I am having some fun with an HD2 LTE-A (distracting myself from writing a report about cloud computing security, which is what I really should be doing).
Setup:
Location: SF Bay metro
Client: MAX HD2 HW5 LTE-A, 8.1.0 build 4943
Verizon SIM card in one radio,
Visible in the other.
Server: Balance 380 hw6, 8.1.0 build 4942
1Gbps fiber to the backbone
Experiments:
Run the WAN performance client against the Balance 380.
Each run (down and up) for 20 seconds, TCP.
Force a number of band selections, each pair of bands (for LTE-A) being exercised once for each radio.
This is all fairly ad hoc, and certainly no more than anecdotal in its import.
Chief take-away:
- Visible is extremely sensitive to the choice of bands.
- The Auto setting seems to do well in its selection
- Oddly, the “Generic” network mode opened up more band combinations for the Verizon SIM card than were available using the “Verizon” mode.
- Verizon seemed to be far more stable in its speed, from second to second. Visible’s graph was generally far more jaggy.
The details:
With both radios set to Auto band selection, the Verizon card selected 13 + 4, and the Visible card selected 5 + 4.
A series of forced choices for Visible got us this (down/up speeds):
Band 5+4 result: 17/6 Mbps (the Auto choice)
Band 2+13 result: 12/1 Mbps
Band 4+13 result: 0.7/0.3 Mbps
Band 5+2 result: 8/4 Mbps
Band 5 (by itself - LTE) result: 7/5 Mbps
Similarly for Verizon (in “Verizon” network mode):
Band 13+4 result: 17/2.4 Mbps (the Auto choice)
Band 5 (by itself - LTE) result: 6/5 Mbps
Band 4 (by itself - LTE) result: 2.2/1.4 Mbps
With Band 13 turned off, Verizon did not provide LTE-A connections - only LTE (single band).
When I changed to the “Generic” network mode for the radio with the Verizon card, the set of bands employed by the Verizon SIM card expanded.
Band 2+13 result: 16/5 Mbps
Band 4+13 result: 9/1.4 Mbps
Band 5+2 result: 12/5 Mbps
Band 5+4 result: 13/5 Mbps
As a curiosity: When the network mode was Generic and Band selection was Auto, the Verizon radio picked 5+4 (the same as the Visible radio). When the network mode was changed to Verizon then the Verizon radio selected 13+4 (as previously).
Now - back to writing that report.
Enjoy!
Z