Golioth Investigates: A Cellular Connectivity Mystery

Golioth recently encountered a perplexing cellular connectivity issue: some devices using a specific vendor's chipset experienced connection failures after OTA firmware updates. Investigation revealed the problem stemmed from some NB-IoT networks not adhering to 3GPP specifications, causing the modem to fail to obtain DNS server addresses correctly. The Golioth team, by deeply analyzing 3GPP specifications, modem trace data, and network protocols, ultimately found a workaround, but also exposed the drawbacks of closed ecosystems and lack of transparency, calling for greater industry transparency to improve cellular connectivity reliability.