ingenium

 

His speed is because of FDD-TDD CA. B25 is being used for upload, possibly with 4x4 and 64 QAM up.

The NSG developer doesn't have a Pixel 4 to test with. Someone sent him logs from trying to run it, and the developer basically said "wtf?". So the Pixel 4 is doing some weirdness. I'm pretty sure he'll be able to get it working whenever he gets a 4 to test with, but he's based in China and Pixels aren't exactly easy to come by there.

There was a similar issue with the 3 last year. I think he got it working around mid December, so fingers crossed that it's soon.

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No benefit for limiting streams, Google just cheaped out on engineering the RF front end.

NSG is Network Signal Guru. It's a root application that ties into the Qualcomm diagnostics port on the modem. It basically let's you see everything. Here's a screenshot showing 3xCA B41 from my Pixel 3 XL recently


Yes I'm in a Samsung market.

I don't have another device to test with simultaneously. But I believe B41 with 64 QAM upload maxes out around 12 Mbps. So if I can get 17-20 Mbps, then it's doing 2xCA. That speed isn't possible on a single B41 carrier unless 4x4 is used with rank 3 or 4.

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they limited MIMO streams on the 4?

how can i get confirmation if the UL CA configurations are there and work before purchasing one??

With 3xCA, I think the 3 and 4 are both limited to 4x4 on 2 carriers and then 2x2 on the third? Or else it's 4x4 on one carrier and 2x2 on the other 2. Basically neither can do 4x4 on all 3 carriers.

 

Since the engineering screens are basically broken, the only way would be to hope you have a good signal in a store and run a speed test on B41. See if the upload is higher than a single carrier can do. Or wait until NSG gets support for it and I can check and let you know.

 

I'll try to remember to run a speed test when I'm near a site and see what my upload is.

 

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Thanks for the input. I'm essentially interested in the UL CA. 25+41, 26+41, 25+26. Not sure if any devices can do them but I would be happy if so.

The 4's SoC / modem is capable of all of those. It's possible that Google gimped the RF front end in a way that disables them (like they did with limiting MIMO streams), but they should all work. Generally Pixels support all CA combos that the SoC does.

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I've spent the past 8 days in Costa Rica and have found the service pretty decent. My experience was limited to Liberia and the Guanacaste province so I can't speak to the rest of the country. My phone was on kölbi & Movistar for about equal amounts of time. It also parked on Claro, but for a much lesser amount of time than the other two. Being able to access all three networks meant that coverage was excellent. I don't recall a time that I saw 'No Service', but to be fair I never went all that deep into any rain forests. If memory serves, I was accessing B7 LTE with kölbi, B3 LTE with Movistar and W-CDMA with Claro. Speeds were typical of Sprint's free slow data 0.02-0.03 Mbps and pings a little above 350 Ms.

Kölbi I believe has the best coverage, and should work pretty much everywhere. But they're also the most congested. They are the state owned provider. Movistar is pretty good, with very good coverage and good speeds. I've used prepaid SIMs on both when there for several weeks, along with Sprint roaming (open world, so no speed throttling). When I was there in January, I found their coverage to generally be the same now, whereas 5-6 years ago (pre LTE) Kölbi was king. The only differences are in very rural, mountainous areas, where you might have no service on one but BARELY have service on another (enough to send a text for example, but not much else).

It's interesting that your phone dynamically switched between them. I was able to force mine to use any provider with my Sprint SIM, but when left on automatic it always preferred Movistar. Even after locking it to a provider, it would eventually go back to automatic on its own and switch to Movistar. Movistar is generally Sprint's preferred roaming partner in any country where they have service. Sometimes that's great, and sometimes it's awful haha.

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Can someone comment on the network speeds with their Pixel 4 XL compared to the Pixel 2 XL or Pixel 1 XL?
Trying to decide if upgrading would be worth it or not for me. Would really like to know it's Aggregation capabilities.

All can do 3xCA B41. The Pixel 2 I think can also do 2xCA B25, along with the 4. Not sure about the 1.

Only the 4 can do 4x4 MIMO I think, but at least in Samsung markets Sprint isn't using rank 3 and 4 yet so there's no speed improvement with it, only improved signal quality. The 4 can do 256 QAM, but I'm not sure about the others. The 2 might be capable as well.

The 4 should also be able to do B25-41 and B26-41 CA. It's in testing in some markets, but there's no way to force it on Pixels unlike Samsung devices. Who knows when Sprint will actually push out the carrier provisioning to turn it on on devices.

The 4 can also do HPUE on B41, but in my experience HPUE doesn't help much. When the signal is low B41 is crap and sending messages can fail. It seems like it just makes the phone hold onto B41 past the point of being usable. The 4 can also do B41 2x UL CA I think, and the others can't.

Honestly, the only thing that would make a real world difference in my opinion is FDD-TDD CA, but it's almost certainly not live yet on the 4 (NSG isn't working on the 4 yet so no way to confirm, but I never saw FDD-TDD on the 3 and it should be capable of it as well). And the fact that the 4 supports wifi calling and VoLTE.

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Wouldn't carrier aggregation be listed in the specs somewhere and for which bands?

Not that I've been able to find. Specs only seem to list what bands it can use. Since it has the RF front end for each of those bands, and since the SOC supports that CA combo, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

The only thing is that Pixels are limited in the number of simultaneous streams (due to the RF front end), which doesn't really matter for Sprint because while they're using 4x4 MIMO, they aren't actually utilizing all the streams, at least in Samsung markets. You only see rank 1 or rank 2. Not 3 or 4. Rank 3 or 4 is required for the additional throughput on 4x4 MIMO.

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I'm sure the Pixel 4 can do it I just forgot. I haven't been a fan of the pixel from a network prospective.

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If I remember correctly it's also possible on the Pixel 3. Not sure about the 2. Pixels don't have a CA combos screen like Samsung (and maybe LG) phones. The only way to confirm to my knowledge is with NSG when it's active. Google disables the diagnostic port so you can't use Qualcomm tools to pull the CA combos directly from the modem.

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I was thinking about the device side. If there is a setting that will aggregate the two data streams, the LTE stream and the WiFi stream.

I think some Samsung phones support it, but it's disabled in the US at the request of the carriers.

For a single connection, it would need to utilize Multipath TCP. And the destination server would also need to support it (which is rare). The only major deployment that I'm aware of is Apple using it for I think FaceTime, and maybe other Apple services. It's done so that when connectivity changes (for example going from wifi to LTE) there is no interruption. I don't know if they actually aggregate the connections otherwise.

It's possible that Sprint also does it for VoLTE -> Vowifi hand-off. I know that Vowifi uses an ipsec tunnel (UDP), but within that tunnel the SIP connection uses TCP, which surprised me. This could be a valid reason for using TCP I guess, to allow seamless transitions.

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I changed the backhaul to WiFi and did a speediest. I get about the same results as LTE backhaul. On the other hand if I leave WiFi on on the phone itself I get twice the performance. Is there a way to aggregate the links? LTE backhauled cellular + WiFi?

The MB maxes out at about 85-90 Mbps, regardless of backhaul. It seems to be some kind of hardware limit, either on the LTE eNB or on the ipsec tunnel. The Airave 4 is exactly the same.

Both my Airave and MB are connected via Ethernet on a gigabit connection and max out at that.

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It used to be Sorint only did that through forced prl and profile updates. Sigh.

Similar on the Pixel 3. Sprint disables some AT&T bands (band 30 for example). I can enable it, it would stay enabled for about a day. Then when I go in again the following day it's disabled again.

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So I was trying it that way, but nothing seemed to change.  I was able to definitely switch when I went into the "Radio Info" menu, and then pushing the three dots and "select radio band" option.  
But still no luck.  Moves from 1x800 to 1xRTT.  
I have to wonder if the Voice Pro isn't letting my phone's connect because there are also two Airaves still on my account?  One was shipped back and is yet to be removed, the other is boxed and will head out shortly.  
I'm curious about the custom PRL, but that's beyond anything I have played with.  Also will be getting a replacement handset before too long, so maybe I'll tinker with that one more....

1xRTT is 1x1900. When it's on that it should be on your Airave.

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I have a Moto Z2 Force.
When I open Signal Check Pro, I see 1x800 and LTE 800, along with my WiFi connection.  The LTE connection sometimes changes to eHRPD depending on where I am in the house, and the 1x sometimes changes to 1xRTT.  
So is it bad that I have the 1x800 connection?  
When I cycle airplane mode or try to select PCS from Signal Check Pro it doesn't seem to change anything.  
Thoughts?

Selecting PCS from SCP should work. It brings up the Android system dialog to do it. Or at least it works for me on my Pixel. It's possible I guess that Motorola broke that functionality?

Just to double check, you're going to System Shortcuts, Voice Band Mode?

There's no other way to force a phone to switch off of 1x800. It's a known issue with Airaves. The Airave 2.5 had a 1x800 beacon that would make phones switch to 1x1900, but neither the 3 nor 4 have it.

Your only other option would be to go into the debug/engineering screens and disable BC10 CDMA. That will disable 1x800, which might be a problem for you when you're not home if you need the extra coverage that 1x800 offers.

If you feel like being adventurous, you can also build a custom PRL and push it to your phone with QPST (assuming Motorola didn't disable debug on USB like Google does on Pixels). I've done this in the past to prioritize an Airave over everything else.

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I do, but it's pretty poor.  My 1x is -103 db, and my LTE signal is -110 db.  Do I need to loose both before I'll be able to pick up the Voice Pro?

What phone do you have? If you open Signal Check Pro (or free I believe will also work?), do you see both LTE and CDMA? Or just one of them? If you only see LTE, then you need a regular Airave for it to work. If you see both, then the Voice Pro *should* work for voice.

When you see 1x, just to confirm, it's not 1x800 right?

Assuming you see both CDMA and LTE, and it's connected to 1x1900, then an airplane mode toggle when you're right next to it should put you on it right away. Once you connect to it once, the phone should "remember" that that CDMA signal is near that LTE signal and will be more likely to look for it in the future, so airplane mode toggles shouldn't be required again.

You can also try putting your phone in 3G only mode and see if it connects.

If your phone shows a CDMA 1x1900 signal when you're next to it, and an airplane mode toggle or setting it to 3G only doesn't put you on it, then it likely isn't broadcasting for some reason.

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So I have the Voice Pro fired up, but neither line on my account wants to connect to it.  Even with SCP and selecting to use PCS, it doesn't try.  So now I don't know if it's my handset, or the Voice Pro not working.  
 
Is there supposed to be someplace you can whitelist numbers to connect to it?

Do you pick up LTE at all at home? With some phones, since it's CDMA only, they might have trouble seeing it.

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I am sure that the chip makers (Qualcomm) can make a chipset/RF front end that has all the bands that the combined company supports without cdma. The problem would be if there is a loss of voice roaming for Sprint if CDMA voice went away and all voice was over LTE.

Pretty much all phones sold in the US do now. They're just firmware locked to each carrier sometimes. Samsung phones and Pixels for example work on all carriers and support all the bands.

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The line selected was not my main line, but a stationary WE826/MC7455. Definitely not near my billing address and the unit has no GPS so this tells us it was selected by the time of use on a tower that has capacity. The line averages 100Gb of usage a month.

I will do a teardown.

Ahh I didn't know there were any T-Mobile plans/lines that worked for these modems. Was it a hotspot plan or just a regular line that you put in the modem?

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I got the invite for Tmo home internet. Even though I use standard lines for internet I will take em up on this offer. 
Will be looking to see if the sim survives a device swap, if it is geo locked as all the tools on Reddit say, and what kind of optimization this line suffers.

How did you get the invite?

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How do you activate?

Settings, Network, Mobile Networks, Add. Sprint is listed. Select it and sign into your Sprint account. Select the line you want to put on the phone.

 

This will not work if you're currently using the same phone with a physical SIM on Sprint. You have to swap the line to another phone first, and then you can activate the Pixel with eSIM. The reason is that the phone's IMEI is already on the line, and the eSIM activation apparently fails if all it's doing is swapping the SIM ICCID. It has to change ICCID and IMEI in Sprint's system.

 

On the Pixel 4 or 3a, since it has two IMEIs, you probably can actually switch directly from physical to eSIM without an intermediary.

 

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ESIM with Verizon and standard sim with sprint.
 
i am currently doing esim with T-Mobile and sim with sprint.
 
any idea when sprint will support esim?

Sprint does support eSIM. I've been using it on my Pixel 3 XL since February I think?

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Do you get symmetric speeds up and down on wired?

No, about 9 Mbps up. It's still B41 with TDD config 1, which is limited to 9 Mbps or so. That config should allow for faster download (matching a macro), but I suspect that the hardware on the MB and Airave (both 3 and 4) can't handle more than that. All the Sprint femto cells max out at that speed. Either the CPU might not be able to handle the ipsec tunnel faster than that. Or it could be the eNB being underpowered and not being able to handle transmitting faster than that. My guess is it's a CPU limitation on the ipsec tunnel.

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Well, 2.4 GHz WiFi setting on MB gives me 39.3 Mbit down and 7.98 Mbit up.  Significantly better than 1-2 Mbit I'd get with LTE backhaul.    There's certainly an upper limit here around 40Mbit / 8Bit Probably related to 5:1 TDD ratio setting on MB for B41, so I'm actually unconvinced going to 5GHz will give me that much more stability given that I get 1Gbit fiber running to the router, so using about 5% of the uplink.  40Mbit is still pretty good speed for LTE, so it'll be hard for me to push that to the limit.
The wildcard is how many other people in my neighborhood have phones connecting to my Magic Box. MB doesn't seem to identify itself to my router as anything, so I"ll need to chase it down via MAC address.

With wired backhaul, a MB (and Airave) gets around 80 Mbps or so. As you get a little further from the MB it drops to around 60-65, or at least mine does.

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Just trying mine out this morning and mine connected to my router fine, but seems stuck on ‘Configuring WiFi Backhaul Service’.  Guess I’ll let it sit and chew for about 10 more minutes before I try a reboot of the MB.
EDIT:  It finally rebooted itself, and connected to my 2.4ghz network just fine.  I am now testing to see if it will grab the 5ghz network, but so far, it seems to be choking.  It does initially 'see' the 5ghz network, but it never does connect.  Moved back to the 2.4 ghz network and it is up and running again.  I'm wondering now if it has some sort of fall-over type setup.  Where if the wifi goes out for some reason, will the MB automatically go back to LTE backhaul?  hmmm.
 

I wondered this as well, and I don't think it will go back automatically. This is based on setting it to wired/wireless backhaul before the endpoints were setup. It would get stuck and never finish setup. Usually wouldn't even switch off it and needed a factory reset to go back to relay.

There's a possibility with the new firmware rolling out soon that it will fall back eventually, but I'm guessing it would still need to reboot itself and basically reconfigure. So it definitely wouldn't be a quick handover if it did work.

With how congested 2.4 GHz wifi is, I'd advise anyone who wants non-relay backhaul to connect it with Ethernet instead. I haven't seen 2.4 GHz capable of maxing out the MB (60-80 Mbps) in many many years, there's just too much interference on it now. And since it's not using relay anymore, it can be centrally placed in your house instead of by a window, giving better coverage.

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If you had to guess, how high off the ground would you say they are?

Yes, the tool is free to use. It's for modeling locations for a Ubiquiti point to point or point to multipoint wireless product. https://link.ui.com

Yes, it's 2x2 MIMO. The modem I use (Sierra Wireless MC7455) is only capable of 2x2. That modem has issues with Sprint though (loses connectivity a few times a day). There are few 4x4 capable modems available, but the issue I always had with Sprint was support for all 3 bands. Only the MC7455 supports all 3. If you can guarantee that you get B41, then your options open up a lot. B25 support was more challenging.

I modeled mine at 20 ft off the ground. They're mounted probably.... 5 ft and 6 ft respectively from the floor on the PVC, on the second story of the house, and would probably work if I lowered them. But they're in a corner and mostly obstructed from view inside the house (there's a bookcase behind it blocking the view).

Be vigilant of the length of coax that you use. The signal will attenuate quite a bit the longer the cable, and can negate the gain from the antennas. More than you would think. It's best to have the modem as close to the antennas as possible, with as short of a cable as possible. Same reason why RRUs mounted on a cell site are used. You'll also need adapters. The antennas I think use N type, and the modem uses u.fl, but is in an enclosure that has sma. The coax I used had N type on one end and sma on the other. But you'll want to look at the specs of everything to confirm.

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Two antennas. One vertical and one horizontal correct? 

Yes, two antennas. They look like two stacked diamonds, with the bottom one rotated 90 degrees from the top one. The last picture on the product page shows the orientation.

I have them mounted to a PVC pipe in the corner on the second floor of the house. I was going to mount them outside, but since tested it inside and it worked fine, so I didn't see a reason to move it outside and deal with running the coax through the wall.

The height will depend on your topography. I modeled my particular scenario using a tool on Ubiquiti's site, plugging in GPS coordinates and approximate height measurements.


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