Configuring Mobility XE with the Panasonic Arbitrator

Technical Note 2200

Last Reviewed 15-Sept-2009
Applies to:
Mobility XE client version 6.7 and higher
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Summary

The Arbitrator camera from Panasonic communicates with a laptop via a small local area network. This communication will be blocked if the Mobility Client is installed on the laptop. This technical note describes how to configure Mobility to allow the local Arbitrator traffic to travel outside of the Mobility VPN tunnel, allowing the Arbitrator software on the laptop to communicate with the camera.

Explanation

Mobility forces all IP-based traffic to travel through its VPN tunnel to the Mobility server. To allow a piece of software residing on the client device to communicate locally via IP traffic, this traffic must be put into "passthrough mode", meaning it bypasses the Mobility VPN tunnel and goes out on the local network as if Mobility were not installed.

The Arbitrator software uses NetBIOS to communicate with the camera. The only reliable way to passthrough NetBIOS traffic is by using the Mobility Policy Management Module, with a rule to passthrough network traffic for the ethernet interface that communicates with the Arbitrator. In the Policy, a condition based on the IP address of the client's ethernet adapter is used to activate the rule.

Note: If the laptop connects via USB cable to the Arbitrator camera, you only need the Local Networking rule. If the laptop connects via ethernet cable to the Arbitrator camera, use both the Local Networking rule and the Hide Interface rule, in that order.

Applying the Policy

Prerequisites

• Your Mobility XE Servers and Clients must all be version 6.7 or higher. Previous versions did not have the functionality required to reliably passthrough NetBIOS traffic.
• You must have a valid Policy Management license to apply the fix for the Arbitrator. If you do not have a Policy license, please contact NetMotion Wireless Sales to obtain one.

For Ethernet-connected laptops (Local Networking rule and Hide Interface rule)

The "Set local networking on" action is used to passthrough all traffic on the local ethernet subnet, including the NetBIOS traffic used by the Arbitrator software.

Apply this rule
when the local address is address(es)
from 192.168.10.0/24
set local networking on
continue to the next rule

In the above rule, the 192.168.10.0/24 subnet was used because this is the default subnet for the Arbitrator camera. If any of your devices' other network adapters are sometimes on this subnet as well then you may need to use the adapter name as a trigger instead of the local address.

The "Hide the adapter from Mobility" action is used to passthrough all traffic on the ethernet adapter's subnet, including the NetBIOS traffic used by the Arbitrator software. Since this rule must run after the Local Networking rule, place it below the Local Networking rule in your ruleset.

Apply this rule
when the local address is address(es)
from 192.168.10.0/24
hide the interface from Mobility
continue to the next rule

In the above rule, the 192.168.10.0/24 subnet was used because this is the address of the ethernet connection to the Arbitrator camera. If any of your devices' other network adapters are sometimes on this subnet as well then you may need to use the adapter name as a trigger instead of the local address.

Related Information

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