Falcon-RX/812/G Switch Setup Guide

Connecting the Switch to the Server

The switch has the following ports/interfaces:

• USB RS232 Console Port (Red USB Port)
  Connect to a USB port on the server.

• MGMT Ethernet Port
  Connect to a 1G Ethernet port on the server.

• 1/10G Switching Ports
  Connect to the 10G Ethernet port on the server.

• GNSS ANT (5V)
  Connect the GNSS antenna.

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1. USB Connection (Console Access)

This is used for low level console access.

It works even when:

• No IP is configured
• The network is broken
• The management interface is unreachable

You use it for:

• Initial setup
• Recovery
• Factory configuration
• Assigning the management IP
• Debugging

Connect via USB Console

Turn on the switch and connect it to the server using a USB cable
(red USB port on the switch).

Check USB Serial Device

ls /dev/tty*

Install and Open Minicom

sudo apt install minicom
sudo minicom -b 115200 -D /dev/ttyUSB0

Configure Minicom

Press:

CTRL A -> leave both -> O

This opens the configuration menu.

Go to:

Serial port setup

Verify the following values:

Serial Device: /dev/ttyUSB0
Bps/Par/Bits: 115200 8N1
Hardware Flow Control: Off
Software Flow Control: Off

Save setup as default (dfl).

Login to the Switch

Username: moose
Password: 1234

Configure Management IP

Falcon# configure terminal interface vlan 1 ip address 192.168.1.90 255.255.255.0 exit

Power cycle the switch

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2. MGMT Ethernet Port

The MGMT Ethernet port is used for:

• Web GUI access
• SSH
• Switch administration
• PTP configuration
• VLAN configuration
• Monitoring

Earlier, the following configuration assigned an IP address to the switch management interface:

interface vlan 1
ip address 192.168.1.90

Connect to the Management Interface

Connect an Ethernet cable from the MGMT port on the switch to your server.

Assign the connected Ethernet interface on the server the following manual IP:

IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Netmask:   255.255.255.0

Verify Connectivity

ping 192.168.1.90

Access the Web GUI

Open:

http://192.168.1.90

Login credentials:

Username: moose
Password: 1234

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3. 1/10G Switching Ports

The next phase is to configure the actual dataplane ports via the Web GUI.

These ports carry:

• Open Fronthaul
• eCPRI
• PTP
• Ethernet switching traffic
• VLAN traffic

This is the telecom dataplane.

Example Setup

Server ens7f1  -> Switch 10G Port
RU FH   -> Switch another 10G Port

These ports carry the actual Split 7.2 traffic between the DU and RU.

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4. Falcon PTP Configuration

Next, follow the official srsRAN Falcon switch instructions:

SyncCenter:

• GNSS and not GPS:
• Check the checkbox and click Apply

PTP Clocks:

• There are two instaces shown. You can add all the ports to one instance and it's okay

VLAN:

• Port 21 is the Mgmt port. Keep it as shown in the image. If you change it, you will lose access to the Web GUI

https://docs.srsran.com/projects/project/en/latest/tutorials/source/oranRU/source/switches/falcon.html#falcon-rx-switch

Verify DU Receives PTP from the Falcon

Install Linux PTP tools:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linuxptp -y

Verify ptp4l Installation

which ptp4l

You should get:

/usr/sbin/ptp4l

Verify Incoming PTP Traffic

Before running ptp4l, verify whether any PTP traffic exists on ens7f1.

sudo tcpdump -i ens7f1 -e

If you see traffic, your Falcon switch is successfully acting as a PTP Grandmaster and ens7f1 is receiving telecom timing packets correctly.

Example output:

tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v[v]... for full protocol decode
listening on ens7f1, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), snapshot length 262144 bytes

14:53:55.148540 00:05:80:08:78:c5 (oui Unknown) > 01:1b:19:00:00:00 (oui Unknown), ethertype PTP (0x88f7), length 60:
PTPv2, v1 compat : no, msg type : sync msg, length : 44, domain : 24,
reserved1 : 0, Flags [none], NS correction : 0,
sub NS correction : 18649088, reserved2 : 0,
clock identity : 0x580fffe0878c5, port id : 1,
seq id : 37886, control : 0 (sync msg),
log message interval : 252,
originTimeStamp : 1778939672 seconds, 146914416 nanoseconds

Important Details from Captured Data

You will need the PTP domain value for the next configuration step.

Example:

PTPv2
domain 24

Create ptp4l Configuration

nano ~/ptp4l.conf

Add the following:

[global]
domainNumber 24
slaveOnly 1
time_stamping hardware
network_transport L2
delay_mechanism E2E
logging_level 6

Run ptp4l

sudo ptp4l -f ~/ptp4l.conf -i ens7f1 -m

Example output:

systron@systronlab-hp-z8-1:~$ sudo ptp4l -f ~/ptp4l.conf -i ens7f1 -m

ptp4l[11262.382]: selected /dev/ptp3 as PTP clock
ptp4l[11262.412]: port 1: INITIALIZING to LISTENING on INIT_COMPLETE
ptp4l[11262.412]: port 0: INITIALIZING to LISTENING on INIT_COMPLETE
ptp4l[11262.517]: port 1: new foreign master 000580.fffe.0878c5-1
ptp4l[11262.647]: selected best master clock 000580.fffe.0878c5
ptp4l[11262.647]: updating UTC offset to 37
ptp4l[11262.647]: port 1: LISTENING to UNCALIBRATED on RS_SLAVE
ptp4l[11264.504]: port 1: minimum delay request interval 2^-4
ptp4l[11264.716]: port 1: UNCALIBRATED to SLAVE on MASTER_CLOCK_SELECTED
ptp4l[11264.968]: rms 22436429037 max 33920692332 freq -129 +/- 100 delay 2166 +/- 1
ptp4l[11265.473]: rms 8 max 13 freq -191 +/- 6 delay 2166 +/- 1
ptp4l[11265.978]: rms 8 max 12 freq -181 +/- 7 delay 2165 +/- 0
ptp4l[11266.483]: rms 4 max 9 freq -189 +/- 7 delay 2164 +/- 1
ptp4l[11266.988]: rms 4 max 8 freq -190 +/- 6 delay 2163 +/- 0
ptp4l[11267.493]: rms 4 max 8 freq -192 +/- 7 delay 2164 +/- 0

Important Verification

This is the key line:

UNCALIBRATED to SLAVE on MASTER_CLOCK_SELECTED

That means ens7f1 hardware clock is synchronized to the Falcon Grandmaster

Now we move into the RU Integration (Open Fronthaul)