Using XGS-PON fiber broadband in Singapore with a PRX126 ONU stick and 8311

Do you… dislike 10Gbase-T and/or bulky ONTs? Have a SFP+ slot lying around? Use XGS-PON fiber broadband? Then the WAS-110 XGS-PON ONU stick (and other similar ones based on the MaxLinear PRX126) may be for you.

Plug it in, tweak a few things here and there, and you can basically chuck your ONT in the back of your storeroom and let it grow cobwebs.

These days, it shouldn’t be hard to find one for less than $75 USD or so (which is, funnily enough, cheaper than what ViewQwest sells their locked-down ONU stick for) – not exactly risky gamble, all things considered.

So far, I’ve managed to get it working with MyRepublic and WhizComms (being that they’re the two broadband providers I use). Singtel should be just about as easy, and you might have luck with the other telcos with a bit of experimentation.

Before proceeding, I would recommend that you refrain from trying this if you don’t know your way around a Linux terminal, and don’t have some basic networking knowledge – it’s not strictly a problem, but you’d be flying blind if you break something (and you’ll have nobody to help you).

WhizComms (and probably Singtel as well)

WhizComms was pretty straightforward, no weird tricks.

For reference, I was provided with a Nokia XS-240X-A ONR.

• Flash the latest 8311 firmware on your PRX126 ONU stick, and set it up.
  The minimum you’d need to do is:

  • configure the ONU stick’s IP address on whatever you’ve plugged it into (e.g. your router)
  • either set up NAT to the subnet that the IP address belongs to, or set the gateway to your router’s IP address on the same subnet
  • flash the latest version on both firmware slots (since your ISP can switch slots arbitrarily - do this each time you upgrade the firmware)

  I personally prefer to have the management interface untagged, and have the Internet connection on a tagged VLAN. Up to you, though.

• Collect some information from your ISP-issued ONR.
  This includes:

  • the PON serial number
  • the equipment ID (which you may not be able to find)
  • the ONR hardware version
  • the ONR software version(s)
  • your PLOAM password (or, your ~9 digit “FTTH No.”, which you may find on your broadband installation form)

• Configure your ONU stick with the information you’ve collected.
  Under 8311 Configuration > PON, fill in:

  • PON Serial Number (e.g. ALCL01234567)
  • Equipment ID (if you have the Nokia XS-240X-A, you could try NOCLEICODEXS240XA)
  • Hardware Version (e.g. 3TN00265CBAA)
  • Sync Circuit Pack Version: yes
  • Software Version A, and B (e.g. 3TN00284JJLI18)
  • Firmware Version Match (write your own regex that matches the format of the software versions - for the XS-240X-A, possibly ^(3TN\d{5}[A-Z]{4}\d{2})$)
  • Registration ID, or your PLOAM password - convert this to hex first, e.g. 123456789 -> 313233343536373839
  • MIB File: /etc/mibs/prx300_1V.ini

  Under 8311 Configuration > ISP Fixes:

  • Fix VLANs: Enabled
  • Internet VLAN: whatever VLAN you want your Internet traffic to be tagged on

• Hook everything up.
  Plug your fiber cable in, configure a VLAN on your router (if you’ve configured your ONU stick to tag Internet traffic), etc

MyRepublic

MyRepublic was a bit weird:

• the GEM port CTP MEs pushed by the OLT are plainly incorrect – it falsely claims no encryption is performed on downstream unicast packets, and
• upstream packets have to be sent with VLAN priority 1, else they won’t be forwarded upstream (or something)

For reference, I was provided with a Nokia XS-250X-A ONT. You may be able to log in as a superuser with AdminGPON:ALC#FGU, which will allow you to dump your ONT configuration (including VoIP credentials)… but you’re on your own here.

• Flash the latest 8311 firmware on your PRX126 ONU stick, and set it up.
  The minimum you’d need to do is:

  • configure the ONU stick’s IP address on whatever you’ve plugged it into (e.g. your router)
  • either set up NAT to the subnet that the IP address belongs to, or set the gateway to your router’s IP address on the same subnet
  • flash the latest version on both firmware slots (since your ISP can switch slots arbitrarily - do this each time you upgrade the firmware)

  I personally prefer to have the management interface untagged, and have the Internet connection on a tagged VLAN. Up to you, though.

• Collect some information from your ISP-issued ONR.
  This includes:

  • the PON serial number
  • the equipment ID (which you may not be able to find)
  • the ONR hardware version
  • the ONR software version(s)
  • your PLOAM password/registration ID (I don’t know if you’d be able to find it elsewhere though, but it was a 10-character alphanumeric string for me)

• Configure your ONU stick with the information you’ve collected.
  Under 8311 Configuration > PON, fill in:

  • PON Serial Number (e.g. ALCL01234567)
  • Equipment ID (if you have the Nokia XS-250X-A, you could try NOCLEICODEXS250XA)
  • Hardware Version (e.g. 3FE48114AABC01)
  • Sync Circuit Pack Version: yes
  • Software Version A, and B (e.g. 3FE47059IJHK03, 3FE47059HJKI15)
  • Firmware Version Match (write your own regex that matches the format of the software versions - for the XS-250X-A, possibly ^(3FE\d{5}[A-Z]{4}\d{2})$)
  • Registration ID, or your PLOAM password - convert this to hex first, e.g. 1234567890 -> 31323334353637383930
  • MIB File: /etc/mibs/prx300_1U.ini
  • PON Slot: 10

  Under 8311 Configuration > ISP Fixes:

  • Fix VLANs: Enabled
  • Hook script:

    #!/bin/sh
    # run detect-config to generate /tmp/8311-config.sh
    # ...which provides INTERNET_PMAP, INTERNET_VLAN, UNICAST_VLAN, INTERNET_GEMS
    /usr/sbin/8311-detect-config.sh
    . /tmp/8311-config.sh
    
    OMCI_PIPE=$(PATH=/usr/bin /usr/bin/which omci_pipe.sh)
    
    # fix vlan priority
    tc filter del dev $INTERNET_PMAP egress handle 0x1 protocol 802.1Q pref 1 flower
    tc filter add dev $INTERNET_PMAP egress handle 0x1 protocol 802.1Q pref 1 flower vlan_id $INTERNET_VLAN skip_sw action vlan modify id $UNICAST_VLAN priority 1 protocol 802.1Q 
    
    # bodge to force enable encryption on internet GEMs
    for GEM in $INTERNET_GEMS; do
        gemid=$(echo $GEM | sed s/gem//)
        ip -o -d link list dev $GEM | grep -q "enc: 3" || $OMCI_PIPE meads 268 $gemid 10 3
    done
    

  • Internet VLAN: whatever VLAN you want your Internet traffic to be tagged on

• Hook everything up.
  Plug your fiber cable in, configure a VLAN on your router (if you’ve configured your ONU stick to tag Internet traffic), etc

Appendix

MikroTik SFP temperature thresholds

These ONU sticks naturally run on the warmer side, which can be a bit of a problem if you’re using a Mikrotik router/switch with fans – the fans will hit full speed if your optics go above 65degC (since you cannot set a target temperature above that).

There’s one exception, though: the S+RJ10 has an exception carved out for it, which allow them to run hotter without full-sending your fans. This means that you can have these higher thresholds apply to your ONU sticks if you rewrite the physical SFP EEPROM to have them show up as an S+RJ10:

• Vendor: MikroTik
• OUI: 00:02:00
• model: S+RJ10
• revision: 1.0

(Setting the values in the virtual EEPROM appears to have no effect.)

This can be done with i2cset on the stick itself, or with an EEPROM programmer (but you’re on your own here). If you need an SFP password, you can try 12345678 or 9142F007.