diff --git a/include/osmocom/gprs/gprs_ns.h b/include/osmocom/gprs/gprs_ns.h
index e77ca42..d5a605d 100644
--- a/include/osmocom/gprs/gprs_ns.h
+++ b/include/osmocom/gprs/gprs_ns.h
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@
 	"Alive Timer (Tns-alive) timeout\n"			\
 	"Alive Timer (Tns-alive) number of retries\n"
 
+#define NS_ALLOC_SIZE	2048
+#define NS_ALLOC_HEADROOM 20
+
 enum ns_timeout {
 	NS_TOUT_TNS_BLOCK,
 	NS_TOUT_TNS_BLOCK_RETRIES,
@@ -186,12 +189,7 @@
 /* Clear the link layer info (will never match a real link then) */
 void gprs_ns_ll_clear(struct gprs_nsvc *nsvc);
 
-#define NS_ALLOC_SIZE	2048
-#define NS_ALLOC_HEADROOM 20
-static inline struct msgb *gprs_ns_msgb_alloc(void)
-{
-	return msgb_alloc_headroom(NS_ALLOC_SIZE, NS_ALLOC_HEADROOM, "GPRS/NS");
-}
+struct msgb *gprs_ns_msgb_alloc(void);
 
 enum signal_ns {
 	S_NS_RESET,
diff --git a/src/gb/gprs_ns.c b/src/gb/gprs_ns.c
index 27968e3..827d09d 100644
--- a/src/gb/gprs_ns.c
+++ b/src/gb/gprs_ns.c
@@ -131,6 +131,17 @@
 			LOGP(DNS, LOGL_ERROR, "TX failed (%d) to peer %s\n",	\
 				rc, gprs_ns_ll_str(nsvc));
 
+struct msgb *gprs_ns_msgb_alloc(void)
+{
+	struct msgb *msg = msgb_alloc_headroom(NS_ALLOC_SIZE, NS_ALLOC_HEADROOM,
+		"GPRS/NS");
+	if (!msg) {
+		LOGP(DNS, LOGL_ERROR, "Failed to allocate NS message of size %d\n",
+			NS_ALLOC_SIZE);
+	}
+	return msg;
+}
+
 
 /*! \brief Lookup struct gprs_nsvc based on NSVCI
  *  \param[in] nsi NS instance in which to search
@@ -298,9 +309,17 @@
 	switch (nsvc->ll) {
 	case GPRS_NS_LL_UDP:
 		ret = nsip_sendmsg(nsvc, msg);
+		if (ret < 0)
+			LOGP(DNS, LOGL_INFO,
+				"failed to send NS message via UDP: %s\n",
+				strerror(-ret));
 		break;
 	case GPRS_NS_LL_FR_GRE:
 		ret = gprs_ns_frgre_sendmsg(nsvc, msg);
+		if (ret < 0)
+			LOGP(DNS, LOGL_INFO,
+				"failed to send NS message via FR/GRE: %s\n",
+				strerror(-ret));
 		break;
 	default:
 		LOGP(DNS, LOGL_ERROR, "unsupported NS linklayer %u\n", nsvc->ll);
diff --git a/src/gb/libosmogb.map b/src/gb/libosmogb.map
index a21a7ac..43ebbf8 100644
--- a/src/gb/libosmogb.map
+++ b/src/gb/libosmogb.map
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
 gprs_ns_ll_str;
 gprs_ns_ll_copy;
 gprs_ns_ll_clear;
+gprs_ns_msgb_alloc;
 
 gprs_nsvc_create;
 gprs_nsvc_delete;