Comments on: What iPhone 3G users should know about 3G networks

By: iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens | Mobil Teknoloji Haberleri

iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens | Mobil Teknoloji Haberleri — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:28:54 +0000

[...] there is our friend Mike Puchol, who explains how wireless networks work and outlines some of the problems associated with 3G technologies. In his view, the problem is shared [...]

By: Vidooshak

Vidooshak — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:06:51 +0000

Awesome post. Eternal mysteries of the wireless world, explained for the rest of us. This site is a permanent bookmark for me now! Keep writing.

By: VoltageX

VoltageX — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:52:19 +0000

Some of these points seem to be reflected in Australia. If you dig through some of the news and forum posts over at Whirlpool (www.whirlpool.net.au), you’ll see a trend. iPhone usage up, 3G networks getting hammered, and GSM becoming delightfully congestion-free.

By: 3G Networking | Tuinslak

3G Networking | Tuinslak — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:18:56 +0000

[...] a really cool blog post on Twitter yesterday night; really worth the time to read and to understand how 3G is actually [...]

By: simmsy

simmsy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:51:46 +0000

Nice one Mike – I’ve just linked to this as it explains (even more) the viability of Wi-Fi.

By: » 3G iPhone commentary - Tomizone

» 3G iPhone commentary - Tomizone — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:50:21 +0000

[...] Credit to Mike Puchol on this article which explains 3G nicely. [...]

By: edgar

edgar — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:27:17 +0000

I wish you would post more often…this is my “coffee drinking” blog:) Edgar Allen

By: iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens… « Cell Life

iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens… « Cell Life — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:07:09 +0000

[...] there is our friend Mike Puchol, who explains how wireless networks work and outlines some of the problems associated with 3G technologies. In his view, the problem is shared bandwidth: …key issue to remember is [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:51:45 +0000

Thanks for the compliment! I tried hard to look for various domains to replace the .am domain (Armenia – even weirder!), but firehou.se was available, so I took it.

Regarding your wCDMA comment, most current CDMA networks operate on the same frequency, meaning that neighboring cells can ‘hear’ the same terminal and can also talk to it simultaneously, as you say. The aggregated throughput, however, is still at the mercy of the number of terminals in the area, and the power changes with respect to load should never cause ‘dead’ zones to appear (although they sometimes do, as I find out in my office during certain times of the day!). An interesting read which summarizes these concepts is this:

http://www.commsys.isy.liu.se/TSDT74/rapporter/HasselbergLund_TSDT74_HT07.pdf

Some networks that start to deploy multi-frequency topologies, as outlined in this paper:

http://www.qualcomm.com/esg/media/pdf/WCDMAMultipleFrequencySupport_RevB.pdf

You would need terminals with chipsets capable of tuning two frequencies at the same time, in order to simulate the ’soft’ handover in single-frequency networks.

Cheers,

Mike

By: Pecos Bill

Pecos Bill — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:55:52 +0000

There’s one interesting point about wCDMA that you omitted, I think. (I’m not an expert.) wCDMA in 3G lets every unit talk to more than one tower so that voice/data throughput can be aggregated. Each cell size breathes as the usage varies: more usage means smaller cell. I think that sudden reduction in tower power increases the probability that the call will drop.

BTW, I love that you have a “Swedish” website that’s actually created in Barcelona and is in English.