boomerbubba

Thanks, just downloaded it and it looks to about what I am looking for. Is there a way it can tell you what channel you are on?

No, I don't think CDMA Field Test or similar apps show that information, which on my GS3 is available on the hidden engineering screens for 1x, EVDO and LTE respectively. Why is the channel significant to you?

Is there a handy Android app that displays all the same information of the Field Test app? The reason I ask is because the custom ROM I use doesn't actually allow me access to the Field Test function.

It is hard to find any app that will properly display details about LTE signal strength and IDs that are shown on the LTE Engineering screen of the LTE-capable handsets. If you are just interested in details of your CDMA connections (1x and EVDO), try the CDMA Field Test app. That includes showing eHRPD status on an LTE-capable device.

To be 100% honest, I am not sure of what the exact issue is with the LTE auth. The info I'm relaying comes from a friend on a dev team who works with both devices. I was told that Verizon isn't having these issues but Sprint has a "different setup".. and that there will be LTE connection issues.

 

This topic was only lightly discussed as it came up during another LTE discussion. I had assumed it was due to Sprint still relying on CDMA.. where as Verizon is using a more "standard" WCDMA/LTE setup on their LTE devices. This is just my guess.. and I do not know the true reason for this issue.

 

Adding a little more info... I was told this is something Qualcomm knows about and does not care to fix. So that tells me that the reason something "isn't working" is due to a non-standard setup.. so obviously thats not something Qcom wants to go out of their way to fix. But again.. that's just more guessing from me.

 

The only thing I had hoped to achieve in my original post in this thread was to let others know that Qualcomm, OEMs, carriers and XDA Devs are aware of this issue. How it will be handled is anyones guess. I'm just hoping the CM team finds a "fix" to make LTE/eHRPD a little more usable on AOSP roms. Sorry for the lack of advanced detail.. I know we all like that stuff. Of course, if I hear anything else I will update.

Thanks. It is disconcerting if true that Sprint's scheme for LTE authentication is inherently flawed and relies on finding some workaround. In any event, from field performance so far -- included tests of the Samsung GS3 -- it is apparent that there is not yet a solid solution.

Doesn't this belong in the Wimax forum?

Can anyone answer the second part of my question as far as coverage with one panel as opposed to 2 or 3 panels

I think Robert already answered your question. There is not greater geographic coverage. There is greater user capacity.

I believe those are used for scanning. Basically the phone remembers where LTE was. HTC didn't implement theirs correctly for some reason.

 

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

But we know that the list in the "LTE_available" file is not a list of LTE towers.

And as far as the GS3 goes, it does not function perfectly, either. By all reports it outperforms the EVO 4G LTE in holding and/or acquiring an LTE signal. But as someome who has used a GS3 extensively for 4G testing, there also are many times when it will fail to make an LTE conneciton without toggling.

So if the root cause of all this is some general weakness in Sprint's authentication scheme, and autoprime knows more detail about this, I would like to hear it and where the information comes from.

Apparently there is an issue with LTE -> eHRPD handoff associated with Qualcomm chips. I've heard this is due to how Sprint handles LTE authentication and that the issue isn't happening on VZW devices. The OEMs have come up with temp fixes which is why LTE seems to work better on stock roms but isn't up to par on AOSP builds.

 

This is also happening on the Sprint Samsung GS3.

Interesting. Can you explain more about how Sprint authentication works? Does this problem also affect the acquisition of LTE signal in the first place or after losing it? Does the OEM workaround involve the mysterious "LTE available" files we have been viewing through the hidden menus on both handsets?

Can soneone on a stock Sprint GS3 tell me what their current baseband is....? Im having modem problems....

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using JB 4.1.1

L710VPLI3

It should be LI3 which would be the most recent ICS update. JB is only in leaked form right now. LI3 has some security and bug fixes.

LI3 also has some LTE optimization, according to Sprint's release notes and change log.

Sensorly collects signal strength on 2G/3G connections. That's been available the whole time. I thought it stated that on the app?

I guess I never noticed that because I never used it for 2G/3G. But the LTE display is certainly new.

As for LTE, I know it is more difficult to harvest data reliably across platforms because the Android API is not so well developed. And several apps mess up some details when they are reporting LTE connections. So I would feel better about Sensorly if they would "show their work" and let me as a user see a local log file in standardized units.

It's always said

Color intensity indicates the expected level of the signal received by the phone: very dark for 5 bars, very bright for 1 bar

 

But it didn't apply for LTE because the signal strength can't be reliably collected. I'm wondering if something just went wrong? It's made it incredibly hard to read. I did notice something weird in Chicago....

I never noticed the legend before. What I first noticed was the map itself and its differentiated coloring. I never knew that they were even collecting signal strength data. I wish this data were made available to the Sensorly user locally so we would know.

Has anyone noticed the new Sensorly coverage map online today? I just noticed it this morning. Instead of just mapping the simple blobs for coverage, there now is shading that purports to distinguish signal strength: The legend says:

Color intensity indicates the expected level of the signal received by the phone: very dark for 5 bars, very bright for 1 bar

Leaving aside the reference to "bars," which I know will not relate to user's experience on my own phone, I didn't think the Sensorly app even collected signal strength. I thought it just harvested a binary Yes/No value for when a certain type of data connection was present.

Thanks corrected and fixed.

 

The main point is I live about 1.4 miles from the tower and I get relatively bad signal no matter the phone. I have always thought that since It was such a big tall tower I should get a great signal, but it is the opposite. I can only hope that sprint will correct this with the network vision upgrade that is coming.

 

One note I can drive two miles up I-35 and get a great signal 78dbm or less, which I asume is from the same tower, but two more miles down the highway. Just does not make sense.

Remember that the gain in the antenna comes from shaping its signal to be stronger in certain directions (in 3 dimensions) at the expense of other directions. That gain in this case comes primarily in the vertical dimension, so the signal lobe is flattened. So in theory, an antenna like this atop a very tall tower can have a stronger signal a little farther away than close up. That could be even more enhanced if the test point farther away is at a higher elevation to be closer to the center of the lobe.

For example, here is a link to a spec sheet for an antenna that is likely pretty close to what the legacy tower is using. See the "Elevation Pattern" diagram, which shows how horizontally flat the signal pattern is. In very general terms, I would assume that the new antennas would have similar charateristics.

Also, if this boomer is configured with two sectors with the lobes oriented roughly north and south to focus on the rural freeway (rather than the more common three-sector tower), that would disadvantage the areas to the east and west.

sorry I guess I posted this in the wrong forum.

Or just edit the specific details from S4GRU Sponsor maps out of your post and leave it here. These details really add nothing to your general question. Then everyone can get back on your real topic. There is nothing privilegd about the basic facts that you bring to the topic from your personal knowledge.

I think he is asking more specifically why he has a weaker signal being that close to a tower and if it will improve after NV upgrades.

 

Being that it is a tall tower it may very well be that it is setup for long distance signal for the Highway and rural areas and not for close-up like shorter towers are for.

Yep. There was really no reason to include details from the Sponsor map in order to frame such a general question. The specific tower ID, location and schedule have no real bearing on that.

Question about my sprint signal from tower DA04XC037 (per S4GRU Austin map) which right now is still 3G, but due soon to be upgrade to LTE here in Austin. The tower is on the S4GRU maps for upgrade soon.

If you want to discuss specific tower locations, IDs and schedules from the S4GRU maps, you should do that in one of the Sponsor forums.

Right before I lose the signal and drop to 1x I get this. What on earth does this mean

It looks like when the connection dropped, the RSRP and RSRQ signal values were populated by your phone's system software with a default value that is the minimum signed long integer value these variables can hold. Not a very elegant user interface. Just think of it like the the values are empty.

after you have successfully connected to LTE, in the ##DATA# area (after you click edit and enter your msl) there is a BSR menu which contains your lte logs (view LTE_available file) (GS3 stock)

Thanks! I also have a stock GS3, and until now I didn't know it even had this utility screen (titled "View LTE_available file"). I thought it was only an EVO 4G LTE thing.

Now I have had a chance to browse the populated entries on my handset, scrolling through multiple pages in reverse chronological order as this utility screen allows. And since I happen to be in a city (Austin) that is now in the early stage of LTE development, and I had made some test sweeps today (discussed elsewhere in a Sponsor thread) I had a lot of material to analyze. I am pretty familiar with many of the Sprint CDMA sites in my area, and how their sector BSIDs map geographically to the Sprint tower IDs on the S4GRU master maps. I also am pretty familiar with the state of many towers here as far as their LTE upgrade status goes.

I will skip all the screenshots and details for now, but my analysis proves conclusively that, whatever this 'LTE_available file" is, it most certainly is not simply a list of BSIDs on sites with LTE radios. In fact, on mine there are many BSIDs on sites in various states of LTE development, including:

• BSIDs on a tower that has been confirmed to have a steadily live LTE signal.
  
• BSIDs on a tower that has been confirmed visually to have LTE antennas and RRUs, but which has had no live LTE signal available to customers.
  
• BSIDs on several towers that unambiguously have no upgraded Network Vision antennas at all.
  

I used to theorize that the contents of this list merely showed which CDMA sector BSIDs were logged concurrent with a detected LTE connection, and this may yet prove to be true. But I think I am even seeing BSIDs in this log that I had connected to when I don't recall even seeing a 4G icon in the Notifications bar. (Of course that anomaly could be a side effect of the GS3's too-often-experienced failure to reconnect to LTE explicitly without toggling the radio. Maybe LTE is being detected under the hood for these purposes even without connecting to it?) So at this point I don't know what to believe about this list.

Just saw this thread for the first time, and I wonder how I missed it before.

Along the lines of feedback to Sensorly, at the top of my wishlist is that the app would provide a way for me to capture a log file with records showing my own lat/lon and data connection type, presumably the same data being uploaded to the Sensorly server.

I just got 183 4g sites on sensorly driving from Daly City to downtown sf today. Let's see if sensorly updates with all the sites.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Those are not "sites" in the sense that that term is usually used here -- meaning tower or other antenna locations. Those are 183 points along your own track that Sensorly arbitrarily recorded according to its own timing loop.

There are a lot of towers in Austin that have already been upgraded but may not yet be turned on.

As of a few days ago. I could only confirm 3 that were live. Only one of which is in South Austin. (On South Lamar. Supposedly the one right behind Matt's El Rancho.)

 

The range that the signal can be detected can be over 5 miles from a single tower.

 

When Posting sightings it would help if you could get a screen shoot or share the results of the LTE debug menu mentioned in another thread here:

 

 

This gives not only the LTE signal strength but also the Tower ID. All the Signal hits I have in SouthWest Austin have all been from Tower ID = 399.

 

This might help in determining if additional towers that have been turned on verses a current tower available in an un-mapped area.

 

Just Looking Forward to more consistent filled in 4g in Austin and wanting to help track the progress.

What is Tower ID? Where are you reading that? Apparently you are referring to the Serving Cell value on my GS3's LTE Engineering screen. That ID seems to refer to a sector, not to a tower, which typically has three sectors.

As far as tracking details in Austin goes, as a Sponsor you have access to this thread, where we recently have published many details of live LTE rolling out in Austin, along with the privileged S4GRU tower mapping data that we really can't discuss in this public forum. We have correlated several towers with multiple sectors to the exclusive S4GRU Sponsor maps.

I just saw this application named "OptPCS" on the play store. It supports a lot.of information regarding cell site information and so on... and even shows the CDMA/EvDo dBm so far for me. I have a Wimax device currently so I cant verify LTE. I hope it can be useful.

 

https://play.google....om.optpcsmobile

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

The app looks interesting if it really logs any LTE details. But it also asks for a breathtaking set of permissions, especially for a paid app:

This application has access to the following:

• Services that cost you money
  directly call phone numbers
  Allows the app to call phone numbers without your intervention. Malicious apps may cause unexpected calls on your phone bill. Note that this doesn't allow the app to call emergency numbers.
  send SMS messages
  Allows the app to send SMS messages. Malicious apps may cost you money by sending messages without your confirmation.
  
• Your location
  fine (GPS) location
  Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the tablet, where available. Malicious apps may use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power. Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the phone, where available. Malicious apps may use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power.
  coarse (network-based) location
  Access coarse location sources such as the cellular network database to determine an approximate tablet location, where available. Malicious apps may use this to determine approximately where you are. Access coarse location sources such as the cellular network database to determine an approximate phone location, where available. Malicious apps may use this to determine approximately where you are.
  
• Network communication
  full Internet access
  Allows the app to create network sockets.
  
• Phone calls
  read phone state and identity
  Allows the app to access the phone features of the device. An app with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
  
• Storage
  modify/delete USB storage contents modify/delete SD card contents
  Allows the app to write to the USB storage. Allows the app to write to the SD card.
  
• System tools
  change Wi-Fi state
  Allows the app to connect to and disconnect from Wi-Fi access points, and to make changes to configured Wi-Fi networks.
  retrieve running apps
  Allows the app to retrieve information about currently and recently running tasks. Malicious apps may discover private information about other apps.
  prevent tablet from sleeping prevent phone from sleeping
  Allows the app to prevent the tablet from going to sleep. Allows the app to prevent the phone from going to sleep.
  modify global system settings
  Allows the app to modify the system's settings data. Malicious apps may corrupt your system's configuration.
  

I clicked on the link to "Privacy Policy." It led to a boilerplate "Disclaimer" text on the developer's website that seems to protect the vendor in many ways, but not the user.

FYI for Sponsors, there is quite a lot of Austin news being reported in this thread over the past few days, with appropriate maps and details. Also, I just looked at Sensorly and see several tracks in North Austin filling in areas that were recently blank. In fact, I had driven those areas last week and found no LTE signal. So stuff is definitely progressing.

Oh shoot, really? My bad! I thought that since the BSID of the tower was recorded in the “LTE available file” list that it would correspond to source of the LTE signal.

Some people assume that, but I am not persuaded. For this to be true there would have to be some mechanism for all LTE radios to transmit the BSIDs of the CDMA radios with which they are colocated. But no one has even shown where that might be happening as part of the LTE standard. So I think we don't know for sure what this screen means on the EVO. My own theory -- and it is only that -- is that these are the BSIDs that the phone detects from CDMA radios while there happens to be an LTE connection.

Another fishy thing is that this screen is implemented only on this particular device, which leads me to think it is an invention of the handset OEM.

Will be rooted Note 2 or jail broken iphone 5 and tether, tether, tether to my ipad while im at work. I chew through the gigs while on wimax I can't wait to use unlimited LTE while watching slingbox, netflix and of course online gaming while working!

Does Sprint not offer an authorized tethering app for these devices?

If you tether unauthorized, I hope Sprint discovers it, makes you stop or terminates your service. Unauthorized tethering is a violation of the Sprint contract, and burns up bandwidth shared by honest paying customers.