IBR1700

The IBR1700 is one of Ericsson/CradlePoint's legacy devices.  It is an LTE only device.  It comes with one embedded LTE (cat 18) modem.  There is an additional slot for an 2nd Modem if desired.  The slot is designed for an MC400 modem.  Available modems include an LTE 1200 Mbps or a 5G modem.  The 1700 can also be a 5G device by the addition of a captive modem, where the 1700 acts as a controller. 

The IBR1700 is a popular device for public safety.  Based on its relatively small size (for its ability to have 2 modems), the 1700 is ideal for video surveillance.

The 1700 has ignition sensing. When the engine is turned on, the router will be powered up. The router is configurable to stay powered for a configured amount of time after the engine is turned off. This allows for the 1700 to be operational immediately, if within the configured time, without boot-up and connection delays.  Basically, all of the mobile routers have ignition sensing.

As previously stated, the Cat 18 modem is LTE only and uses several techniques to achieve speed.

• First, it uses carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation allows transmission to be split across up to 3 bands, simultaneously.
• Second, it uses 256 QAM. 256 QAM allow for more data bits (8) to be packed into a signal, resulting in denser transmission. Search YouTube for videos which explain QAM & Basic Modulation used in 5G, 4G, 3G, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac.
• Third, it uses 4x4 MIMO. MIMO stands for multiple in, multiple out. 4x4 MIMO allows up to 4 transmissions to occur at the same time.

Even though the speed of LTE approaches the speed of 5G transmission, the latency associated with LTE is greater causing LTE to be fast, but not quite as fast as 5G.

Each of the modems in the IBR1700 has the capability for 2 SIMs. Dual SIMs do not allow you to connect simultaneously. It is not the same as 2 modems. Here is what dual SIMs allow you to do. You can have SIMs of different carriers or the same carrier. In both cases, if the primary connection fails, the unit can be configured to failover to the secondary SIM. You can also use Dual SIMs to prevent data overage charges. This requires 2 SIMs with different data plans associated with each SIM, preferably for the same carrier. The primary interface can be configured to monitor data usage. Once the configured maximum data usage is reached, the primary interface will be deactivated and the configured secondary interface will take over. Failover to a different carrier is not immediate. It can take in the range of 7 minutes or more. In order to failover to a different carrier, the unit must load modem firmware for the second carrier into the modem, and then re-establish a network connection.

The IBR1700 does have the ability to run Docker Container software and does have the ability to function as a controller for a captive modem.