WiWavelength

Smartphones will have to start including that little red "camera is rolling" light that you see on the front of video cameras. AJ

Geez, 10.1 MB. I wonder how much network congestion is caused by users running so many speed tests. Call it the wireless network version of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- the more speed tests everyone runs to gauge per user data rates, the less accurate the results become because the overlapping speed tests slow down per user data rates. AJ

Years ago on another forum, I heard a story of customer in a Cingular store who asked something to the effect of "Hey, when are you guys gonna put up more satellites?" You might be surprised at how many people really have little, if any idea how their wireless service actually works. Some people are just stupid. But others are reasonably smart people who simply do not care how it works and just take their wireless service for granted. AJ

If we define market share by sales, then the stats should be a reasonably accurate depiction. But they certainly do not reflect actual subscriber-device share on AT&T and T-Mobile, since both carriers use SIM cards and cannot prevent subs from swapping devices. For example, it is well known that roughly one million out of contract iPhones are on T-Mobile accounts (i.e. ~3 percent share), yet the T-Mobile stats show zilch for Apple. AJ

by Andrew J. Shepherd Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Friday, August 17, 2012 - 1:14 PM MDT CDMA1X and EV-DO carrier channels are shared resources. In CDMA1X, many subscribers share the same carrier channel, their individual traffic kept theoretically orthogonal by code division. Likewise, in EV-DO, individual traffic is separated by time division. But what happens when Sprint (or any other CDMA2000 network provider) has deployed greater than one CDMA1X and/or EV-DO carrier channel on a given cell site? How does your handset determine which carrier channel to utilize? You might like to think that your handset would automatically choose the least loaded CDMA1X and/or EV-DO carrier channel. But that is not really the case. Instead, when multiple carrier channels are available, each cell site broadcasts a channel list message of the available carrier channels on that site. Upon receiving this list of multiple carrier channels, each handset then invokes a hashing algorithm to select which carrier channel to use. Think of it like a multi lane highway, but each car must choose a particular lane based on the car's license plate number. For CDMA1X, the hashing algorithm -- which is a kind of pseudo random number generator -- is seeded with the handset's ESN or the subscriber's MDN/MSID (i.e. phone number). Unless the subscriber changes devices or phone numbers, these values remain static, hence the carrier channel hash is quite predictable. And Sprint, for reference, seems to use MDN/MSID based hashing. Nearly a decade ago, I built a spreadsheet that emulates the CDMA1X hashing algorithm, downloadable as an XLS file. However, for EV-DO, the carrier channel hash is not quite so outwardly predictable. To seed the hashing algorithm, EV-DO uses a session number, which obviously varies from data session to data session. Each time that a handset powers up, crosses a SID/NID boundary, or even toggles airplane mode, for example, generates a new EV-DO data session, hence a new session number. And it is this session number that determines the output of the hashing algorithm. To demonstrate this process, I positioned myself in one location about a quarter of a mile distant from the north sector of a local cell site. Over the course of several minutes, I grabbed three screen caps of the EV-DO engineering screen on one of my handsets. In between each screen cap, I cycled airplane mode at least once, each cycle generating a new data session. In the span of four minutes, I was able to get my handset to hash to each of the three EV-DO carrier channels deployed on this site. When I arrived at the site, my handset hashed to PCS 0175, which is the third EV-DO carrier channel (F3) in the channel list message. The second and third hashes after toggling airplane mode several times were to PCS 0150 (F2) and to PCS 0100 (F1). See the Channel Number field depicted in the screen caps: In addition, here is a raw RF look with a spectrum analyzer at the seven CDMA2000 carrier channels deployed on this cell site sector: The four CDMA1X carrier channels are PCS 0050, PCS 0075, PCS 0125, and PCS 0200. As is oft the case, the three aforementioned EV-DO carrier channels -- PCS 0100, PCS 0150, PCS 0175 -- are distinguishable by their slightly higher RF power output. Furthermore, for those curious, PCS 0025 (at the far left of the graph) and PCS 0225, PCS 0250, and PCS 0275 (at the right of the graph) are fallow spectrum on this site. If deployed, PCS 0025 would be the next EV-DO carrier channel (F4), PCS 0275 the final EV-DO carrier channel (F5), while PCS 0225 and PCS 0250 would be additional CDMA1X carrier channels. Back to the hashing algorithm, while it attempts to distribute users more or less evenly among available EV-DO carrier channels, it does not take into account several other factors, such as loading and backhaul. For example, if you are stuck on a carrier channel and sector with a few data hogs who have stronger signal than you do, your data speeds will likely suffer as the "fair and proportional" scheduler integral to the EV-DO airlink attempts to maximize total throughput by allocating greater time slots to the users with better signal quality. Additionally, backhaul may not be distributed evenly among deployed carrier channels, so it is possible that some carrier channels may have inherently greater data capacity than others do. Another benefit of rehashing to a different carrier channel is that you may be able to connect to a closer cell site. Because not all cell sites have the same number of deployed EV-DO carrier channels, carrier channel hashing is an imperfect process. To illustrate, the cell site (call it cell site "A") that I detailed above for this trial has three EV-DO carrier channels (F1, F2, F3), as duly noted. But the adjacent cell site to the north (call it cell site "B") has only two EV-DO carrier channels (F1, F2). A handset that hashes to F3 on cell site "A" will cling to carrier channel PCS 0175 even as it moves north well into the coverage area of cell site "B." Interference will not be a problem, as cell site "B" does not transmit PCS 0175, but signal strength (and data speeds) will diminish until cell site "A" drops below a network defined threshold, at which point the handset will handoff to cell site "B" and hash to PCS 0150. This can require substantial movement and/or time. So, if you always want the most crisp EV-DO handoffs, you can try to ensure that your handset always hashes to F1, the EV-DO carrier deployed on essentially every site in the market. To conclude, by no means is airplane mode a panacea for slow 3G data ills. EV-DO carrier channel deployment and backhaul can vary from site to site, while loading can also vary from site to site, even from minute to minute. And EV-DO networks in some cities are just generally overloaded. But if you are at work, in a restaurant, at a park, etc., and find yourself with unbearably slow 3G data or lower than usual signal strength for that location, try toggling airplane mode. A 30 second on/off cycle of airplane mode will start a new data session and could get your handset to rehash to another EV-DO carrier channel that is on a closer site, has better backhaul, and/or is currently less loaded. Sources: Qualcomm, author's field data

That sounds like a good test case for the superior ambient noise cancellation ability of the EVO LTE. AJ

Those Airaves, who knows what ISPs they have been with. Virgin Mobile phones have to maintain their purity. AJ

You won the battle but lost the war. You are supposed to get her onto a smartphone so that you can get away from the phone calls to more manageable, multimodal forms of communication. AJ

Phone calls? Do people still make phone calls? Those are like so 2008. AJ

As I have long said, do not ask entry level employees for info that you can gather elsewhere yourself. My apologies to the few who fall outside of this stereotype, but roughly 90 percent of entry level employees know nothing other than what is needed to answer the most basic questions. AJ

To the end user, the biggest difference effected by HD Voice is extended frequency response (i.e. higher highs, lower lows). To CDMA1X, though, HD Voice is just EVRC-NW, which is just another max 8 kbps variable rate codec. AJ

Josh, I am aware of all of that, but you do not seem to take good natured teasing very well. Regardless, you seem to have chronic financial difficulties. So, please take a recommendation to heart. You should not have bought any stock and should not buy anymore stock until you are on solid financial footing. Ten or so shares of stock are not going to improve your finances greatly. But they could hurt your wallet if the stock tanks, and they take up liquidity that you may need to make ends meet. AJ

The market is bullish on Sprint because it heard the rumor that you might be headed down to your broker, Wild Bill's Gun, Tackle, and Investments, to buy up another single share. Wall Street wants to get in on the action before you corner the market on Sprint. AJ

Thanks for the comment. But you seem to be confusing Wi-Fi basebands with cellular basebands. The Broadcom chipset is just a Wi-Fi baseband, so its effect on the handsets in question is minimal, and all have other cellular basebands. The EVO LTE and Galaxy S3 take matters to the extreme, as they incorporate processor, cellular, Wi-Fi, and GNSS baseband all on the 28 nm Qualcomm MSM8960. With all due respect, that seems nothing more than optimistic speculation. At this point, we do not even know what quad core processor the Eclipse will utilize. It could still be the 40 nm Tegra 3. And that could be paired with a 45 nm cellular baseband, possibly even a separate LTE baseband of who knows what nm process. My point is this: do not assert that "the LG phone will do great." The level of info available right now does not support that conclusion. AJ

Neither. Those kinds of announcements have trivial effect on stock price. AJ

A radome. AJ

Legacy equipment sent modulated RF via coax to/from the antennas. Network Vision has to send demodulated digital data via coax or fiber to/from the RRUs and supply them with power. AJ

Very nice post. The Overland Park speed test server is a good choice. And thanks for showing everyone how great antenna pics should look. AJ

The EVO LTE includes two mics, one specifically for noise cancellation. It operates on the principle that undesired noise intensity likely will be very similar between the two mics, while voice intensity will be much higher in the mic more proximate to the speaker's mouth. Hence, common mode noise in the two feeds can be subtracted out, leaving voice relatively unaffected. Does the Galaxy S3 lack a second mic? AJ

Yep, CDMA1X channels 476 and 526 almost assuredly are the second highest priority in the PRL. AJ

Well, a CDMA1X 1900 to CDMA1X 800 (or vice versa) handoff cannot be a seamless handoff because it is a hard handoff -- an inter frequency hard handoff at that -- but the discontinuity in the traffic channel may be so brief as to be imperceptible. AJ

Yes, the Viper does support SVDO. I was unintentionally conflating in my mind the multiple chipset design of the Viper and the lack of SVDO in the Galaxy Nexus. I have corrected the article. Thanks for pointing out the error. What the multiple chipset design will affect likely is battery life, especially if the processor is quad core. AJ

Nope. Because of the regulatory-industrial complex and planned obsolescence, expect possible capabilities, such as LTE 800, only when necessary. So, probably not until next year. AJ

Thanks for the heads up, Ben. LG Eclipse article is live on The Wall. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-317-lg-eclipse-4g-casts-an-early-shadow/ AJ

by Andrew J. Shepherd Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Friday, August 10, 2012 - 6:54 PM MDT Update: The previously dubbed LG Eclipse is being released November 11 as the Optimus G. Additionally, the LTE 1900 EIRP figures that were missing from the original FCC filing were added six weeks later in a Class II Permissive Change application. Max LTE 1900 EIRP is 23.51 dBm -- though with substantial variability (up to 4.5 dB) due to differences in carrier frequency, bandwidth, and modulation (QPSK/16-QAM). Furthermore, CDMA1X/EV-DO 800 max ERP has been increased by approximately 2 dB to 23.17 dBm. To quote the inimitable Yogi Berra, "It's déjà vu all over again." And here we go again. S4GRU is happy to announce yet another breakdown of an FCC OET (Office of Engineering and Technology) authorization filing for a major device headed to Sprint's upcoming Network Vision enhanced LTE overlay. Since this spring, we have analyzed the FCC authorizations for the HTC EVO 4G LTE, Samsung Galaxy S3, and yet to be released Motorola Photon Q 4G. Today, the expected LG Eclipse 4G hit the FCC database under the model number LG LS970, and here are the RF facets that we have been able to glean: CDMA1X + EV-DO band classes 0, 1, 10 (i.e. CDMA1X + EV-DO 850/1900/800) LTE band 25 (i.e. LTE 1900; PCS A-G blocks) LTE 5 MHz and 10 MHz carrier bandwidths 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi; max MCS index 7 (i.e. 20 MHz channel, 400 ns guard interval, single spatial channel) SVLTE support, including SVLTE and simultaneous Wi-Fi tether SVDO support absent Maximum RF ERP/EIRP: 21.86 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 850), 25.33 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 1900), 21.68 dBm (CDMA1X/EV-DO 800) NFC antenna integrated into battery cover Antenna locations: (see FCC OET diagrams below) Notably missing from the presumed LG Eclipse's FCC filing are two things: SVDO capability and LTE band 25 EIRP test results. Rumor has it that the Eclipse will utilize Qualcomm's upcoming and highly anticipated APQ8064 quad core 28 nm "Krait" processor. The quad core difference is noteworthy compared to the dual core MSM8960 chipset that has proven very successful in the EVO LTE and Galaxy S3, et al. But the MSM8960 incorporates a multimode modem, while the APQ8064 is a naked processor. If rumor has it right, then the Eclipse will also have to utilize at least one separate modem chipset. And it would seem that LG has chosen at least one CDMA1X/EV-DO modem that is not capable of voice "Fusion," which would enable SVDO with a second modem. So, like its Viper predecessor, the Eclipse appears to be a multiple chipset design. But unlike the Viper, the Eclipse is absent SVDO. Furthermore, the FCC OET filing includes requisite CDMA1X + EV-DO 850/1900/800 ERP/EIRP figures but lacks LTE 1900 EIRP figures. So, do not hold your breath for a release date. We will leave it to other sources to speculate/report on the ergonomics and other technical attributes of the upcoming LG device. But we expect that LG and its authorized testing lab will have to file supplemental results before the supposed Eclipse makes its way into the hands of eager Sprint subscribers. Source: FCC