Easy way to get higher LTE speeds and lower latency

Poynting chairman Andre Fourie has said it is possible to achieve higher broadband speeds and lower latency using two LTE routers and two Poynting LTE MiMo antennas. His explanation is detailed below.

We were looking at the concept of load balancing 2 LTE routers to increase LTE speed. Load balancing refers to efficiently distributing incoming network traffic.

We heard from gamers they achieved download speeds close to 170Mbps and upload speed of around 100Mbps.

Although sounding a bit far-fetched, the idea did warrant looking into – both from a techie and commercial perspective.

We did informal tests at our offices in Cape Town and this gives the results.

The aim was to establish whether merit exists for proper testing with external antennas, with the purpose of doubling LTE speed.

Preliminary testing with two Telkom LTE routers (2 SIM cards) pointing to the same base station indicates combining the 2 routers via a load balancing router produces speeds close to the sum of the speed of each router, while ping achieved was equal to the one getting the lowest ping.

The first tests were to see if everything works. “External” Poynting antennas were mounted indoors for the tests. We shall follow up by mounting antennas outdoors to get to “real” speeds expected for outdoor antennas.

We used the following hardware in these tests:

• 2 x XPOL-2v2/6 Poynting LTE MiMo antennas
• 2 x B315 LTE Routers
• 1 x TP Load balance router

We found the following:

• Two LTE routers linked to the same base station gives speeds of between 1.85 to 1.95-times compared to adding speeds from each operated by itself.
• The upload speed showed a similar improvement.
• The ping of the “best” LTE router was retained in the combined solution. The best ping was the one giving slower speeds, so we got the “best ping” from the slower router and still had the combined speed of both.
• It might be better to use two different operators in this test. It would also ensure capacity variations are better handled. This needs some investigation.
• A cost-effective solution might be to have an account for one “fixed router”. Example: Telkom uncapped account and use your phone SIM in the router when you are gaming. This will depend if one can adjust the load balancing to give preference to the cheaper fixed-line and use the “expensive” phone account only when required.

Below is a summary of the results achieved.

Two routers with their own antennas.

• Best download speed = 26.47Mbps
• Best upload speed = 8.22Mbps
• Best latency = 11ms

Two routers, connected to a load balance router, with their own antennas.

• Best download speed = 27.77Mbps
• Best upload speed = 7.92Mbps
• Best latency = 30ms

Two routers, with Poynting XBOL-2v2 outdoor antennas.

• Best download speed = 26.59Mbps
• Best upload speed = 8.94Mbps
• Best latency = 13ms

Two routers, connected to a load balance router, with Poynting XBOL-2v2 outdoor antennas.

• Best download speed = 39.92Mbps
• Best upload speed = 11.77Mbps
• Best latency = 13ms

The final results

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