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Realwear Headset on Celona

Hands-free real-time collaboration with Microsoft Teams

Team Celona avatar
Written by Team Celona
Updated over a week ago

This is one of those, "the future is here" moments, and it's pretty exciting.

This document will detail how you can connect field engineers to remote expertise with real-time, hands-free video and audio collaboration. The hero of this story is Realwear's award winning headworn device (also known as hands-free Android tablet), HMT-1. On Realwear's website, you can sign-up for a demo of it here and learn more about specific industry solutions it enables here.

The Realwear HMT-1 has Wi-Fi support but in harsh environments across indoors and outdoors, it makes sense to leverage the benefits of private LTE wireless (on private spectrum options such as CBRS): wider coverage, dedicated clean spectrum, seamless handover between wireless access points and more.

Once you add the unique Celona MicroSlicing technology to the mix, it is possible to promise a predictable throughput and latency service level to the HMT-1: making the future even brighter. Ready? Let's get started.

Connecting Realwear HMT-1 to the Celona network

The HMT-1 comes with Android 10 support and offers support a limited range of USB modems/adapters today.

We have managed to get Inseego M2000 connected to the HMT-1 via USB-C. These palm sized devices can be connected to HMT-1 one via USB-C to USB-C cable that's few feet long, and "worn" using an armband or within the pocket of a worker's jacket.

After it is connected to the HMT-1 as a networking interface, the Inseego 8000 / M2000 gateway enables the device to communicate on the enterprise IP network via Celona's network.

While one can also use the Wi-Fi hotspot capability on the Inseego gateway, we recommend the USB-C connection in this short distance between itself and the headset. This prevents the need to configure Wi-Fi settings on either device, reducing the number of configuration steps. It also eliminates the possibility of Wi-Fi interference from the nearby networks, reducing packet loss and latency.

Note that, since Inseego gateway comes with a 24-hour internal battery, it does not impact the battery life expectations for the HMT-1 headset.

Here is a sample network diagram for the end to end connectivity:

Connecting the Inseego gateway to Realwear HMT-1

Here are the basic workflow and steps that will make sure that Realwear will interoperate with the Inseego gateway via an USB-C connection. Realwear headset software version under test was 12.1.2-04-C.HMT-1.G and the Inseego M2000 gateway software version was 1R.

  1. When turned on for the first time, connect the Inseego gateway to your laptop and follow the instructions provided with the device to login to the web user interface for the Inseego gateway.

  2. Within this user interface, after logging in, select Settings > Preferences > Device Preferences. Under the option USB mode when connected to a computer, select USB Internet Sharing. And then, hit Save Changes.

  3. Turn off the Inseego gateway, remove its battery pack and install the Celona SIM card to the slot available underneath the battery slot.

  4. Keep the Inseego gateway turned off, and connect the gateway to the HMT-1 via a USB-C to USB-C cable. Turn the gateway on. After a few minutes, you will see the Inseego gateway boot-up, enable USB tethering with the Realwear HMT-1.

  5. Once connected to the Celona network using the Inseego gateway, home screen of the HMT-1 headset should show connection via LTE+.

At the end of a full day of use, turn off the Inseego gateway and place both the gateway and the Realwear HMT-1 on charge. For next use, repeat steps 4 and 5.

Installing apps on the Realwear HMT-1

In order to add new apps, login to the Realwear Foresight management portal.

  1. Identify the application ID in the Play Store. Example, Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.azure.authenticator&hl=en_US >> Application ID = com.azure.authenticator

  2. Download APK file of the application via https://apk.support/apk-downloader

  3. Add application to the device group/policy in Realwear Foresight.

  4. Confirm that the downloaded application is installed correctly.

  5. If on Wi-Fi, disconnect and set connectivity preference to LTE.

Configure Celona MicroSlicing for Microsoft Teams

We can now configure the Celona platform to provide predictable application performance for your HMT-1 users who are relying on Microsoft Teams for live communication. Microsoft Teams administrators can configure the port range used by the application for Audio, Video and Screen Sharing within the Teams Admin portal.

The screenshot below shows the default configuration.

As we are updating the configuration for the Celona network, we will prioritize all three communication options within a single MicroSlicing policy, in order to enable remote engineering support via the HMT-1.

First, you can start by assigning the Celona SIM cards installed on the Inseego gateway given to your HMT-1 users to an appropriate Device Group. Then, create the Microsoft Teams Application in the Celona Orchestrator.

  1. Go to Applications > Create Application.

  2. Enter port range 50000 - 50060 in Remote Port fields.

  3. Click Update to save.

Next, go to MicroSlicing > Create MicroSlicing:

  1. Name your MicroSlicing policy.

  2. Choose Non-GBR.

  3. Select Highest Priority Signaling for Quality of Service Class

  4. Select your Device Group that was previously created.

  5. Select your APP-MSTEAMS application, also previously created.

  6. Click Update to save.


We are looking forward to seeing many deployments of this perfect combination - Realwear HMT-1 and Celona private mobile network - across different industries. If you want to see the Celona MicroSlicing in action, protecting many critical apps such as Microsoft Teams on Realwear, join us in one of our live demo sessions.

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