Wavelength Diagnostics

Wavelength Diagnostics

When to use

Any AWS Wavelength investigation where the console alone is insufficient — Wavelength Zone deployment, carrier gateway configuration, compute troubleshooting, networking issues, ultra-low latency optimization, or Region integration problems.

Investigation workflow

Step 1 — Collect and triage

aws ec2 describe-availability-zones --filters "Name=zone-type,Values=wavelength-zone" --all-availability-zones
aws ec2 describe-subnets --filters "Name=availability-zone,Values=<wavelength-zone>"
aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=availability-zone,Values=<wavelength-zone>"
aws ec2 describe-carrier-gateways
aws ec2 describe-addresses --filters "Name=domain,Values=vpc" --query 'Addresses[?CarrierIp!=null]'

Step 2 — Domain deep dive

aws ec2 describe-route-tables --filters "Name=association.subnet-id,Values=<wavelength-subnet-id>"
aws ec2 describe-security-groups --filters "Name=vpc-id,Values=<vpc-id>"
aws ec2 describe-network-interfaces --filters "Name=availability-zone,Values=<wavelength-zone>"
aws ecs list-clusters
aws eks list-clusters

Step 3 — Detailed investigation

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/EC2 --metric-name NetworkIn --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=<instance-id> --start-time <start> --end-time <end> --period 300 --statistics Average
aws cloudtrail lookup-events --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventSource,AttributeValue=ec2.amazonaws.com --max-results 20
aws ec2 describe-vpc-endpoints --filters "Name=vpc-id,Values=<vpc-id>"

Read references/guardrails.md before concluding on any Wavelength issue.

Tool quick reference

Gotchas: Wavelength

• Wavelength Zones must be explicitly opted-in per account. They are not enabled by default.
• Carrier gateway is required for carrier network (mobile) traffic. It is NOT the same as an internet gateway or NAT gateway.
• Carrier IPs are allocated from the carrier's IP pool, not AWS. They are routable on the carrier's 5G network.
• Not all instance types are available in Wavelength Zones. Typically t3, r5, g4dn families.
• EBS volumes in Wavelength Zones are stored locally. Snapshots go to the parent Region.
• No NAT gateway or internet gateway support in Wavelength Zones. Use carrier gateway for mobile traffic or route through the Region for internet.
• S3 access from Wavelength requires routing through the Region VPC or using S3 gateway endpoints.
• Wavelength subnets are in the same VPC as Region subnets but in a different AZ type.
• DNS resolution uses the VPC resolver in the parent Region.
• Auto Scaling groups can span Wavelength Zones but require Wavelength-specific launch templates.

Anti-hallucination rules

1. Always verify the Wavelength Zone is opted-in before diagnosing deployment issues.
2. Never suggest using internet gateways or NAT gateways in Wavelength Zones — they are not supported.
3. Carrier IPs are different from Elastic IPs — do not confuse them.
4. Not all services are available in Wavelength Zones — verify service availability before recommending.
5. Latency measurements must account for the carrier network path, not just AWS infrastructure.
6. Spend no more than 2 minutes on any single hypothesis. Pivot if inconclusive.

16 runbooks