Speed difference between Huawei B618 and OnePlus 7

[Mr M]

Hi Everyone

I'm hoping someone can guide me as to why there is a huge speed difference when I access the Telkom LTE network via my router vs via my phone.

Both devices support LTE-A and I can access the 2300 and 1800 Mhz frequency on the router. The max DL speed I can get on the router is between 20 - 50 Mbps.
Using the phone I hit 190 Mbps regularly. See attached pic.

So my question is: how do I access these speeds using my router?

 

[DapperDanMan]

Your devices are likely connecting to different towers (high sites) but, using an available script/app, you can force the router to connect to any particular one so that you can run comparisons.
Search the forum for Band Forcing, Carrier Aggregation (CA), etc, to get more insight about your findings.

 

[Leno]

I think your phone can also do Carrier Aggregation over all 3 telkom bands (1800 & 2x2300)

I think the b618 can only do 2CA on 2300

 

[Mr M]

Thanks for the info D and Leno.

Will read up a bit on carrier Aggregation and see if I can get a router that can get close to this.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

sure with a custom firmware on the B618 one can get the speeds to match,

or might just be something behind the scenes that sees what is a router, that potentially delivers internet for a few people.
and a Phone that usually only connects one person, and "throttles" the connection based on the device type?

wouldn't be the first time such things are implemented by RAIN.

 

[Mr M]

After reading up a bit on CA , I see that the OP7 supports 5CA so it's able to maximize the 1800 and 2 x 2300 bands (thanks to Leno for this info)

The B618 supports 3CA so it should be able to theoretically mimic the connection that the phone does.
Fixing the band to the 2300 Band doesn't provide much of a speed increase.,

I'll try leaving the setting on Auto to see if it can do the 3CA aggregation when the band is not fixed.

 

[Leno]

check if it supports 3CA across different bands

I think the B618 3CA is over the same band

Intra vs Inter Band CA

 

[Mr M]

After a little bit of testing and changing the config on my router, I was able to consistently get speeds over 100Mbps.
If anyone else has the same router (B618-65d) and would like to see if they can improve speeds, just follow below.

1. I had my router fixed to the 1800 Mhz Band. I changed this setting to "4G Only". This option allows carrier aggregation and the status does change to 4G+ when downloading.

2. My wlan frequency was set to 2.4 Ghz (have a few older devices). When I made the change above, the speed on this frequency almost doubled (60 - 80 Mbp) but I was still far off from what I was seeing when testing LTE-A on my phone.
I then added a 5 Ghz wlan and redid the same test. The results were much better. see attached pic.

@Leno - I'm open to correction but I'm fairly certain that intra Band CA did happen on the B618 as I'm now seeing similar speeds as to what I saw on my phone. Thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Kiemo]

After a little bit of testing and changing the config on my router, I was able to consistently get speeds over 100Mbps.
If anyone else has the same router (B618-65d) and would like to see if they can improve speeds, just follow below.

1. I had my router fixed to the 1800 Mhz Band. I changed this setting to "4G Only". This option allows carrier aggregation and the status does change to 4G+ when downloading.

2. My wlan frequency was set to 2.4 Ghz (have a few older devices). When I made the change above, the speed on this frequency almost doubled (60 - 80 Mbp) but I was still far off from what I was seeing when testing LTE-A on my phone.
I then added a 5 Ghz wlan and redid the same test. The results were much better. see attached pic.

@Leno - I'm open to correction but I'm fairly certain that intra Band CA did happen on the B618 as I'm now seeing similar speeds as to what I saw on my phone. Thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction.

View attachment 869167

I’ll try this tonight definitely

 

[Kiemo]

Wait how did you get to set it to 1800 and 4g at the same time ?

 

[KingLv]

Just to add the B618-65d is cat11(if i remember correctly)
Your phone can do Cat 16

 

[KingLv]

Wait how did you get to set it to 1800 and 4g at the same time ?

On Telkom huawei routers you should have the option to change bands.
B618-65d support Band40(2300Mhz) so they should have this.
The Vodacom ones don't have these options.

There is also a band tool you can use from your PC. Will see if I can find it. Will post here if I do.

 

[KingLv]

Here is the band tool. edit config file with your routers login details.

 

[Kiemo]

On Telkom huawei routers you should have the option to change bands.
B618-65d support Band40(2300Mhz) so they should have this.
The Vodacom ones don't have these options.

There is also a band tool you can use from your PC. Will see if I can find it. Will post here if I do.
View attachment 869705

Thanks buddy I have that 2300 on my router ... night time speeds wasn’t that greet

 

[Kiemo]

After a little bit of testing and changing the config on my router, I was able to consistently get speeds over 100Mbps.
If anyone else has the same router (B618-65d) and would like to see if they can improve speeds, just follow below.

1. I had my router fixed to the 1800 Mhz Band. I changed this setting to "4G Only". This option allows carrier aggregation and the status does change to 4G+ when downloading.

2. My wlan frequency was set to 2.4 Ghz (have a few older devices). When I made the change above, the speed on this frequency almost doubled (60 - 80 Mbp) but I was still far off from what I was seeing when testing LTE-A on my phone.
I then added a 5 Ghz wlan and redid the same test. The results were much better. see attached pic.

@Leno - I'm open to correction but I'm fairly certain that intra Band CA did happen on the B618 as I'm now seeing similar speeds as to what I saw on my phone. Thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction.

View attachment 869167

Make a video to show how you did this

 

[cavedog]

So unfortunately Telkom does not support aggregating between their FDD and TDD bands. So for now it's just B1+B3 OR B40+B40

Leaving the Huawei B618 on Auto will allow for B40+B40 when downloading and when uploading constantly it switches to B3 for uploads. The issue is it does not like to always switch back to B40+B40 on the download and you find yourself with slower downloads.

Forcing only 2300MHz Band 40 will likely see your uploads drop to about 5-12Mbps max.