[AusNOG] Mobile Data Capacity - Where's the bottleneck?

Joseph Goldman joe at apcs.com.au
Mon Mar 23 14:26:20 EST 2020


I do a 'little' bit of radio work so I am in no way an expert.

 From my understanding it can be a mixture of both. Metro areas 
shouldn't really have a problem on backhaul as busy towers would have 
10, 40, or even 100gbit circuits to the base of the tower, that tends to 
be more a regional issue when backhauled by microwave.

Spectrum - to simplify things think of a single chain Wireless 802.11G, 
old school 54mbps Wifi in the 2.4ghz 20mhz channel (or 10mhz, i forget 
what G was) - 54Mbps is the total airtime so to speak, that means 1 user 
using it can get up to 54mbps, add 10 users, and they all try using it 
together, they are not all going to get 54mbps at the same time. They 
are essentially sharing that pool of bandwidth between them.

There are of course many other factors, TDMA timings, spectrum sharing, 
MIMO etc, but at a simple overview, more people putting more demand in 
the air = more noise for the radios to fit in a limited spectrum.

  As said there is a lot more to it then that but should get the 
discussion started.


On 2020-03-23 2:01 PM, Roy Adams wrote:
> +1 needed for clarification also.
> Philippines carriers are a mess.
>
> Just to add to the mix, the provider I use has 10+ APN's, and on any 
> given day, 1 or 2 of the APN's will be consistently faster than the 
> other 8.
Each APN is likely being broadcast by a different radio/cell on the 
tower (or even potentially different towers), if certain cells/APN's are 
super busy, then you are likely getting onto the less busy ones when you 
get better results.
>
> So Backhaul, Spectrum, APN are the factors where I cannot figure the 
> slowness.
> Industrial 4G/LTE router with Cat6 aggregation, and 3 or 4 out of 5 
> bars signal
>
> Kindly,
>
> ROY ADAMS* | *P07 3040 5010 | Web:http://www.racs.com.au/ | 
> Wiki:https://ex.racs.com.au:444/ | eMail:mailto:roy at racs.com.au
> Please never upgrade to the latest Windows 10 - You don’t need the 
> hassle, and I don’t need the work.
> More seriously, the 6 months older Windows 10 releases are typically 
> FAR MORE stable - a simple RACS script can fix this - just ask :)
> If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait 
> until you hire an amateur - Red Adair.
> Life is a journey through a series of adventures... Live them, love 
> them, hate them, but never give up on your dreams, desires, and goals.
> Have you been good today? .ಠ_ಠ
>
>
> On Mon, 23 Mar 2020 at 12:42, Troy Kelly <troy at troykelly.com 
> <mailto:troy at troykelly.com>> wrote:
>
>     I understand that this isn't directly related to shifting packets
>     - but it's come up in discussions a few times, and I feel like my
>     understanding of things is wrong - if somebody has a few minutes
>     for a diversion to their day - I'd love some clarity.
>
>     If a mobile carrier was to remove data caps, there would obviously
>     be increased demand on the network. One of the arguments against
>     removing data caps is that there is "not enough spectrum"
>     available - and this there would be a massive speed impact for all
>     users of the cell/tower.
>
>     My understanding was that the tower slowdowns were typically
>     related to a lack of backhaul - but the argument I am seeing is
>     that it is spectrum related.
>
>     Thanks in advance for any clarity you can share.
>
>     Troy
>     _______________________________________________
>     AusNOG mailing list
>     AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
>     http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20200323/824f2175/attachment.html>


More information about the AusNOG mailing list