LTE seems to have issues with minor terrain changes

[kckid]

It seems that LTE is very susecptible to minor terrain changes. While I was mapping a new LTE area, I noticed that when the road had a minor dip, LTE would drop. Now that I've been using sensorly, I watch the map and see gaps in LTE coverage. Sure enough, when that happens, the road has a dip in it.

[S4GRU]

It seems that LTE is very susecptible to minor terrain changes. While I was mapping a new LTE area, I noticed that when the road had a minor dip, LTE would drop. Now that I've been using sensorly, I watch the map and see gaps in LTE coverage. Sure enough, when that happens, the road has a dip in it.

 

In my observations, the EVO LTE was most susceptible to "dips" in the terrain. However, any time you drop into an area, if ever terra firma gets between you and the tower, you will likely lose connection. If you have weaker than a -108dBm signal, any terrain drops will likely result in loss of LTE service, especially with the EVO LTE. Like I mentioned in another forum, the EVO LTE signal bounces around a lot, and when the signal is weak, it will likely bounce right across the LTE connection threshold when driving in lower terrain.

 

I also lose VZW LTE in hollows, especially in weak signal areas. Because 700MHz doesn't penetrate the earth either.

 

Robert

[lynyrd65]

LTE appears to be very tempermental at 1900. It doesn't take much to obscure it a bit. The propogation should be something in between how 2.5ghz WiMax and 1900 EVDO behave. 800 LTE should behave much better (probably significantly better than 1900 EVDO) usability.

 

My predictions

 

Signal usability from a sprectrum perpective

 

800>>>1900>>>2500

 

Signal usability from a Technology perspective

 

1xAdvanced>EV-DO>>>LTE>WiMax

 

So you get from an overall signal usability of

 

800 1xAdv > 900 EVDO > 800 LTE > 1900 1xAdv > 1900 EVDO >> 1900 LTE >>> 2500 WiMax

 

This is one of the reasons I think (although no one else agrees) that Sprint should deploy EVDO on their 900mhz band for more high speed coverage.

 

Edit: The 900 mhz band has been completely convoluted in a way that prevents its use from anything other than iden.

 

To bring some greater clarity to the SMR 900 MHz discussion, I have cooked up another of my famous graphs.

 

 

Note the interleaved nature of the SMR blocks; B/ILT blocks occupy the channels in between. At the very least, this is why Sprint cannot currently utilize its SMR 900 MHz holdings for CDMA1X or LTE.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

I don't think LTE 1900 signal is tempermental at all, except when you have a weak signal. I was getting 30Mbps+ indoors at my hotel in Wichita Falls. Never felt tempermental except at the edge of service, and some devices were worse than others.

 

LTE signal dropped the same number of dBm going indoors and around obstacles as 1x and EVDO did in all my observations. The difference is that LTE maxes out at -95 RSSI. But so does VZW LTE. The difference is that VZW's -95 will be farther from the site. But it needs to because their site spacing is not as dense as Sprint LTE at 1900.

 

In all my tests, Sprint LTE outperformed VZW LTE and Tmo HSPA+ in Wichita Falls, except around the few sites where Sprint has not deployed yet on the south side of the city around the mall. And that includes in buildings and at the bottom of hills.

 

The big difference though was the EVO. If you were in an area consistently worse than -108 RSRP, you were not going to be able to keep a connection for long. The other LTE devices could tolerate a bad signal at the edge of service for a few moments. Like driving at a low spot in the road at driving speeds, or driving behind a big building that blocks a distant LTE signal. The other devices would cling to a weak LTE signal for a few seconds and then recover without loss of connection. But the EVO would almost always drop in these momentary points.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[S4GRU]

Another point I want to make is I lose Verizon LTE signals all the time at the edge of service exactly the same way, around large obstacles that block the signal and in dips in the road. And I lose Tmo HSPA+ even worse in same said spots than even Sprint LTE. VZW LTE requires a cycle to reconnect often, and requires a reboot on my hotspot. Now that's a pain.

 

I lose HSPA and HSPA+ so readily on Tmo. But at least it comes back very quickly and easily on its own after the momentary signal loss. Sprint LTE devices would feel much better in those momentary signal losses if they rebounded back to LTE on their own quickly. This really is the problem.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk