briank101
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Everything posted by briank101
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So with the COWs along with the regular cell coverage for this area on Lakeshore Dr, how would Sprint have handled the interference of the extra LTE/CDMA signals right in the same area? .... ... noting that LTE/CDMA are single frequency technologies with a frequency reuse factor of 1 which requires carefully managing adjacent overlap areas to minimize interference so as to not significantly impact capacity.
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Questions on forcing 1X data instead of 3G or 4G
briank101 replied to briank101's topic in General Topics
Thanks for the info. Does 1X use less battery? I would think less decode processing and hence battery use is involved with an older technology. Also 800 MHz may use less transmit power required compared to EVDO/LTE on 1900 MHz .... yes/no? -
I just started listening to a streaming station 32 kpbs (AAC+ quality) and in the 1 or 2 hours that I have done this, I find I have less drops if I set my phone to "CDMA only" aka 1X in the Chicago suburbs. Does this strategy have merit? Are there pros and cons with this from a Sprint perspective? I would think that because nearly all phones nowadays are getting their data from 3G and 4G in non-rural areas, that 1X data has relatively few users. Advantage: Possibly more consistent coverage, with access to both the 1X 800 MHz (band 26) and the 1X 1900 bands albeit slower without needing to upgrade my phone. Possibly lower battery use. Less likely to use up my data allowance by a rouge application as the max data speed is capped. Does the available 1X data bandwidth on a channel depend on how many voice circuits are in use on the CDMA 1X Adv 1.25 MHz channel? Also will 1X data automatically hand off to the least congested available 1X channel? I welcome your input. Thanks, Brian
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Thanks for the DL/UL numbers. If 3 or 4 airplane toggles don't show it, 2nd carrier is not likely enabled yet. Hopefully Sprint is trying to target the high traffic sites first with the 2nd carrier on band 25 as most still don't have access to the other LTE bands. The tower I'm near is nearly always fast but that may not be the case this week when we have our Lisle Balloon Fest. Pity Sprint didn't have the 2nd band 25 LTE carrier in, in time for the annual PC Mag speed comparison. That's what Joe Public will read to pick his provider.
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I always see UL channel as 26665 and DL as 8665, but the 2nd could be lit up and maybe it's a 50/50 chance it may tune to the 2nd. If I keep going back and forth to Airplane mode is there a good chance I'll see those channels change if the site does have the 2nd carrier.
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As a workaround I guess I can pull out the good old spectrum analyzer every now and again. As of 4 weeks ago in the tower near me in Lisle neither the band 26 LTE nor the 2nd LTE on the band 25 were lit up. Does anyone know a procedure on the Android Engineering Debug LTE screen or otherwise, to determine if the 2nd LTE on band 25 is active. It would be far more convenient than the spectrum analyzer.
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Is there an Android app that can show GCI info. and hence I'll be able to see if the 2nd band 25 LTE carrier is deployed? Signal Check Pro does not support GCI info display with Moto X yet.
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But is the secondary band 25 carrier from this site or do you think it's a farther away site (lower signal)? Also do you know if they are typcially adding both the 2nd PCS LTE carrier and the band 26 LTE carrier at the same site visit? Thanks, Brian
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Here's another Feb 6th vs June 6th spectrum comparison in the PCS band. This is 1945 to 1970 MHz. Not too much different, but I note some change in the 1955 to 1960 MHz region since Feb. Not sure if it's another Sprint tower/sector nearby or that they haven't adjusted downtilt, I'm 900m from tower. Hopefully in the next few months I'll see the extra 5X5 LTE carrier both on band 25 and band 26 and perhaps some extra CDMA thrown in on the 25 band, they have room. This tower is in the center of a high tech region of the western suburbs so there should be no excuses on delaying maximizing air-link capacity on all bands at this site. Now June 6th 2014 1945 to 1970 MHz Previous Feb 6th 2014 1945 to 1970 MHz
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Here the old pic.
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Here's a picture of how the 800 MHz spectrum has changed in my neck of the woods since my Feb 6th post #3560 on this topic. 850 to 890 MHz
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So the Band Priority is 41>25>26 when all signals have good signal, right? So when the signal is non-existent on 41, marginal on 25 (< 0.5 Mbps), and great signal on 26, will you get 26, or will it stay on 25 right down to dial-up speeds, and then switch you to 26, assuming air-link capacity is not the issue? Also once all bands (esp. 26) are switched on at all sites, should one expect near zero dropouts due to insufficient signal and perhaps near zero <dial-up speed events due to load balancing between the bands. I think the 2nd 5X5 PCS LTE carrier (on former USCC spectrum) is the one that will have the biggest positive initial impact on the typical user with their existing device, but I'm not sure if that's the first priority for Sprint or is it better to have have short-term pain and long-term gain, although their short-term pain is going on for how many years now?
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Maybe I was getting the LTE from the tower nearer Sycamore.
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It's a consistent failed handoff though day after day and tracing back the BSID, it is connected to the correct sector on the nearest Sprint tower. I am in search of the cause and the other operator site was for me the first thing to suspect. So if it is a bad handoff what would cause a consistent bad hand off?
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Like clockwork the data dropped as I was passing the 2 "other cell company" towers on my way home yesterday. Here's the SignalCheck screenshot. SNR was 7 dB so I don't know if that takes into account adj channel swamping. Now as I understand CDMA EV-DO has elements of spread spectrum technology so I would have just expected a data slow down, but bad enough to thwart a 40 kbps stream?..... not sure what's going on. Here's a pic of one of the other company cell towers as I pass it.
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It would be interesting to see at the 2 sites in close proximity to NIU if Sprint makes full use of the available spectrum with the maximum number of EV-DO and LTE carriers that can be crammed in and if they will put in a 2nd LTE carrier on the expanded PCS now with the recent freeing up of the US cellular spectrum. Might as well do this if they are working on these sites at present. There is possibly already good back haul infrastructure in the area feeding the university. Nothing like improving customer satisfaction amongst a high concentration of university students as they could be a big part of your future high end smartphone business if they like the data speeds they are getting. Hopefully Sprint has some sense here
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I'm using EVDO, and funny thing SNR stays in the 4 to 7 dB range (if I recall), I don't recall what the Ec/lo is though, I might make a note of this today. I'll try to remember to take a screenshot this evening when I pass there.
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There a particular stretch of roadway where my data speed drops to near zero everyday as I pass two competitor cell towers (50 yards to the left of me). If I'm listening to the 40 kbps streaming radio station I often listen to, it will be cutoff for about a minute. The Sprint EV-DO signal level is in the -90 dBm range (the nearest Sprint tower is about 1.5 miles away). It may happen in other areas but this is one that I can verify is consistent. I would have thought with modern smartphone technology that the selectivity would be such as to prevent problems such as this and also that the beam tilt of the other provider towers would be such that they are not radiating too much power downwards. Or is it an adjacent 10 MHz wide LTE carrier one channel away from the Sprint 1.25 MHz EV-DO carrier the issue? Not sure if this affects voice calls as well as I have never been on a call at this spot, plus Sprint usually has me on the 1X800 band for voice anyway? Has anyone else had this issue and is this something that we have to put up with when in the vicinity of any cell tower that is not our own provider? Not sure what the FCC adjacent channel interference guidelines are with this, considering this is not a 10,000 watt radio station but perhaps 10 watt signals at most at this particular suburban location. PS. This is another reason why signal strength alone can be a bad indicator of potential data speed in addition to a host of other factors.
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I was out that direction (DeKalb) last Friday (2/21) and captured this screenshot at IL-38 & Annie Glidden Rd. Must be nice at last for the 22,000 students at NIU, a few that may have a smartphone , to finally have 4G.
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Anyone with a Spark phone care to share their handoff experience between band 41 and band 25 say when streaming. Seamless or not?
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Once both band 26 and 41 are active, the performance of the actual hand off between these bands could be what makes or breaks the user experience as they go from high signal to low signal areas on band 41 and suddenly the user is on an air link constrained band 26 if hand off logic isn't carefully optimized. Band 41 needs to be the default with band 26 being the "emergency" back up air link, with band 25 being a 2nd back up (though not optimal) when 26 is at air link capacity. Not sure how the switching logic is implemented now on Sprint devices and whether it is seamless to someone using VOIP or streaming. Poor hand off logic could come back to haunt Sprint if this isn't done right, regardless of spectrum availability. I don't have a Spark device, but if anyone would know what would be the typical % of the users in an urban environment that would be in an area of poor band 41 coverage, after full deployment? If it's 10% or less the back up LTE bands may be fine, any greater and there may be some concerns.
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Former USCC spectrum still not turned on here (near my work site) No carriers (LTE or otherwise to be found). Also in the second image below, I notice LTE is not switched on here in the upper SMR "800" band. It appears that only one 1x800 voice carrier is lit up. I notice on the Sprint Spark coverage map, while showing Spark in my area, it does not show the hash shading for "Turbo". So is Turbo coverage indicated only when both 2.5 GHz LTE and LTE 800 are active, or would just having 2.5 GHz LTE active be sufficient to designate Turbo. Is there any map that would track areas with two PCS LTE carriers, 800 LTE, and 2.5 TDD LTE all on one map?
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Here's a closer look at the other 2 Sprint spectrum chunks (downlink) in the PCS band in the Chicago area 1990-1995 MHz 1965-1970 MHz
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I understand the USCC spectrum Sprint acquired is 1950-1960 MHz for the download which is the low flat part in the middle of the first image.
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Here's a closer in on the 1945-1950 spectrum. Trying to make out the EV-DO vs 1xAdv
