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Variable Signal Strenght

Bures

ULTIMATE Member
My Huawei 535 normally receives 3 Bars (-75dBm) of signal from Smarty with a download speed between 20 and 25Mbs
I appreciate this may seem slow to some, but I am located in rural Suffolk receiving from the Sudbury TV mast
During the past few evenings, I am now receiving 5 bars of signal (-65dBm) but the speed has crashed to 5Mbs or even less at times
So whats going on ?
 
How do you measure the SNR
Tried Windows Netspot - no good
Tried Mobile app "LTE Discovery"- no good, see att
~Thanks for responding
 

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You need to log into the web gui of your Huawei 535. There is a page which will give you SINR values.
Alternatively, you could get the huactrl app on your phone and then connect to the router to see the values (helpful if you want to watch the values change while moving the router around).
The apps you mentioned above will measure the signal picked up by your phone, what your router picks up will most likely be different.

On my phone, I have tried
cellmapper
netmonitor
netmonster
network cell info lite

they all work reasonably well and show SNR/SINR
 
You need to log into the web gui of your Huawei 535. There is a page which will give you SINR values.
Alternatively, you could get the huactrl app on your phone and then connect to the router to see the values (helpful if you want to watch the values change while moving the router around).
The apps you mentioned above will measure the signal picked up by your phone, what your router picks up will most likely be different.

On my phone, I have tried
cellmapper
netmonitor
netmonster
network cell info lite

they all work reasonably well and show SNR/SINR
 
See att Huawei Figures
I now have the normal 3 bars, best if i tried again tonight when it leaps to all 5
One occassion the speed had dropped under 2Mbs
 

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I believe that you'd find that you're dropping to B20 when the signal strength increases but the throughput reduces. B20 for Three has only a third of the theoretical capacity as B3 (your screenshot from the B353 above shows CellID 13018625 which translates to Band 3).
However as B20 travels further and penetrates buildings better it will cover a larger population and so that third of the theoretical capacity gets shared more.
If you note the CellID that your B353 shows when the signal is high and the speeds are low you'd know for sure.

Why this happens could be a number of factors, including but not limited to; environmental factors (new trees' leaves/buildings blocking signal paths), network reconfiguration of thresholds that decide which frequency layer your device should be using or increased interference driving down your metrics and pushing them into the lower ranges of the network thresholds.

To try mitigate it you could move your router to other places in your house where there you can find better signal levels on B3 - probably preferable to ensure line-of-sight to the mast (or with minimal obstacles, e.g. walls) - the site seems to be at Clay Hill, Great Henny, CO10 7NQ. Or you could maybe use band locking tools (though I'm not sure if any are available for the B353, others may chime in here) to exclude B20 as an available band, and therefore effectively always use other bands that are available (the site has B1/3/20)
 
I believe that you'd find that you're dropping to B20 when the signal strength increases but the throughput reduces. B20 for Three has only a third of the theoretical capacity as B3 (your screenshot from the B353 above shows CellID 13018625 which translates to Band 3).
However as B20 travels further and penetrates buildings better it will cover a larger population and so that third of the theoretical capacity gets shared more.
If you note the CellID that your B353 shows when the signal is high and the speeds are low you'd know for sure.

Why this happens could be a number of factors, including but not limited to; environmental factors (new trees' leaves/buildings blocking signal paths), network reconfiguration of thresholds that decide which frequency layer your device should be using or increased interference driving down your metrics and pushing them into the lower ranges of the network thresholds.

To try mitigate it you could move your router to other places in your house where there you can find better signal levels on B3 - probably preferable to ensure line-of-sight to the mast (or with minimal obstacles, e.g. walls) - the site seems to be at Clay Hill, Great Henny, CO10 7NQ. Or you could maybe use band locking tools (though I'm not sure if any are available for the B353, others may chime in here) to exclude B20 as an available band, and therefore effectively always use other bands that are available (the site has B1/3/20)
 
Gavin
That makes good sense and a good explanation
Its only happened during the last week and I initially thought Three had upgraded the mast until I noticed the abissmal speed
I should be on the Assington TV Mast (10765) which is only about 2 miles in a straight line from CO8 5LH
Bit concerned the Cell ID reads Henny ,thats on the other side of the Stour Valley and well out of sight
We also have (12388) about a mile away, but that means my existing antenna is facing 90deg out.
It currently on the front of the house facing the Mast and would have to be shifted to the west side with a long cable run, which I have avoided
 

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Just look at our 2x Smarty mobiles.
Both are using the Assington TV 10765 mast which is where i assumed the router was logged onto
 
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I hope this helps. Just having a play with the new beta Line-of-sight tools on mastdata.com

This is a topographical line-of-sight plot from the Sudbury mast, assuming its mast is 15m above ground level.
The postcode you quote above seems to be in a valley and has no LOS, so you might be receiving a reflected signal.


mastdata.com_LOS_1.webp
 
And with postcode as centre, and with router 5m above ground level. Logos depict nearest mast locations.
 

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BFG
Looking at the Cell ID, it appears my Huawei has latched onto the wrong Mast
I find it odd that it gets its signal from a mast several miles away and yet ignores the TV Mast 2 miles up the road
Is there anyway of forcing the Router to look at a different Cell ?
 
Some routers can lock to bands. If your router isn't selecting a nearer tower, it's likely to be that tower doesn't support the bands your router uses..

The first map is centered at Sudbury Transmitting Station, which is the TV mast near Assington.
Unless I've misunderstood I think it's the TV mast you're referring to, and although it's only 2 miles away you have a hill in the way I'm afraid.
 
Some routers can lock to bands. If your router isn't selecting a nearer tower, it's likely to be that tower doesn't support the bands your router uses..

The first map is centered at Sudbury Transmitting Station, which is the TV mast near Assington.
Unless I've misunderstood I think it's the TV mast you're referring to, and although it's only 2 miles away you have a hill in the way I'm afraid.


You can move an antenna but you can`t move a Hill
Thanks for everyones advice, it has been very much appreciated


Just a quick update. I have an Omni-Directional antenna on the window sill
Normally 3 bars with SNR of 2 dB
I have now placed a sheet of tin-foil behind the antenna, I now have
4 bars with SNR of 11
Speed increased from around 20-30 to 40Mbs (peaking at 46Mbs)
 
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