​FAQ

Owned by Uwe Sommerlatt
29 Nov, 2021
4 min read
 1. The definition of USB Connect LPWA 

     The USB Connect LPWA is a USB-Dongle for cellular machine type communication which supports the cellular 3GPP standards NB-IoT and CAT-M1.

     The device is connected to a host device by a USB interface, which supplies the USB-Dongle with power ,transmit and receive data via by using the Vodafone USB Connect LPWA

     The radio signals are transmitted and received by an internal (not included by default) or external antenna.

 2. How can I order a Vodafone USB connect LPWA

Please get in touch with your local Vodafone IoT sales representative.


 3. Abbreviations
LPWA: A low-power wide-area network is a type telecommunication wide area to allow long-range communications at a low bit rate among things (connected objects), such as sensors operated on a battery. The low power, low bit rate and intended use distinguish this type of network from a wireless WAN that is designed to connect users or businesses, and carry more data, using more power. The LPWAN data rate ranges from 0.3 kbit/s to 50 kbit/s per channel.


3GPP: The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a standards organization which develops protocols for mobile telephony. Its best known work is the development and maintenance of:

  • GSM and related 2G and 2.5G standards, including GPRS and EDGE.
  • UMTS and related 3G standards, including HSPA.
  • LTE and related 4G standards, including LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro.
  • 5G NR and related 5G standards.
  • An evolved IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) developed in an access independent manner.

NB-IoT or NB1: Narrowband Internet of Things  is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of cellular devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016. NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and high connection density. NB-IoT uses a subset of the LTE standard, but limits the bandwidth to a single narrow-band of 200kHz. It uses OFDM modulation for downlink communication and SC-FDMA for uplink communications.

CAT-M1: (LTE-MTC [Machine Type Communication]), which includes eMTC (enhanced Machine Type Communication), is a type of low power wide area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of cellular devices and services (specifically, for machine-to-machine and Internet of Things applications). The specification for eMTC (LTE Cat-M1) was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016. 

USB: Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables and connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply between computers, peripheral devices and other computers.Released in 1996, the USB standard is currently maintained by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). 
UDP: User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet protocol suite. The protocol was designed by David P. Reed in 1980 and formally defined in RFC 768. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Prior communications are not required in order to set up communication channels or data paths. UDP uses a simple connectionless communication model with a minimum of protocol mechanisms. UDP provides checksums for data integrity, and port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination of the datagram. It has no handshaking dialogues, and thus exposes the user's program to any unreliability of the underlying network; there is no guarantee of delivery, ordering, or duplicate protection. If error-correction facilities are needed at the network interface level, an application may use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) which are designed for this purpose. UDP is suitable for purposes where error checking and correction are either not necessary or are performed in the application; UDP avoids the overhead of such processing in the protocol stack. Time-sensitive applications often use UDP because dropping packets is preferable to waiting for packets delayed due to retransmission, which may not be an option in a real-time system.
 4. How can I connect to another cloud?

There are different ways to direct NB-IoT data to different cloud backends.

via UDP

NB-IoT devices support primarily the UDP-protocol.  The IP address of the cloud can be specified with the AT-Command. Remark: The IP address of your cloud server must be reachable from the operators APN (the gateway between the mobile network and the public internet). If the traffic is blocked, whitelisting of your servers IP address might be necessary.

via TCP

Standard cloud servers often request TCP for interfacing IoT devices (often requesting IPsec). This is not supported with NB-IoT. Therefore, Exelonix offers a proxy server, which receives the UDP data packets and forwards that data via TCP protocols like HTTP or MQTT. The format can be adapted to your cloud server requirements. If you are interested in this solution, contact the team of exelonix GmbH.

  Exelonix GmbH
  Washingtonstr. 16/16A
  D-01139 Dresden
  Germany

   Phone: +49 (0) 351 – 219 71 444
  E-Mail info@exelonix.com
  Website: www.exelonix.com


via NB|EASY (Windows Software)

You can use the NB|EASY for transmitting data into your cloud.  Just change the backend IP-address via the NB|EASY tool.


 5. I have problems with the USB Connect LPWA

   Please contact :

   Oliver.Wierichs@vodafone.com

 6. How do I update the firmware?

​Firmware Update

 7. IoT Manager Troubleshooting

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  • Click on the link "Forgot password"
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  • If necessary, reset your password with the "Forgot password" link

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