3G latency

[Dolby]

Hi,

I know by definition wireless has a problem with latency and 3G suffers from this. It's never bothered me in the past, but recently I started trying online games and no one wants to play with me because of this

In laymens terms, what is this? And why can get double download speeds of ADSL yet suffer so much with latency? What else would it effect?

Thanks,

 

[Napalm]

Seriously dude, "double download speeds of ADSL " uhhhm. no.

4mbit dsl can download at aroudn 400kb per second (24mb per minute)

---------------------------
Back to your Issue :

Basically wireless works like this. Good Signal Strength + Good Signal Quality = Lekka internet experience, hence lower pings.

What happens is this, Good Signal Strength + Bad Signal quality = Bad pings
Bad Signal Strength + Good Signal quality = Good and bad Ping spikes.

To test this,
Click Start -> Run. Type in CMD
*Black dos box pops up*

Type in the box , Ping Karoo.mweb.co.za -t

It will show you delay time or ping messured in millisecond (ms)

example : Reply from 196.2.128.100: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=117

you should be getting around 100ms to 200ms ping on Vodacom and MTN.

(if your using a wireless Router/modem thingie, then move your router/modem around to left and right, closer to a window or further away in 5min intervals)

If you are using you cellphone as a modem, then move your cellphone to different spots in the room

(the lower the ping, the better)

Hope this helps :>>

 

[Dolby]

Sorry - I meant my ADSL at my old place (384)

I could get 30-40kbps download speed with that ADSL and 80-90kbps with 3G. However no one moaned about my latency on the ADSL but I do get moaned at on 3G.

Are you saying pings = latency? Slow pings = high latency?

Lastly, does moving the modem around actually work? I assumed you wouldn't get better signal by moving 50cm around with the cord ... so mine (modem) just dangles whereever.

Thanks!

 

[vodacom3g]

Think we've covered this at length before, maybe a search will pop something up.

Basically latency is a function of the number of elements in the path between you and the other device and is measured in seconds. Each element will add some latency. The sum total of all these latencies (transmission clocks + store and forward processing), in both directions along the way, will give you the value you see when you 'ping' another node.

Also remember, in the protocol stack, a lower layer may introduce retries that will be seen as latency at a higher layer.

Think of an empty hosepipe. If you put one drop in and measure the time it takes to pop out the other end, you've measure the one-way latency.

Throughput is a measure of the total bandwidth available and is measure in bits/second, i.e, how much data you can move in one direction.

Take the same hosepipe, but now fill it up with water. If you now put one drop in, a drop will immediately fall out the other end. so you can move a lot of water through the pipe, seeming instantaneously. The bigger the pipe, the more water you can flow. This is throughput. On 3G, throughput can be up to 1.8Mb/s in one direction.

In 3G networks (as with all RF based networks) there are many more elements and they all add latency. So you could see high throughput (up to 3.6Mb/s) but higher latency than a corresponding ADSL line, where none of the radio complications come in.

Bottom line, latency will always be more of an issue on wireless than wired networks.

 

[HavocXphere]

I assumed you wouldn't get better signal by moving 50cm around with the cord

It does make a difference if the reception is borderline. If the entire house has full blast signal anyway then it won't help.

 

[Dolby]

Wow ...

Sent 16 packets, received 7, lost 9 ... 56% loss

That was to karoo.mweb.co.za

Average time 118ms

 

[Pyro]

Mmm...

Think of it as a stretch of road.

Bandwidth (Download speed) is the size of the trucks that travel on it.
The speed limit (or length of the road) is the latency (response time).
Packet loss is how many trucks break down, and a replacement truck has to be sent.