Question

Model: RUTX11

Firmware: RUTX_R_00.02.04.3

Modem: EG06ELAR03A05M4G

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The issue: The Teltonika RUTX11 shows 50-60% lower upload speeds while being able to match download speeds of the Huawei 5G CPE PRO (Balong 5000 modem).

ISP: Vodafone UK LTE bands 1 and 20.

Antenna: Poynting XPOL-2-5G V3 directional antenna pointing directly at the cell mast which is 820 meters away.

Signal info:

^{_{gsmctl -A AT+QCAINFO}}

^{_{+QCAINFO: "pcc",6300,50,"LTE BAND 20",1,316,-65,-7,-41,22}}

^{_{+QCAINFO: "scc",323,75,"LTE BAND 1",1,351,-86,-8,-69,23}}

Ping/Download/Upload results using speedtest.net when CA (4G+) is used and pcc and scc are in that order are:

             22-28ms, 110-120Mbs, 16-19Mbs 

If by a chance the order of pcc and scc is reversed, i.e LTE Band 1 (cell 351) becomes pcc and LTE Band 20 (cell 316) becomes scc then upload speed increases by 50-60% to 28-30Mbs.

I managed to confirm that by limiting bands in the modem settings to just Band 1 and getting consistent 28-30Mbs upload speed. Band 1 simply has a higher bandwidth 75 vs 50 on Band 20.

This confirms my theory that Teltonika RUTX11 currently uses PCC only for upload.

Now if I take that very same SIM card and connect the same Poynting antenna to the Huawei 5G CPE Pro I get the same download speed as on RUTX11 but 28-30Mbs upload speeds. The Huawei's specs clearly state that only one antenna is used as main and the other one is auxilary which is on par with RUX11. But somehow Huawei manages to get the best of both worlds - it uses CA and downloads on both bands (antennas?) but selects the best carrier (band) for upload.

Could you please clarify if this is a known issue? Is that a hardware or software limitation? Is that something that I could somehow address by explicitly specifying which CC (primary/secondary) to use for uploads? Or maybe it is something you could potentially fix in the next firmware update?

/azik

Comments

This is a very important information affecting this router's competitiveness with others. I can see the question has probably been lost by a virtue of scrolling down in list of new questions but it is important and it would be great if someone could acknowledge it and respond.

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I know this post is over two years old, but I had the same problem with my RUTX11 that arrived yesterday (Nov 21st 2022). I also have the same antenna as Azik.

Where I live I get the best performance with band B3 + B28 so I locked these two bands under: Network/Mobile/General/SIM card Settings -> LTE Bands. I first selected B3 and then B28.

After a Speedtest the download speed was fine (71 Mbps) but the upload speed was only 10 Mbps. With my ZTE MF286D I got upload speeds over 20 Mbps.

I was a bit disappointed with the upload speed on my brand new RUTX11 so I started to search in the Crowd-support forum and found this post.

I've never used a CLI command but I ran the same as you did: gsmctl -A AT+QCAINFO

And got this result:

+QCAINFO: "pcc",1300 ,100,"LTE BAND 3",1,382,-100,-9,-71,15

+QCAINFO: "scc",9360,50,"LTE BAND 28",1,374,-81, -13,-59,13

Band 3 is PCC

Then I did the same test as you did and locked only one band (in my case B28) and the upload speed increased to 19 Mbps but the download speed decreased to 30 Mbps.

I rebooted the modem and went back to the LTE Bands settings and changed the order of the locked bands, this time I first selected B28 and then B3. 

I did a new Speedtest and to my surprise It now worked fine, I got a download speed of 73 Mbps and a upload speed of 19 Mbps.

I ran a new CLI command: gsmctl -A AT+QCAINFO

And got the this result:

+QCAINFO: "pcc",9360,50,"LTE BAND 28",1,374,-82,-6,-59,23 

+QCAINFO: "scc",1300,100,"LTE BAND 3",1,382,-104,-7,-88,12

Band 28 is now PCC!

While it now seems obvious I couldn't find any info in the RUTX11 manual that the specific order of the locked bands under LTE Bands setting also sets which band that becomes "pcc" or "scc". Maybe this info could be added to the manual?

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Roland Meijer

Answer 1

Hello,

Sorry for the late reply. Regarding to the test you have made i would like to clarify that our RUTX11 is using LTE CAT 6 module and the Huawei CPE that you are comparing is having a 5G module inside so it there is no doubt that the Huawei modem will perform much better than RUTX11. This is mainly because they are using different technologies.

Now for the carrier aggregation part here are the supported CA bands for RUTX11: https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/RUTX11_Supported_Frequency_Bands. For the question of yours about changing the pcc and scc of the CA part there are a lot of factors that may affect the performance of the network on different bands.

https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/Mobile_Signal_Strength_Recommendations#Determining_Factors_of_Signal_Values
https://www.4gon.co.uk/solutions/technical_factors_affecting_wireless_performance.php

I hope the information provided helps.

Regards,

Jerome

Comments

Hello,

Thank you for the response. I understand Huawei is a higher CAT grade device however that doesn't matter in this particular case as CAT 6 is the maximum supported anyways.

The issue I reported isn't due to the fact that Huawei is faster and I proved it easily by limiting Teltonika RUTX11 to Band 1 only and this basically disabled the CA feature, so Band 1 carrier became the only and the primary CC. Upload speeds in this case match those of Huawei.

So to recap the issue isn't in the fact that RUTX11 modem is slower but firmware tends to never pick secondary CC for upload. Please note not simultaneously with the PCC but just not the PCC out of two available carriers. I understand there is no CA for upload, so this is not what I am referring to.

Thanks,

Azik

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Hello, 

Thank you for the provided information. As what i understand you are pointing out that the RUTX11 is not selecting the second band according to the best band available? you are manually selecting the 2nd band for CC? It is a little bit confusing on what are you trying to point out on this term "but firmware tends to never pick secondary CC for upload".

It would be really appreciated if you point out everything on detailed manner so that we can see what are the possible things that we can do on our side to improve our devices. 

Thank you for the feedback.

Regards,
Jerome