Novatel 551L 4B USB modem and the like?

[buhrow%lothlorien.nfbcal.org@localhost (Brian Buhrow)]

        hello.  I just received a Novatel 551L 4G USB modem.  While I didn't
see it in the usbdevs file for the kernel, my NetBSD-5.0/I386 box saw it as
a cdce(4) device:

cdce0 at uhub0 port 1 configuration 1 interface 6
cdce0: Novatel Wireless, Inc. Novatel Wireless 4G, rev 2.00/0.15, addr 2
cdce0: could not find data bulk in
cdce0: at uhub0 port 1 (addr 2) disconnected
cdce0: detached
        By Adding it to the usbdevs file and u3g.c file, I was able to get it
to attach to a NetBSD-5.1/I386 laptop as:

u3g0 at uhub3 port 4
ucom0 at u3g0 portno 0: Generic 3G Serial Device
ucom1 at u3g0 portno 1: Generic 3G Serial Device
ucom2 at u3g0 portno 2: Generic 3G Serial Device
ucom3 at u3g0 portno 3: Generic 3G Serial Device

        While I can talk to the modem, it appears as though this device
initializes as a modem, but once it's up and running with some AT commands,
it wants to become an ethernet device.  This is how the linux driver deals
with it, apparently.
I haven't looked at the Linu driver yet to see what magic commands one sends
to get it to make this transformation, I'm still trying to wrap my head
around the notion, but in the mean time, I'm wondering if anyone here has
come across such devices, The Novatel VL600 also appears to behave this
way, and if anyone has had thoughts about how to get working drivers for
NetBSD.
I'm dealnwith USB Product 0xB001, and vendor 0x1410.
        There  is apparently a need to be able to talk to it as both a modem
and as a n ethernet device, depending on whether yu want to initialize it,
activate it, or use it as a  network gateway.
        If anyone has come across these devices and has had thoughts on how to
make them work within the NetBSD USB framework, I'm very interested.
tomorrow, I may look at the Linux driver to see how it deals with this split
personality device.

-thanks
-Brian