Antenna installation and alignment

[Teejaybee]

Congratulations on that post, jcheek, it is simply superb. Thanks to all for sharing their data and feedback to allow a post like this! This could easily have been a MyBB article.

+1 great post jcheek...it doesn't get any better than that!

 

[Azimuth]

Tag post for deletion.

 

[sajunky]

Your RSSI (raw signal power) and RSRP (useful signal power) look OK, as does the 26db difference between them.

This is about or close to minimum for 20MHz channel.
I still maintain my initial thought that device is switching to 3G during some tests. You claim is that it operates in LTE-only mode - I don't know how you figured it out - configuration printout only shows the current mode.

RG-58 cannot be blamed for switching to 3G, no way.

 

[Azimuth]

Just to share and keep things interesting, last year I did an LTE installation in Wilgeheuwel. The owner had already taken out a Telkom Mobile contract so the cellular network was decided. In my mind this was a great pity as there was LOS to a Vodacom tower down the road, approximately 400m away. Oh well.

Here are the initial survey photos I took while trying to find an MTN/Telkom Mobile tower.

In the initial survey, I could only find the tower structures in the photos above but they aren't cell towers. I've since located what I hope to be an MTN tower behind the hill in the first photo, in line with the solar geyser.

Right now the owner gets 3 bars LTE signal but not great throughput. Certainly a damn side better than 3G signal, of which there is barely 1 bar. He was using an E5331 MiFi and I upgraded him to a B593 LTE CPE.

Once I've decided on an appropriate antenna solution, I'll provide feedback with the actual installation and finally the alignment of the antennas.

I never got a chance to give feedback on the antennas I tested at this site. I had every intention of giving the XPOL-06 a go but also wanted to try the XPOL-0001. This is what I ended up doing:

An XPOL-0001 at the top, then an LPDA-0020 like what jcheek used, then finally the XPOL-06.

The XPOL-0001 that has earned a bit of a rep already due to some peoples' success. This antenna boosted the signal from 3 bars indoors to 4 bars outdoors. Indoors, the download speed was good but very inconsistent. The upload speed was poor. Outdoors, with the XPOL-0001 hooked up, the download speed normalised but the upload boosted to around the 8Mbps max for TM LTE. The RSRP reported at -92dBM and RSRQ at -7dBM.

I was forced to used the B593 LTE router outside due to the relatively short 5m cable. Oddly, the XPOL-0001 is the only antenna I know of that uses white coaxial cable. Perhaps with the XPOL-0001 they don't use HDF-195?

 

[Azimuth]

Next up I put the XPOL-06 through its paces. This antenna boosted the signal to 5 bars and was aimed more or less at the base station with good LOS. RSRP reported at -80dBM and RSRQ at -6dBM.

Last but not least the LPDA-0020 was tested against the XPOL-06.

Full signal was also attained but RSRP improved from -80dBM to -76dBM. RSRQ reported at -8dBM (quality decreased by 2dBM compared to the XPOL-06). Speed tests were however near identical.

The only clear advantage was that the XPOL-06 was bundled with double the cable length (10m)

The last thing I did, just to know what's possible, was test TM LTE against MTN LTE. (Base station I had LOS had MTN, TM and Cell C equipment)

I found MTN LTE to be faster all round and the upload was a satisfying 19Mbps (near max for MTN LTE upload).

With TM LTE, I obtained 18Mbps DL and 8Mbps UL.

With MTN LTE I obtained 27Mbps DL and 19Mbps UL.

Interestingly I've observed this same performance edge at my own base station with MTN outing TM LTE.

Wrapping things up, the decision was made that the XPOL-06 was the winner (10m cable length and 11dBi FTW).

Obligatory cable routing. Boy what a surprise, the inside of the roof was was 'new' clean!

 

[Teejaybee]

Nice comparative testing there Azimuth!

 

[Azimuth]

Thanks, TJB. I have a similar one to do this coming weekend. I've also gotten my hands on a XPOL-0002-v2, so keen to see what it does for TM LTE.

I'll be running two separate masts and two B593's in the next round. I'll also throw Vodacom LTE into the mix. Looking forward to using my newly-purchased Makita electric drill. My cordless drill died with the last job.

 

[Teejaybee]

Thanks, TJB. I have a similar one to do this coming weekend. I've also gotten my hands on a XPOL-0002-v2, so keen to see what it does for TM LTE.

I'll be running two separate masts and two B593's in the next round. I'll also throw Vodacom LTE into the mix. Looking forward to using my newly-purchased Makita electric drill. My cordless drill died with the last job.

It should be interesting to see the results of the XPOL-0002-v2. You sound more excited about your new drill - ha ha!

 

[Azimuth]

Don't make me start a "I <3 Makita" thread.

 

[Biggles190]

As requested by Azimuth a while ago....http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/630443-The-Poynting-antenna-discussion-thread?p=13281830&viewfull=1#post13281830

Here is my experiments with and without my Poynting XPOL-0001:

Area: Northwold
Service provider: Telkom Mobile (Prepaid, 60GB + 60GB)
Distance from tower: 440m (now officially measured!)
Cell ID: 28105678 (Ann Harding home for the physically disabled)
Antennas used: Poynting XPOL-0001
Mast and bracket: Custom made (don't laugh!)
Router: Huawei B593-601 LTE CPE





The cell tower is inside the red circle. I don't exactly have LOS... the tree in the picture is in the way (the cable is about 0.3 metres too short!) But this antenna is not a LOS antenna, so I reckon it shouldn't make a big difference.

Using the paddle antenna's first:
Bars: 3
RSSI: -69
RSRP: -94
RSRQ: -6


Using the internal antenna:
Bars: 4
RSSI: -65
RSRP: -90
RSRQ: -6


Using the XPOL-0001
Bars: 4-5
RSSI: -61
RSRP: -82
RSRQ: -6


So although the numbers improve nicely, the speed doesn't improve much - I haven't seen in the 70's now for a long time...
This is also the first time I use the internal antenna - what an amazing result!

 

[Biggles190]

Now using Vodacom:

Paddles:
Bars: 2-3
RSSI: -75
RSRP: -95
RSRQ: -6 to -7


Internal antenna:
Bars: 3
RSSI: -71
RSRP: -93
RSRQ: -6 to -7


XPOL-0001:
Bars: 4-5
RSSI: -61
RSRP: -82
RSRQ: -6 to -7


Using the internal antenna produced much greater speeds. I tested this twice to confirm. Is there a boffin here that can explain this?!

 

[Biggles190]

And now MTN:

Paddles:
Bars: 3
RSSI: -73
RSRP: -95
RSRQ: -6


Internal antenna:
Bars: 3
RSSI: -73
RSRP: -95
RSRQ: -6


XPOL-0001:
Bars: 4-5
RSSI: -59
RSRP: -83
RSRQ: -6


Not sure why the speed test is so much slower using the XPOL-0001. I suspect I was being throttled maybe? It is a MTN data contract sim. I retested using the internal antenna and got this:



I will test the MTN sim card with the XPOL-0001 later again, when the suspected throttling is over....

Its worth noting that the tower I think I am using serves MTN, Vodacom and TM.

Overall the improvement in speed using the XPOL-0001 is not much (looking at the TM results). So my question is... is it worth investing in Poynting's LPDA-0092's? With 10 metres of cable and a proper mast I can achieve LOS. But will I get the speed? Its all about the speed!!!

 

[Teejaybee]

Your results are very interesting. I use 2 LPDA-0092's and while they improved my signal strength and quality considerably it did absolutely nothing for download and upload speeds. I'm getting the same speeds now (with 5 bars LTE) and good RSSI, RSRP, RSRQ etc than I got with no antennas and much poorer signal strength and quality (1 or 2 bars LTE). I was pointing to a Telkom 30meg tower and now (since yesterday) point to a Telkom 100meg tower - my signal quality improved slightly (from one tower to another) but speeds are still the same at around 12Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload - quite disappointing. My experience is that external antennas give you good signal quality and a sound connection at all times but in my case it did nothing to improve my speeds.

Good luck and please keep us posted - as we share info we learn more and are able to share our experiences with others.

 

[Azimuth]

How odd. I thought I replied to this thread yesterday after Biggles190 posted.

It's amazing to see time after time how the external paddle antennas provided with the B593 are poo. How the heck did Huawei test them??

Regards the rest of your tests, it's hard to make a conclusion that gives the answers. On the one hand your signal and quality levels are improving drastically. On the other hand you're getting better speeds without the outdoor antenna. Sigh. I can only think long term your experience will be all the more stable and your speeds will be more consistent. Your signal levels tell us so.

 

[sajunky]

It's amazing to see time after time how the external paddle antennas provided with the B593 are poo. How the heck did Huawei test them??

Internal antenna is tested professionally and work as expected. Once you attach bunny ears, performance depends on your own settings. You don't have knowledge nor expensive laborarory equipment to tune up bunny ears, particularly in 2x2MIMO mode.

 

[Biggles190]

Interesting Teejaybee that you get no improvement in speed with your antenna's. I'm no expert at this at all, but maybe there is something else holding you back? Maybe your router/computer/cell phone is slowing things down... Or even worse....you have serious LTE congestion!

There is only one sure conclusion from my tests - the B593's internal antenna is bloody brilliant! Especially on Vodacon.

So climbed my roof again yesterday afternoon to fix the DSTV (unrelated problem), and I managed to find a spot where I get LOS with my little XPOL-0001. Now I get permanent 5 bars. Did a speed test on TM this morning:



Amazing! Will do some more tests to confirm stability at this speed, and try MTN again.

 

[sajunky]

There is only one sure conclusion from my tests - the B593's internal antenna is bloody brilliant! Especially on Vodacon.

Inherited from B683 (possibly the same design).

 

[Teejaybee]

Interesting Teejaybee that you get no improvement in speed with your antenna's. I'm no expert at this at all, but maybe there is something else holding you back? Maybe your router/computer/cell phone is slowing things down... Or even worse....you have serious LTE congestion!

There is only one sure conclusion from my tests - the B593's internal antenna is bloody brilliant! Especially on Vodacon.

So climbed my roof again yesterday afternoon to fix the DSTV (unrelated problem), and I managed to find a spot where I get LOS with my little XPOL-0001. Now I get permanent 5 bars. Did a speed test on TM this morning:

View attachment 144338

Amazing! Will do some more tests to confirm stability at this speed, and try MTN again.

I think everyone's circumstances are different. Using internal antennas only on my B593 I am lucky to get 1 bar LTE. With my external LPDA-0092's I get 5 bars and good RSSI, RSRP, RSRQ. I am convinced that speed is determined by the capacity of the tower, congestion, and so on.

 

[Teejaybee]

Update on my story....so to cut a long story short...I have a Huawei B593s-601 router, using Telkom, with 2 Poynting LPDA-0092 antennas. I was pointing to a Telkom 30Mbps tower and had results of around 13Mbps download and 6Mbps upload. I now connect to a Telkom 100Mbps tower and my download and upload speeds are the same as before. I expected my speeds to improve but they didn't - why would that be?

My signal strength is good:

RSSI (dBm) -43.0
RSRP (dBm) -69.0
RSRQ (dB) -6.0

 

[Azimuth]

Another interesting thing to compare. You're what, 800m away from the tower? I obtained the same -69dBm, also with LPDA-0092's, but I'm 1622m away.

As for why you're not seeing 70+Mbps speeds on the 100Mbps tower is a mystery. From what I've gathered from your posts, you don't have congestion on your towers yet. I say this because your peak and off-peak speeds are all the same.