BlueBoat 4g/5g modem port forwarding

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueBoat
1

Hello,

I have a 4g/5g modem I would like to use in addition to the wifi radio. I have an ethernet switch in the boat which it is connected to. I have set up port forwarding on the modem to allow UDP port 14550. Is there anything else I need to enable on the Rpi/navigator/blueOS to get this to work? I noticed in BlueOS there is a page labelled “Mavlink endpoints” - is there something I need to enable there?

I have heard about the zero-tier solution and unfortunately, my IT department won’t let me use it.

Thanks for the help.

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Hi @CA_BlueBoat -
Without ZeroTier, I’m afraid you’re going to really not be able to get connected remotely! This is because most cellular networks heavily block ports, which means the telemetry stream won’t be able to make it off the vehicle. You will need to use Mavlink Endpoints in order to point the vehicle to the address of your control computer - without port forwarding on your internet connection (typically a router setting) this is also not going to work. Because that is a huge hassle and vulnerable to firewalls, ZeroTier is the way to go!
I’m surprised your IT department has an issue with it - it is free, and has been well audited from a security standpoint.
You can also host your own key server, in case the issue is with using an external service to negotiate what becomes a point to point connection…

If not ZeroTier, tailscale or a similar VPN is going to be required - and much more of a hassle to get working comparatively!

3

Hi everyone,

I’m sharing this because it might help others, and it’s related to @CA_BlueBoat question.

The project I’m developing is a remote-controlled ROV that will be permanently submerged in water at an underwater control station where various experiments are carried out, requiring constant remote control and a fairly high live image quality.

I’ve done many configuration tests with 4G routers, following the projects I already knew about and others I found on this forum, including ZeroTier, for which I’m grateful.

But the truth is, none of them convinced me, as the image latency obtained wasn’t reasonable for the image quality I wanted to transmit with my IP camera.

Finally, I came up with an idea, creating a inverse VPN tunnel through WireGuard software.

I say inverse because I changed the order of the factors. Instead of the 4G router acting as a server, I turned the Windows PC into the server and the router into a client. This way, the 4G router “searches” for the PC, not the other way around. This way, I was able to create a point-to-point tunnel that offers quite good results with low bandwidth and at the same time solves the problems of not having a fixed IP address on the 4G router.

For testing, I bought an inexpensive 4G router from Cudy, but it’s very complete in terms of configuration, as it has several built-in options for configuring a VPN (Virtual Private Network). I forwarded the IP camera port on the 4G router and configured the Mavlink endpoints to the server IP. This is sufficient for Cockpit, but if you want to use Qgroundcontrol, you also need to open UDP port 14550.

I’m sending you a video below so you can see the image fluidity.

The camera is set to FHD (1920x1080) at 60fps, with a bitrate of 8000 kbps. It is connected directly to the 4G router, which is configured as a WireGuard Client. The PC acts as the WireGuard server and is connected via cable to a fiber optic network.

It’s worth noting that I purchased this 4G router solely for testing; it doesn’t have external antennas and its quality is average-low, so the router’s download and upload speeds were only 10 Mbps and 8 Mbps respectively during testing.

Based on these results and the bandwidth tests performed at its final location, I estimate that with the 5G router of the same brand for professional use, which I will ultimately use with directional external antennas, I will get about 200 MB download speeds and at least 100 MB upload speeds. Therefore, I believe I will achieve 4K streaming at 60fps with a much higher bitrate.

I’m really satisfied. Some tests are still pending, but the results are very encouraging. I’ll keep you posted and I will share more info when it is finished.

Best regards

2 Likes
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Very cool @Andres ! Thanks for sharing!

Your approach could work for mavlink telemetry as well, but is considerably more complicated than ZeroTier - it would be a VPN based solution like I mentioned. The latency for the telemetry has been satisfactory in my experience with BlueBoats and cellular connections, but no video is involved there.

I’d be shocked if you find an off the shelf modem that hits those kind of speeds in the real world! I’ve seen flagship cellphones manage them, but not a standalone modem product - please share if you get your target results! I’d assume a Starlink connection would be necessary for comparable bandwidth.

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Hi @tony-white , thanks for your comment!

Telemetry tests with ZeroTier were also satisfactory for me, but not for video.

With the system I mentioned above: WireGuard Client on a 4G router - WireGuard Server on a PC, I also get telemetry and ROV control with practically zero delay. I simply opened the camera port on the 4G router and pointed the Mavlink endpoint to the server’s IP (I don’t remember if I also opened port 6020 or 6021). I don’t have access to the configuration at the moment, but I’ll share it as soon as I can. Finally, I configured Cockpit correctly and everything flowed smoothly.

Creating the client and server wasn’t very complex; I’ll look for the tutorial guide and share it as well. But the router comes with a factory configuration that allows you to configure WireGuard Client very easily.

It’s true that I ran the speed tests on the 5G endpoint with a high-end cell phone. But as I mentioned, when I recorded the shared video, the router only had a bandwidth of 8 MB upload and 10 MB download. If I can get a 50MB upload with the 5G modem, I could already transmit the camera at around 30,000 kbps in 4K at 60 fps stably, which is the bandwidth the camera consumes in very good quality, so I’m excited.

I’ll share the results when the project is more advanced.

Best regards

2 Likes
6

I set up port forwarding on my modem to be able to SSH into the navigator’s RPI and load BlueOS.
For some reason Qgroundcontrol will not establish a connection. So I plan to try Cockpit out for running my autonomous tracks.

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Hi @CA_BlueBoat -
Port forwarding on your modem will help, but QGround Control didn’t connect because the port it uses is likely blocked by your cell phone provider. Some sort of VPN or ssh tunnel is required to get through the NAT layers of your ISP - this is why ZeroTier is so convenient!

Port 21 (SSH) 80 and 8080 (web traffic) are almost certainly blocked by the cell carrier as well - they don’t want people hosting websites on their cell phones! I don’t think you’ll be able to reach BlueOS or have Cockpit communicate without some sort of VPN solution - WireGuard as @Andres mentioned or ZeroTier, our standard, most straightforward approach. Have you loaded BlueOS via this port forwarding successfully?

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Hi Tony,

Yes, I am able to reach BlueOS and SSH. I’ll see if Cockpit will suit my needs for autonomous mission planning, but for now I think I can skip getting Qgroundcontrol working and keep moving forward with the project.

Cheers

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Hi @CA_BlueBoat -
Cockpit is still pretty rough around the edges when it comes to mission planning - beware of hidden home points and some other things. Best of luck!