Subscribe to this feed via RSSIn this post you will learn how you may get a from low signal Edge connection to a high-speed 70 MBit/s LTE connection suitable to HD and 4k video streaming.
If you find yourself in a home without DSL and cable you possibly have to fall back to a 4G/LTE connection.
Finding an LTE contract with unlimited traffic
In Germany, it exists but is fairly expensive. At the time of this writing Telekom offered Magenta XXL for about 199 € / month. Yeah, I know. The good thing is that you’ll have this traffic all across Europe and USA. So if you are a frequent traveller, you’ll get three SIM cards. Saving roaming expenses makes it worth it. Not selling it here, though.
If you’re using LTE at home only, maybe a more cost efficient choice are hybrid plans which come with a small bandwidth DSL connection (e.g. 2 MBit/s) and offloading load peaks to an LTE connection. These plans often are way cheaper.
Weak LTE Signals - Boost LTE Signal
It may happen that even with a unlimited data plan you still face the challenge of a weak LTE signal. The weaker the signal, the lower your data rates are. So getting a strong signal is a key challenge to this project.
While there are LTE repeaters which literally amplify the GSM, HSDPA, 3G, 4G or LTE signal, they are expensive and legally not always unproblematic. Let’s leave these options aside as they might be unnecessary.
Finding your nearest Base Station
In order to maximize the 4G/LTE signal you need to align perfectly with the closest base station of your GSM provider. Nearly all providers allow you lookup cell towers on a map. For example, Telekom offers a map “Telekom Netzausbau”. This map helps to locate the closest base station including its cardinal point relative to your location as well as its supported LTE frequencies. For example: 253° south-west, LTE 800 & LTE 1800.
These pieces of information are very important as they are input to our strategy: using an external directional antenna.
External Directional Antenna
Using an external antenna can make a huge difference. In a particular case, there was absolute now LTE signal in the apartment. Even the cell-phone signal was poor. In cases like this, it’s important to understand why the signal is poor.
With a cell tower being as close as 4 km both the receiver and sender being on the top of a hill with a clear sight between them, there is plenty of hope. The reason being, the LTE signal is generally there but it is the building and surrounding trees reaching into the Fresnel Zone influencing the signal.
With an external antenna you can overcome the signal damping factor of the building and when mounted on top of the roof preferable manage a clear sight to the base tower.
The next factor to improve the signal is to use a directional antenna such as a log-periodic antenna.
Choosing the LTE Frequency
Aiming for the maximum bandwidth and knowing that the base tower supports LTE 1800 MHz LTE with up to 150 MBit/s whereas LTE 800 Mhz only supports up to 50 MBit/s the choice is clearly LTE 1800 MHz.
So just in case you are wondering: the lower frequency LTE 800 MHz can be your best friend if you are living outside a city and long-range connections are necessary.
With the clear strategy to aim for 1800 MHz, choosing the antenna for that particular frequency is important. The Wittenberg LAT56 UNICOM antenna has proven to be a solid choice and support LTE frequencies between 790 MHz and 2600 MHz.
The LTE Router
The LTE router should support high-speed LTE up to 150 MBit/s or 300 MBit/s. Usually this means that a MIMO setup is used. In this case two external LTE antennas are used which will be mounted with a phase rotation: one antenna is mounted vertically, one is mounted horizontally. This way two connections are made. The different polarization, similar to 3D glasses in cinema, allow the clean separation of signals while using similar frequencies.
Ideally, the router gives you means to align the antenna providing you live-feedback about the signal while mounting it on the roof. A two people setup with walky talkies work quite well.
The AVM FRITZ!Box 6890 worked fine but other routers might work as well.
Avoiding Distortions from LTE 800
It may happen that the router automatically switches to the stronger 800 MHz signal although this is likely to result into lower data rates. In this case adding a 1800 MHz bandpass filter may help. This filter will preferably pass 1800 MHz 4G/LTE signals while damping others.
Set your router to 1800 MHz
Once you ensured receiving a suitable 1800 MHz signal using the feedback from your router, you can set your router to exclusively use the 1800 MHz signal. This way the router will not switch back to LTE 800.
Summary
Using a roof mounted, external log-periodic antenna with bandpass filters may help to dramatically change your internet bandwidth.
In the case described here an unstable 0-6 MBit/s connection has been turned into a solid 70 MBit/s downstream and 30 MBit/s upstream connection. Occasionally, the connection fluctuates a bit with lowest rates around 25 MBit/s downstream. This might either be wet trees reaching into the Fresnel Zone or the cell tower utilization. Still, the vast majority of the time a network client would never guess being on an LTE connection from neither: the bandwidth nor the latency perspective.
Note that the project described here involves some scenario specific aspects. As your scenario might look different, you may have to adapt it to your needs. Some of the products mentioned here are linked to smaller shops specialized to this domain. You may find help there as these smaller shops often provide great service.
FTS-Hennig, for example, has been very helpful with his blog posts and email support. While not receiving any kickbacks, this blog post is meant to be a thank you!
So good luck with your projects. May the electromagnet force be with you!