Leap Year impact on GPS sync using uGPS, cnPulse and ePMP1000/2000/3000 Access Points

Products PMP
1

I am re-publishing a Field Service Bulletin from 2020 to highlight the potential for GPS synchronization loss when using Cambium uGPS, cnPulse or ePMP 1000/2000/3000 APs using integrated GPS. While many of you may have upgraded your sync hardware since 2020, if you are using any of these devices that are running firmware version AXN5.1.1 or lower, you may lose synchronization on leap year 2024 (January 1, 2024). Please reference the Field Service Bulletin below for details.

2

Is there any way to avoid this if running the most current firmware, or are we in damage control mode like in 2020? My co-worker had a ticket #196827 and I believe we never heard back. Previously our PMP450m and PMP450i radios were affected unless they were utilizing a CMM5 on 1.14

3

I see the ticket you are referring to. Looks like you experienced network wide sync loss in the afternoon of December 31, 2019. There was a lot of dialogue between your team and the Cambium support team which ultimately culminated in power resets of the uGPS units in your network and the support team providing the Field Service Bulletin that I reference in my forum post.

Unfortunately, running the most current firmware on the AP will not fix this issue. If the problem is experienced again, a power reset of the AP (if internal sync used) or a power cycle of the uGPS or cnPulse will be required if using an external GPS sync. Proactively power cycling the unit will not fix the problem. Only if you lose GPS sync should the APs or GPS units be power cycled. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you again this leap year.

4

Thank you for following up Chuck. So did the investigation listed in other threads yield zero results? I anticipated some sort of update over the 3+ year period. Will there be further investigation into a firmware fix, or are we just going to need to prepare if we still run 450’s by the following leap year in 2028? (Long time from now, just curious)

2nd question. Will Cambium be issuing a new FSB for this known issue, and potentially sending out a notice on the mailing lists? Realistically this will cause service disruption for nearly every 450m, 450i and any device running AXN_5.1.1 Seems fairly widespread unless I am missing something.