RM500Q-GL 5G-NR Behaviour

damow · October 27, 2020, 8:07pm

I’ve been playing with a RM500Q-GL module and I’ve noticed very briefly after startup it’ll display:

+QENG: "servingcell","NOCONN"
+QENG: "LTE","FDD",234,20,24E601,52,1392,3,4,4,BCF,-98,-11,-69,13,-
+QENG:"NR5G-NSA",234,20,160,-82,285,-11

Note the NR5G-NSA entry - but after around 10 seconds this will disappear and revert to just LTE, despite the signal characteristics looking reasonable. I’ve checked all the various options. If I disallow registering on LTE at all I see SEARCH forever.

I’m running firmware RM500QGLABR10A02M4G. Is this a known issue?

Thanks,

Damo.

rspmn · October 27, 2020, 9:33pm

This is nothing to worry about. The network will only assign NR5G resources to subscribers when it makes sense to do so, e.g. for a larger download.

Regards,
Reinhard

BillA · October 28, 2020, 9:50am

The “-GL” global model according to the initial specs, doesn’t have NSA mode on the US bands.
So depending where you are it may not function properly. If you’re in the US then you need to use the “-AE” model.

damow · October 28, 2020, 10:03am

Thanks Bill/Reinhard - Bill - I’m in the UK and I’ve verified that my operator is doing NSA on a supported band. Reinhard - That’s interesting, I’ll try establishing a packet data connection and pulling down some data and see if the output changes.

Peter.Zhu-Q · October 29, 2020, 8:20am

Hello Damow. as Bill/Reinhard’s said, it is NSA‘s basic feature. you also may use AT+COPS? to inquiry.Thanks.

snowgum · October 29, 2020, 8:12pm

The “NSA” in “NR5G-NSA” is “Non-Stand-Alone”. Most NR5G implementations are NSA. They require an LTE connection to work. Inhibit LTE and NR5G gets limited to “SA”, which clearly isn’t available in your location.

damow · October 30, 2020, 10:35am

Thanks all, extremely helpful (and apologies for perhaps not having as good a grasp of this as I should). Indeed I was able to get NR5G working. Mods, feel free to close this if that’s how things work around here.

Thanks again!

BillA · January 1, 2021, 4:02pm

Just wanted to clarify the SA/NSA bands. The “-GL” global version does have NSA on certain international bands including the UK, but not in the US, therefore it will only function on LTE bands in the US. I see a lot of people selling and buying the -GL version in the US thinking that they will get 5G speeds, unfortunately that’s not the case. In the US we need the “-AE” version which has all the NSA, therefore 5G will function properly. Of course 5G will only engage during large data transmissions controlled by the carrier (like a file download, etc).
I was wondering if Quectel support could confirm if all the US NSA bands (specifically n41/n71) could be enabled via firmware upgrade or it’s a hardware issue?

snowgum · January 2, 2021, 2:43am

I’m a developer, coding up the extraction of cell and signal data from the

AT+QENG=“servingcell”

command.

I have examples from NR5G-NSA connections, but not from NR5G-SA. I’m not sure, for example, how NR5G bands are displayed in the output. There are other parameters I need to clarify too, such as whether some numeric values are shown in decimal or hex.

Could I please have an example of command output from an NR5G-SA connection?

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 3:47am

Dear Sir,
you can still use at+qeng=“servingcell” to check your current serving cell, this command also support to check SA status.

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 3:52am

Dear Bill,
For sure,RM50XQ-AE support n41/n71 NSA bands.as below table shows.

BillA · January 3, 2021, 4:36am

Peter, I was wondering if on the RM500Q-GL production version could all the US 5G NSA bands (n2/n5/n41/n66/n71) be enabled via a firmware upgrade (or cross flashed with the -AE version), or it’s a hardware locked feature which will only work on the RM500Q-AE version?
Would the commands below allow you to enable all US 5G NSA bands (n2/n5/n41/n66/n71)?
AT+NETMODE=8 NSA
AT+NETMODE=9 SA

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 5:08am

Hello Bill,
Their hardware inside are different, so RM500Q-GL could not upgrade -AE firmware.
you can use below at command to fix SA mode

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 5:10am

By the way, may i have your company name and e-mail address so that we can discuss for further information. Thanks!

BillA · January 3, 2021, 5:28am

Thanks, but it looks like the mode_pref command only enables LTE&5GNR,however it doesn’t change the SA to NSA mode on all US 5G bands. Am I missing something?

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 5:51am

Hello Bill,
RM50XQ-AE can support SA and NSA all US 5G bands by default, don’t need extra at commands setting.Hopefully it is clear for you, thanks!

BillA · January 3, 2021, 5:55am

Peter, yes of course it’s possible on the -AE version, but I meant to ask if it’s possible to convert all the SA bands on -GL version into NSA bands using some AT-commands to make it compatible with US carriers? My guess it’s not, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
By the way, I’m seeing quite a few posts about “5G doesn’t work, only LTE”, and I think besides explaining that 5G/NSA will only engage during large downloads, it should also be pointed out that only certain versions of the RM50xQ-AE/-GL will work in certain regions. Otherwise people will be wasting a lot of time chasing after something that simply won’t work due to hardware/band/mode differences of the -AE/-GL versions.

Peter.Zhu-Q · January 3, 2021, 6:13am

Hello Bill, yes, you are right, -GL version could not cover all US NSA bands, this is also why we designed -AE version. regard the differences of each version, we have already below table to show for customers, and recommend most suitable module for them. Thanks for your suggestion,too.