBTS device the normal command to start osmo-bts (by the systemd service) is:

 /usr/bin/osmo-pcu -c /etc/osmocom/osmo-pcu.cfg

but we now need to start it as

 /usr/bin/osmo-pcu -c /etc/osmocom/osmo-pcu.cfg -i 127.0.0.1

In [[OsmoPCU:]] versions later than "July 21, 2017":http://git.osmocom.org/osmo-pcu/commit/?id=717cdf540558b95f31e4c8ea58d0fc9e06429228 you have to specify which categories of PCU blocks you want to log via GSMTAP.  Older versions will log all blocks, which includes all dummy blocks that make reading the capture files harder:

The osmo-pcu.cfg file will have to include a section like this:

<pre>

pcu

 ...

 gsmtap-category dl-ctrl

 gsmtap-category dl-data-gprs

 gsmtap-category dl-data-egprs

 gsmtap-category ul-ctrl

 gsmtap-category ul-data-gprs

 gsmtap-category ul-data-egprs

 ...

</pre>

The above will log all uplink and downlink control and traffic blocks.  Depending on your needs, a sub-set may be sufficient.

h3. Um frames of OsmoBTS via GSMTAP

You must call the specific [[OsmoBTS:]] binary for your BTS hardware with the @-i@ option to enable GSMTAP and specify a remote IP address where to send it to.

The IP address could be the localhost/loopback device, in case you want to capture packets locally.

For example, on a sysmoBTS device the normal command to start osmo-bts (by the systemd service) is:

 /usr/bin/osmo-bts-sysmo -s -c /etc/osmocom/osmo-bts.cfg -M

but we now need to start it as

 /usr/bin/osmo-bts-sysmo -s -c /etc/osmocom/osmo-bts.cfg -M -i 127.0.0.1

In osmo-bts.cfg you need to enable the following gsmtap SAPIs:

<pre>

bts 0

 ...

 gsmtap-sapi ccch

 gsmtap-sapi rach

 gsmtap-sapi agch

 gsmtap-sapi pch

 ...

</pre>

fn1. As of this writing, OsmoPCU actually will send GSMTAP automatically by default to 127.0.0.1 but this is scheduled to change.  Explicitly specifying the GSMTAP via the command-line argument as described here will work with both older and future versions of [[OsmoPCU:]]

h2. Capturing

h3. Manually on the BTS itself:

You can use tcpdump to write a pcap file that includes all related traffic using e.g.

 tcpdump -ni any -s0 -w/tmp/my_gprs.pcap udp port 23000 or udp port 4729 or tcp port 3002 or tcp port 3003 or tcp port 5000

where

* @udp port 23000@ refers to the Gb traffic (your port number might be different)

* @udp port 4729@ refers to the GSMTAP traffic generated by both [[OsmoPCU:]] as well as [[OsmoBTS:]]

* @tcp port 3002 or tcp port 3003@ refers to the Abis/IP traffic between [[OsmoBTS:]] and [[OsmoBTS:]] or [[OsmoNITB:]]

* @tcp port 5000@ refers to the A/SCCPlite traffic between [[OsmoBSC:]] and the MSC (your port number might be different.

h3. Using @osmo-pcap-client@

FIXME