Understanding & Optimizing Your Cellular Data Performance

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Getting Better Cellular Data Speeds

RVers and Cruisers who need to keep connected are constantly wishing for just a bit more range and better speeds with their cellular data.

While it seems it should be as simple as getting as many bars as you can, it's usually not that easy.

One bar is bad, five bars is good - right?

But bars are only the tip of the iceberg - and when it comes to actual performance it is not at all unusual for a one bar signal in one location to outperform five in another.

There are a lot of variables that can impact the actual cellular performance you receive, and understanding them can help you better understand tweaks you can make to your setup to optimize for optimal performance. 

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Things That Impact Wireless Signals

Wether you are using smartphones, mobile hotspot devices or cellular embedded routers - your data performance is influenced by many things.

Some of these things may be out of your control – but it helps to understand all the things that may be impacting your signal in any given situation.

Signal Quality

While the number of bars your device displays is not a direct indicator of the speeds you'll receive (we'll get into that a bit below), they are a decent indicator of the quality of your signal. 

If you have a strong signal, you stand better odds of not only having a faster connection but a more stable & reliable connection with less drops outs and variations.

Thankfully, there are things you can do with antennas or boosters that can help you get a better signal. 

The quality of your signal is most directly impacted by these factors:

Distance

Radio waves can only travel so far and they get weaker the further they go. Cellular signals tend to travel at most 5-20 miles in range, depending on the frequency and the power of the transmitter on both the tower and your cellular device.

The lower the frequency of a cellular band, the further it can travel. 

The further a wireless signal travels, the less speed it can carry. 

The further you are from the tower, the weaker your signal might be and thus your performance declines. You can help bridge the distance with stronger antennas and boosters.

Every cell tower also has a software defined maximum range that it can communicate, and if you are even an inch out of range you will not be able to connect no matter how much boosting capability or a clear line of sight you have.

Line of Sight & Obstructions

Nothing improves a wireless signal more than having nothing but air between the tower and the antenna you are using for your cellular device.

If you can visually see the cell tower, there is a good chance your cellular device can too.

The fewer obstructions between you and the tower, the better. Buildings, hills, trees, heavy rain, other RVs and even your own RV or boat's construction can impact signal. 

This is what makes it important to put antennas above any obstructions like air conditioners, solar panels or other stuff on your roof. At the very least, placing your devices or antennas near a window, especially if your vessel is made of metal should be practiced.

An antenna at the top of a tall mast has nothing but clear air around it and help get over buildings and local area terrain. But go too high, and you start to contend with signal loss over the cabling.

It's a balance.

Interference

Wireless signals can also cause congestion and interference in the airwaves - impacting other signals.

If you've ever tuned to an FM radio station and heard two stations simultaneously, that is an analogous example. With cellular signals, the noisier it is, the harder it is for your device's voice to be heard. 

Wireless signal noise can originate from other cellular devices, or it could be background noise from microwave ovens, hairdryers, other wireless devices, severe storms, or even radiation from the sun.

The Modem Inside

Cellular technology is moving at a rapid pace and carriers push to compete against each other and meet customer demand.

This means they deploy more advanced technology all of the time with more capable cellular towers, deploying on different frequency bands that they've purchased spectrum on and support for more advanced cellular features that allow them to deliver more capacity.

The modem inside your cellular device is a critical component to actually tapping into what your carrier offers. Think of this like the engine of your RV or boat - the number of cylinders and size of the injectors directly impact the horsepower. 

Having a more modern modem can equate to faster speeds and more coverage. Having an older modem puts you in the slow lane and may actually have you missing out on expanded coverage. 

It's worthwhile to evaluate your cellular gear every year or two to see if it's time to update your equipment. It can make a huge improvement. 

Understanding Cellular Modem Specifications

Data Plans

Data plans come in all sorts of varieties, and even an 'unlimited' plan usually has limits.

You'll find limitations on mobile hotspot use at high speed, video resolution throttling, and network management terms all built into your data plans. Be sure to read the terms and understand how these might impact your usage. 

Getting a better signal will not do anything if these carrier policies are why your connection is slow.

Once you hit your high-speed cap, you are hard throttled down for the rest of your billing cycle - although some plans allow you to purchase extra data. And if you've reached your network management threshold, if you're in a congested area you may experience slower speeds temporarily. 

Select your data plans carefully to make sure they will meet your needs.

Selecting Cellular Data Plans

Network Congestion

If there are more people using cellular devices in a particular area than the local tower can handle - then things slow down for everyone. 

This is called network congestion - and it's like rush hour traffic on roadways.

Wireless signals can only carry so much data and cell towers can only serve so many devices at once. And in any given area, the carriers may only have so much internet capacity due to the available throughput into a town, and the wireless spectrum holdings they own to distribute it. 

This is why many data plans have network management policies, so the carriers can juggle the demands of their customers and prioritize data use on their network. If you're subject to network management, during these times are you are placed at the lowest priority. 

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Booster or Antennas?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of understanding your signal performance, we're often asked one basic question - are boosters or antennas better for enhancing your cellular data performance?

In our extensive field testing over the years, external antennas - especially MIMO antennas - outperform amplified boosters about 70-80% of the time

But it really comes down to the gear you're using for your cellular data access, as not all devices have antenna ports that can utilize external antennas. Mobile hotspots and cellular embedded routers tend to have this feature, whereas smartphones don't.

Boosters also can have a greater impact with helping with distance and with upload speeds (important for video broadcasting and uploading large files.)

We have separate guides going over the advantages of each approach, but here is a quick decision tree that might help you narrow in on what is the right choice for you:

 

Also, here's a quick video overview on MIMO Antennas vs Boosters:

Learn More about Boosters & Antennas:

Mobile Cellular Boosters Cellular Antennas

Regardless of what signal enhancing tools you're using (assuming you're using any), there is still a lot to understand about optimizing your signal to get the best cellular data performance you can.

Let's dig in...

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Measuring Your Signal Enhancing Efforts — Bars vs Speed

Bars are relatively meaningless in the effort to determine your actual cellular data performance. They're a nice visual indicator of relative signal strength, but each device manufacturer uses their own formulas to determine what kind of signal equates to 1 bar versus 4 bars.

Bars on your device usually have little correlation to how fast your connection will be since there is a lot more going on behind the scenes that impact data speed.

Data speed, reliability, and consistency are what really matter when considering a mobile internet connection.

So if bars aren't a reliable indicator of data performance, what is?

To truly optimize your connectivity, you need to learn how to measure your real-world data performance.  Then, you can do additional measurements with antennas or boosters to see if they have a positive impact.

And the best quantitative measurement of this is your actual download and upload speeds.

To learn more about testing your data speeds and also understand other aspects like raw signal strength, signal-noise ratio, and latency - head on over to our companion guide:

Testing Your Mobile Internet Speeds Guide

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Member Only Content In This Guide

Here's a sneak peak at the member exclusive topics in this guide:

Frequency Bands Explained

Each carrier has its cellular network deployed over a variety of wireless frequency bands. If you want access to a carrier’s entire network, it helps to understand your carrier's roadmap and cellular frequency bands so you can select the right signal enhancing gear.

Hidden Multipliers: MIMO & Carrier Aggregation

Understanding these core cellular technologies will help you better select gear to optimize cellular data performance.

Strategies For Signal & Performance Enhancing

Building on the previous sections, this section goes over the specific strategies for improving cellular data performance - ranging from the extremely simple to the most complex.

Booster & Antenna Considerations

This section continues the theme but goes deeper into ways that cellular boosters and antennas can help or hurt cellular data performance. For example, the costs and benefits of using 2x2 MIMO in a 4x4 MIMO world, tips for utilizing directional antennas and finding cell towers.

Dealing With Network Congestion

When the cellular towers at your current location are experiencing high traffic, your data performance can suffer. This section goes over what you can (and can't) do to get around this.

Troubleshooting Guidelines

Getting poor cellular data performance? This section walks you through things to look at it in diagnosing where the issues might be - and how to counteract them if you can.

Video Overview

This is an in-depth video archive of a member webinar, recapping this guide.

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Conclusion: Analyze Before You Optimize

There are a few different options for optimizing cellular data performance, but before you know how to proceed you need to be aware of things that could be affecting your current performance.

Line of sight to towers, distance, technology supported by your equipment, network congestion, and data plan restrictions are just a few of the things that could have an effect.

There are easy solutions, like moving your equipment or using an indoor antenna, or more advanced solutions like a directly wired antenna or a cellular booster.

And sometimes.. there's just no solution to getting better speeds at your current location and you either need to move or find something else to do.