Airport Extreme - creating a wired local network from a cellular hotspot without ethernet ports?

Question

Forgive the book I've written below, please. I generally think too much info is better than not enough... I'm looking for assistance and/or suggestions since I have been unable to locate solutions on my own so far. Searching this forum has found a great number of "sort-of" related things, but all of them so far appear to involve apple-only hardware or upstream network devices which have ethernet ports. Nothing that seems to match my situation enough to extrapolate out. Maybe I'm just using the wrong keywords. Anyway....
I've recently moved to a particularly rural area with no wired internet access to speak of (well, I suppose there is dial-up, but... yeah). I've tried several different wireless varieties including satellite, the AT&T Elevate 4G hotspot and a service that used an EVDO-cellular solution(a sprint-based reseller).  The former had serious latency issues which I had predicted and so was right-out. The last had signal coverage problems which their maps did not accurately reveal. Their potential mitigation was to have me invest even more money into a super-mega antenna to be roof-mounted. And even that was an uncertain fix. The AT&T solution with the 4G hotspot has been AMAZING so far and I love it. Coverage is great, latency and bandwidth fantastic.
I love it but for one exception, that is. Connectivity options.
There is a particularly limited number of WiFi connections available and only a USB network adapter for a single computer. None of my wired-only network devices can connect directly and I have significantly more WiFi connected devices in general use than the device supports.
I have an Airport Extreme that I was using as my primary connection point through a FiOS router at my previous home(and both the satellite and EVDO modems at the new place). Never had any problems with it when feeding its WAN port with one of the various routers' LAN ports. However, as has been evident by reading all sorts of posts here and elsewhere, having it connect via WiFi to the Elevate means that the ethernet ports are disabled. Not terribly useful.
The Elevate has no ethernet ports. Only WiFi and USB network connectivity.
The Elevate does not appear to have settings available to create a WDS network-- so it cannot be "Extended" via those methods, either, as far as I am able to tell.
So these are some thoughts I've had. Before I invest the time and money into them(both of which are in extremely short supply lately), I'd like to know if anyone else has already solved the issue or can tell me definitively whether these ideas, or some I haven't thought of, will or won't work. Any helpful feedback or thoughts would be sincerely appreciated.
Options I've considered, but are uncertain:
-A Wifi/Ethernet or even ethernet-only router which has a USB WAN uplink(I've had a few bites on searching, but nobody seems 100% clear on the capability for the models I've located). I could plug the Elevate into that USB port and then from there I'm golden. If this is the best option, then can someone recommend a brand/model that they know will work in this way?
-WiFi Access Point (Airport Express, maybe?) that will connect to the elevate via WiFi, and then use its single Ethernet port to serve as the APExtreme's WAN uplink. (I don't know if this will work at all, actually...)
-Connect to the computer via USB, run some kind of network bridging software (which I don't know what the heck that would be) to bridge between the USB Network and the Ethernet port, then run a hard wire from there to the APExtreme's standard ethernet WAN uplink. This is going to be a "last resort" option since it involves software I'm unfamiliar with, even unsure of availability for Mac, and requires the computer to be running and configured properly at all times. Given the way my kids abuse a computer, I can't be certain of anything involving this option.
-Some secret method of turning on WDS capabilities in the Elevate which would then allow my existing base station to become a second node in the chain. I really wish someone could tell me this is possible if only I'd push the right buttons. I see this is as the absolute best option, if it can be done. Cheapest, anyway.
Current set-up:
AT&T Elevate 4G hotspot
WiFi connected devices(rotating since Wifi connection count is limited): Mac PC, 2 iPads, 3 iPhones, Apple TV, a Nokia mini-tablet, a Kindle fire, Wii, XBox 360, an old dell laptop issued by my office.
Apple Aiport Extreme base station
Wired connections: blueray player, television, satellite TV pay-per-view uplinky device thing.
Please, tell me your thoughts?

Answer 1

Had the same issue here.  Here is the best solution I have found so far:
Hotspot + Pepwave Max On-The-Go (w/ Load Balancing) + Airport Extreme
I have a VZW MiFi, but I believe this set-up will work with other hotspot devices.  I actually have 2 MiFi Hotspots with a monthly allowance of 20G each.  They are plugged directly into the Pepwave router (aka, tethered).  (Note:  you have to have the right cable to do this.  The one that came with my Hotspot was only for charging.)  If, for some reason, you cannot tether with your Hotspot device, you want a router that offers WiFi as WAN.  The Pepwave will do this.  The Pepwave is connected to my Airport Extreme via ethernet cable.  I have the WiFi on the MiFis and the Pepwave turned off.  So the only visible network is my Airport Extreme.  The Pepwave is essentially just functioning as a modem.
I used to have a Cradlepoint, but I did not find it very user friendly--too complex for home use.  The Pepwave Max OTG is awesome.  I got the one with Load Balancing so it allows you to connect up to 4 cellular devices.  If you only need the one Hotspot, you can just get the cheaper Pepwave Max OTG.  The Pepwave allows me to run off one of the MiFis until I hit my 20G/month allowance, then it automatically switches to the other one.  That way I never max-out on my monthly data allowance.  Additionally, it gives you a real-time, hourly, daily and monthly running tally on data usage.
The guys at the 3Gstore are excellent and can help you figure out the best solution for your situation.