How does the selection of the best cell work? When I allow all bands at my home location, the RUTX50 automatically selects a cell in Band 3. This cell provides an up- and download speed of approximately 10Mbps. However, when I deny Band 3, the router selects a cell with better reception and up- and download speeds of around 40Mbps, operating on Band 20. Additionally, the reception is better with this cell.
Why does the modem default to the inferior cell? And how can I influence this?
Band selection in cellular networks depends on factors like network availability, signal strength, and congestion. Initially selecting Band 3 may be due to its availability and sufficient signal strength at the time of connection. If you require better performance, you can manually select bands using the Band Lock feature available in the modem’s settings. By specifying preferred bands, you can ensure that the modem connects to the desired network bands for better performance. More information can be found on our wiki page Band Lock - Teltonika Networks Wiki.
Unfortunately I don’t understand the answer. As already described, the band that is automatically selected has the poorer connection and the poorer signal strength. Who or what decides which cell is used? The modem or the cell phone provider?
I also wonder why the router doesn’t connect to both bands or cells and bundle them. Can you please explain this to me too.
The band selection process is primarily determined by the modem. In some cases, the modem may prioritize a band with poorer connection quality initially, based on the factors it considers at the time of connection establishment.
Regarding why the router doesn’t connect to both bands, carrier aggregation is mostly controlled by the ISP, so it might not be possible to force the router to constantly aggregate multiple bands.
One workaround could be to lock the router to a cell, which will force the primary band to be the one with a weaker signal, but the secondary bands will stay constantly connected. On the RUTX50, a command like this should be used: gsmctl -A 'AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g",1,<EARCFN>,<PCI>'.
More information about these values can be found here.
To access the CLI settings in the WebUI, navigate to System → Maintenance → CLI. Use ‘root’ as the login and the same password as in the WebUI. Once logged in, you can execute the command provided. More information about the CLI can be found here.
If you change your location after locking the router to a specific cell tower, you may experience fluctuations in signal strength, connection issues, and changes in network performance until the router can establish a stable connection with a new tower. Therefore, if you’re frequently moving in the camper, I recommend trying to remove Band 3 to see if it improves performance and allows the router to select better bands with better performance.
Hello,
In my house, band 3 is worse. That’s why I removed it too. But if I change location, it may be possible that Band 3 might be better. I would then have to allow it again on every vacation and then ban it again at home. I was hoping there was an easier solution.