Praxis Modem Management System: remote mass configuration of GPRS modems

The Praxis Modem Management System consists of the Praxis Client and Praxis Server, Praxis Database and Praxis modem firmware. The general purpose of Praxis MMS aims at providing a way to remotely mass-configure Bausch Datacom modems, group and select modems, modify operational parameters, modify modem serial ports configuration, obtain the current configuration and signal strength statistics of the modems, update a remote firmware of the modems and monitor communication problems. The actual configuration is done by the Praxis client (Windows) which communicates with the Praxis Server and Database. 

The ideal solution to monitor and manage the Bausch Datacom GSM and GPRS modeminfrastructure in the field!
The Modem Management System firmware of the InduBox IX and DinBox GPRS SL modems is an OpenAT application supporting the grouping and mass deployment services offered by the Praxis Modem Management System. It is the ideal solution to monitor and manage the Bausch Datacom GSM and GPRS modeminfrastructure in the field. It provides a very usefull tool to monitor the status of your modem pool. The Praxis Modem Management System was an important reason to convince electricity companies such as Public Power Corporation (Greece) - 15.000 modems - and JP Elektroprivreda BiH d.d. Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - 1500 modems -  to select Bausch Datacom as supplier of GPRS modems.

The general purpose of Praxis MMS aims at providing a way to remotely mass-configure Bausch Datacom modems, group and select modems, modify  operational parameters, modify modem serial ports configuration, obtain current configuration and signal strength statistics of the modems, update a remote firmware of the modems and monitor communication problems.

Optimalisation of modem status, perfect monitoring and managing of the modem infrastructure!
For example every 15 minutes the InduBox modem will measure the reception level (rssi) of the signal sent by the closest GSM Base Transceiver Station (BTS) as well as the received bit error rate (ber). In fact, the InduBox modem will keep statistics of 'rssi' and 'ber', time of watchdog restart, number and time of switching between CSD and GPRS, settings of the RS-232, RS-485 and config ports (baudrate, parity, stopbits), GPRS settings (APN...), IMEI code etc...These statistics are stored internally in the modem and will be retrieved on a daily base by 'Praxis', the MMS Server software.
The administrator can group the modems based on RSSI, communication mode, operator etc. This allows the adminstrator to define groups of modems based on selected parameters.

The MMS Server Software will monitor directories for files to import (e.g. from the AMR/MDM system), it will monitor the Database for jobs to be done (entered by the Bausch Client Software), perform scheduled tasks (time-based) and it will get statistics kept by the InduBox modems. The server includes a DataBase to keep all necessary and unique information of each InduBox modem.

The MMS Client Software, running on a Windows PC, provides a GUI wich allows grouping/selecting of modems by telecom operator, operational mode (GSM, GPRS), software version, filtering (based on data in the modem database)...Secondly it provides for scheduled and grouped updating of modem firmware - FOTA over FTP -, switching between different AMR metering scenario's (Socket Server Mode, Socket Client Mode, Socket Dual mode, CSD mode, GPRS mode) and setting of a different baudrate (between modem and meter) or entering another modem configuration (APN name,...).  The GSM / GPRS modems InduBox IX and DinBox GPRS SL have an integrated Sierra Wireless SL6087 module which is equipped with the Praxis Modem Management Firmware, this means they can be configurated and monitored by the system.

The GSM / GPRS modems InduBox IX and DinBox GPRS SL have an integrated Sierra Wireless SL6087 module which is equipped with the Praxis Modem Management Firmware, this means they can be configurated and monitored by the system.