Booster nearby causing interference?

Product Discussion
#1

We have trailers that we setup pepwave in, that are located inside a oil/gas refinery.
We have 7 trailers side by side, and each one has a weboost cellular booster with external antennas.
These trailers are bomb proof and 2 inch steel, so must use boosters to get cell service inside of them.

On one of the trailers we have a pepwave, for data.
The SINR is pretty bad on the pepwave that is located in this area of trailers. We are lucky to get 8mbps. We are using external antennas for this pepwave. It’s not going through the cell boosters.

The funny thing is, we have a single trailer located about a block away that the path goes RIGHT over these trailers, yet it has a great SINR and downloads at 60+ mbps.

Both trailers are using the same service, on the same bands… Could the cellular boosters be causing interference on the pepwave located near them?

#2

Absolutely. No way to do a roof penetration and simply mount one or more antennas on the roof? What do the signals look like from each trailer without the booster in use (SINR, RSRP, etc, not RSSI)?

#3

Each trailers cell booster is external. And the one trailer with the pepwave is also an external antenna.

#4

OK. It’s impossible to connect a router to an external antenna and bypass the booster?

While there is a “place in the world” for these devices our experience is that they are seriously overused – used inappropriately. They often have the exact opposite effect of what is intended. It would be good to conduct an experiment to see if your initial finding can be corroborated.

#5

I’m not sure what you mean. Each trailer has external antennas for the cellular boosters. They have to as the trailers are made of 2inch steel.

The pepwave also has an external antenna and is located in one of the 7 trailers (that are all side by side). So in extremely close proximity to the cell booster antennas.

#6

OK. And now I am not certain I am following you either. ;<) Do I understand correctly that you have a booster outside each trailer and your are using the Peplink router inside the trailer with the OEM antennas? And, penetration of the 2" shell of each trailer for the purpose of installing an external antenna is not permissible? Each trailer has one booster and a router inside associated with it?

#7

OK - I got you. everyone else is missing where you said the pepwave HAS EXTERNAL ANTENNA.
I answer to your questiion “could the pepwave antenna be piccking up interference from the cellular booster” I would say “hell yes, especially if they are close to each other”.
If you place two pepwaves right next to each other one or both will have poor cellular, poor wifi range etc. I sometimes have three or four pepwaves on the bench, and I sometimes have to spread them three or four feet apart or the cellular will not connect.
Just how close are they?
The pepwave could possibly also be getting reflections off the steep roof. not sure about that but it seems possible.
I would try switching to a longer good low loss set of antenna cables, and mount the pewave antennas at the other end of the root, possibly on a raised mount if that is practical. Dows not have to be a tower…just five or six feet up.