Internet sharing with Skynode

How to use Skynode's Internet connection on the AI Node

The following section describes how to set up AI Node and Skynode, such that AI Node uses Skynode as an internet router.

Before starting, make sure you have connected AI Node to Skynode.

Only ETH0 of AI Node can be readily used for internet sharing.

Both Skynode and AI Node come with ready-to-use infrastructure for sharing Skynode's internet connection. This is, however, disabled by default.

To configure the internet sharing, both devices have to be configured by modifying environment variables. For a single temporary test setup the environment variables can be added to /data/override.env. For a fleet-wide configuration use the Auterion Developer Tools to permanently modify AuterionOS. Refer to the following page for more details on both methods:

Modifying Environment Variables

Configuring Skynode

SSH into Skynode and set the environment variables in /data/override.env as shown below.

# Configure Ethernet IP address and subnet
AP_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET_IP=10.41.3.1
AP_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET_IP_PREFIX=24
# Must match `AINODE_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET0_IP` on AI Node
AINODE_ETH_IP=10.41.3.2

# Enable routing on Skynode
INTERNET_FORWARD=1

Power-cycle Skynode for the changes to take effect.

Configuring AI Node

SSH into AI Node and set the environment variables in /data/override.env as shown below.

# Configure Ethernet IP address and subnet
AINODE_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET0_IP=10.41.3.2
AINODE_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET0_IP_PREFIX=24

# Specify Skynode as the default gateway. This has to be the same value
# as specified by AP_CONFIGURE_ETHERNET_IP on Skynode.
DEFAULT_GATEWAY=10.41.3.1

Power cycle AI Node for changes to take effect.

Testing the internet connection

You can now try to access the internet from AI Node, assuming Skynode is already connected to internet:

$ ping auterion.com
PING auterion.com (******) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from *********: icmp_seq=1 ttl=113 time=6.43 ms
64 bytes from *********: icmp_seq=2 ttl=113 time=9.22 ms

Using different IP addresses than the example

Skynode and AI Node can address each other via static IPs when configured as described above. In theory, you can use any IP addresses for the configuration as long as the following is true:

  1. Network prefix is 16 or 24

  2. AI Node is connected to Skynode via ETH0

  3. IP range is not 10.41.1.0/24 or 10.41.2.0/24, as these are reserved for the respective USB debug interfaces of Skynode and AI Node.

AI Node only accepts AuterionOS updates from the limited number of subnets, which are:

  1. 10.41.2.0/24 (reserved for USB Debug)

  2. 10.41.3.0/24 (used in example above)

  3. 172.20.0.0/16 (default range of ETH0 on AI Node)

  4. 10.223.0.0/16

It is thus strongly recommended to configure the link between AI Node and Skynode based on the IP ranges (3) and (4) in the list above. Otherwise local AuterionOS updates from Skynode and / or AI Node will not be possible. AuterionOS updates executed via Auterion Suite are unaffected and work as long as there is a internet connection.

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