Capacity Of Single Cell Tower

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dotcat

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Would the following work?

45 users all on one network, connecting to the same cell tower. All streaming the same broadcast over the internet. The broadcast (if my maths is correct) is 16MB per minute or 0.3MB/s. The video stream is broadcast for 15 minutes and the file is around 250MB.

Would the cell tower be able to handle this about of bandwidth? It is a tower that offers 3G.

Thanks.
 
16MB (megabytes) per minute is about 2.33Mbps (megabits per second).

2.33Mbps * 45 = 104Mbps.

I don't think you'll be able to get that from a single 3G tower even if the users were spread equally around the tower, i.e. 15 users per cell.
 
ginggs said:
16MB (megabytes) per minute is about 2.33Mbps (megabits per second).

2.33Mbps * 45 = 104Mbps.

I don't think you'll be able to get that from a single 3G tower even if the users were spread equally around the tower, i.e. 15 users per cell.
Click to expand...

So you're telling me a cellular tower can't even handle 100mbps via fibre optic backbone? :wtf:

I seriously doubt that.
 
genetic said:
So you're telling me a cellular tower can't even handle 100mbps via fibre optic backbone? :wtf:

I seriously doubt that.
Click to expand...
OP said it's a 3G tower, not LTE. So 21Mbps or 42Mbps per cell at most.
 
ginggs said:
OP said it's a 3G tower, not LTE. So 21Mbps or 42Mbps per cell at most.
Click to expand...

That must be per user surely? There is no ways a tower can have a 40 odd mbps backbone.

Towers are not connected to the core network via a measly couple of mbps...
 
Yup each sector on a 3G tower is 21.6mbps. Usually 3-6 sectors on a tower. Thats why in ads they say you get up to 21.6mbps - yes if youre the only person connecting. Thats why most towers in urban areas have a coverage radius of 0.5km - 2km only or else there just isn't enough capacity. Also why uncapped isn't feasible on 3G as the network would grind to a halt.

This is where cellcs problem with poor data on their network came from. They chose 900mhz for 3G in urban areas, which can cover probably 1.5 - 2 x normal 2100mhz of the other networks. But there was still only 21.6mbps connectivity per cell. Plus there cheap pricing + inefficiencies of having too many people connected to a single sector (whether moving data or not) = dead network.

This is why LTE has been punted so much - it speeds things up to 100mbps per sector. Even if you only get double what you were getting on 3G (which is often the case), at least 1 sector can handle more people
 
SAdata said:
Yup each sector on a 3G tower is 21.6mbps. Usually 3-6 sectors on a tower. Thats why in ads they say you get up to 21.6mbps - yes if youre the only person connecting. Thats why most towers in urban areas have a coverage radius of 0.5km - 2km only or else there just isn't enough capacity. Also why uncapped isn't feasible on 3G as the network would grind to a halt.

This is where cellcs problem with poor data on their network came from. They chose 900mhz for 3G in urban areas, which can cover probably 1.5 - 2 x normal 2100mhz of the other networks. But there was still only 21.6mbps connectivity per cell. Plus there cheap pricing + inefficiencies of having too many people connected to a single sector (whether moving data or not) = dead network.

This is why LTE has been punted so much - it speeds things up to 100mbps per sector. Even if you only get double what you were getting on 3G (which is often the case), at least 1 sector can handle more people
Click to expand...


Yeah its pretty sad. It means they are just cramming more and more people on a single tower. You get great 3G coverage with Cellc but no throughput cause there is just too many people connected to the tower.


I actually tested a tower. Visited my gran on a farm which has full 3G coverage and about 11Mbps connection so the tower is very quiet. I connected a modem to the laptop and fired up a torrent getting about 1.2MB/s download speed. On a completely different sim and device in the same place with the same bars when I ran a speedtest I only managed about 3Mbps max meaning my download was actually congesting the tower. As soon as I stopped the download on my laptop the speedtest ran @ 10Mbps on my phone.

900mhz was a big mistake from them to use it in urban areas. I see MTN ONLY use 900mhz in rural areas or national parks.
 
ok so here is some real world feedback. It was tried out this morning and it works flawlessly.....
 
This is actually quite interesting. I wonder if this why my signal is so bad :P
 
dotcat said:
ok so here is some real world feedback. It was tried out this morning and it works flawlessly.....
Click to expand...

Only saw this now, would have confirmed it before hand.

Towers can serve around 15 users per sector on HSPA+ at any one point in time. The resolution on this is around 2ms.

So over a second you can get many more users, just depends on the overall demand.
 
Easy, even 450 people...
4500 people of the other hand.... hmmm.
 
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