Setting the band aggregation config with something like HuaCTL pro
There's a setting to change from 4G/5G to Auto (on the 5G CPE) but not exposed on the gui
on a B818 you can chose Auto / 3G / 4>3G / 4G. Does not seem to be exposed in the web gui, but needs to be auto.
@Lucian I was partially right . Found this on a polish forum (http://www.bez-kabli.pl/) those guys did this mod too on the 5G CPE pro 2 and are openly discussing it, not keeping it secret. I found a post where the user had done the mod but complains it didn't work. You need to grab Hmanager and click a few buttons, that's it.
In LTE, you choose band 3 or b1 plus b8 and then switch to the car [edit by me, car is a mistranslation of "auto" which is also the polski word for car] and you have 5G N41 + LTE CA and it's ready.
If it does not come out to the main band what you want try a few times and it should be 5G + LTE CA.
Like below
looks like you also either need to have antenna on wide bands, or antennas that do one band, and other antennas that do other bands.
(Note you'll need to sign up (free) to be able to see the images)
You have to set your main frequency and then "add" the additional CA frequencies too.
Maybe someone would need to connect external antennas (eg 2 MIMO 2x2) The
modem has 4 antenna connectors inside, marked in the picture numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4 (2 are used by antennas "3" and "4").
Huawei B818 -263 has 4 internal antennas to work in MIMO 4x4:
- One of the LTE antennas is on the PCB ("1"),
- The other is wrapped on plastic ("2"),
- Antennas "3" and "4" are in the form of external "sticks"
MS156 sockets are test connectors, theoretically, they are not used for continuous operation (although I have seen the Netgear M1 MR1100 MODs where they were used for MIMO 4x4 operation)
You can flash the firmware to one which allows aggregation by band
Here is the latest update of the global Huawei B818 -263 (Huawei firmware has no markings).
Allows aggregation by band selection
At the moment it is difficult to find, so I am giving. " http://dl.free.fr/ohSUSPS98
1 'The connection to the LTE network is supported by:
- 2 main LTE antennas - large "sticks"
- 2 additional LTE antennas - small "sticks".
2 'You can connect to the network only when we have plugged into the PCB:
- 2 large "sticks" or
- some other antennas in their connectors or
- external antennas in the TS-9 connectors.
3 'When we connect the antennas to the TS-9 connectors, we physically replace the large internal "sticks".
4 'Short LTE antennas can be unplugged and can be connected to the network (but then we will not get MIMO 4x4)
5' Swapping the antennas causes poor LTE signal parameters of 800MHz. (short antennas are for high bands)
6 'During the speed test I disconnected 2 small LTE antennas - the speed dropped drastically, after 2 seconds it increased, but it was already about 70% of the speed obtained with all 4 antennas.
7 'Without small LTE antennas it obtains 60-80% of the results in relation to all 4 antennas connected.
8 'Without large LTE antennas (or any other LTE antennas plugged into their sockets) - does not detect LTE networks at all.
If someone does not believe me, I encourage you to do individual tests.
Summary:
We can get MIMO 4x4 in LTE networks, for this purpose, external antennas should be plugged directly into the PCB (instead of large and small "sticks").
Of course, with such a connection, we set "only internal antennas" in the router menu.
Large "sticks" can be replaced with 700-2700 MHz antennas
Small "sticks" are enough to replace 1800-2700Mhz.
There is a very long detailed thread here about hacking the B818