ZTE MF281

abgn+ac (AC1200)
Speedbox MF281 4G cat6 LTE CPE router
3rd Party Firmware
dd-wrt	Status Unknown
OpenWrt	Supported
Tomato any flavor	Incompatible
Gargoyle	Status Unknown
Platform
Brand • Model • Rev	ZTE MF281
FCC ID	none specified
Type	travel router
CPU1 Y	Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
CPU1 Type	MIPS 74Kc
CPU1 Speed	750 MHz
Flash1 Chip	GigaDevice Model?
Flash1 Size	128 MiB 134,217,728 B <br />1,048,576 Kib <br />131,072 KiB <br />1,024 Mib <br />0.125 GiB <br /> (SPI NAND)
Flash2 Chip	GigaDevice GD25Q16
Flash2 Size	2 MiB2,097,152 B <br />16,384 Kib <br />2,048 KiB <br />16 Mib <br />0.00195 GiB <br /> (SPI NOR)
RAM1 Size	128 MiB 134,217,728 B <br />1,048,576 Kib <br />131,072 KiB <br />1,024 Mib <br />0.125 GiB <br /> (DDR2)
RAM1 Chip	Brand? Model?
ETH chip1	Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
ETH chip2	Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337
Ethernet Port Count	1-1GbE-LAN
Wired Standard	IEEE 802.3i/3u/3ab
802dot11 OUI: none specified
Stock bootloader	U-Boot
Expansion IF types	none specified
Power	? VDC, ? A ?v BAT , 4100 mAh, ? cells
Connector type	USB (Type-C)
Serial Port (UART)	yes, 3.3V TTL, (115200 8N1)
Flags: LTE
Other
3rd Party Firmware Support	OpenWrt • (List | Dev | DLs)
Radio 1
Chip1	Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563
Wireless interface OUI	none specified
Antenna Connector Type	none specified
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11b/g/n
802.11n	up to 300 Mbps
802.11g	up to 54 Mbps
802.11b	up to 11 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	2.4 GHz
Radio 2
Chip1	Qualcomm Atheros QCA9886
Wireless interface OUI	none specified
Antenna Connector Type	none specified
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11a/n/ac
802.11ac	up to 867 Mbps
802.11n	up to 300 Mbps
802.11a	up to 54 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	5 GHz

For a list of all currently documented Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) chipsets with specifications, see Qualcomm Atheros.

For a list of all currently documented ZTE devices with specifications, see ZTE.

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.),

• 867 Mbps - 2SS 5GHz 802.11ac (80MHz chan.) = AC1200 class

Flashing

Flashing OpenWrt

On the OpenWrt ToH (techdata entry)

Target: ath79
Subtarget: nand
Package architecture: mips_24kc
Supported Since Commit
Support started version: 22.03.1
Current supported version: 25.12.0

WLAN Hardware: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563, Qualcomm Atheros QCA9886
WLAN Comment: 2.4GHz 2T2R and 5GHz 2T2R
Installation method(s):
see git-commit
Recovery method(s):
see git-commit

git • >>

ath79: add support for ZTE MF281 Add support for the ZTE MF281 battery-powered WiFi router. Hardware -------- SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9563 RAM: 128M DDR2 FLASH: 2M SPI-NOR (GigaDevice GD25Q16) 128M SPI-NAND (GigaDevice) WLAN: QCA9563 2T2R 802.11 abgn QCA9886 2T2R 802.11 nac WWAN: ASRMicro ASR1826 ETH: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337 UART: 115200 8n1 Unpopulated connector next to SIM slot (SIM) GND - RX - TX - 3V3 Don't connect 3V3 BUTTON: Reset - WPS LED: 1x debug-LED (internal) LEDs on front of the device are controlled using the modem CPU and can not be controlled by OpenWrt Installation ------------ 1. Connect to the serial console. Power up the device and interrupt autoboot when prompted 2. Connect a TFTP server reachable at 192.168.1.66 to the ethernet port. Serve the OpenWrt initramfs image as "speedbox-2.bin" 3. Boot the initramfs image using U-Boot $ setenv serverip 192.168.1.66 $ setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.154 $ tftpboot 0x84000000 speedbox-2.bin $ bootm 4. Copy the OpenWrt factory image to the device using scp and write to the NAND flash $ mtd write /path/to/openwrt/factory.bin firmware WWAN ---- The WWAN card can be used with OpenWrt. Example configuration for connection with a unauthenticated dual-stack APN: network.lte=interface network.lte.proto='ncm' network.lte.device='/dev/ttyACM0' network.lte.pdptype='IPV4V6' network.lte.apn='internet.telekom' network.lte.ipv6='auto' network.lte.delay='10' The WWAN card is running a modified version of OpenWrt and handles power-management as well as the LED controller (AW9523). A root shell can be acquired by installing adb using opkg and executing "adb shell".