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Wireless Networking Technology

Hand-Off, Reconnect To Verizon LTE Can Take 2 Minutes 53

Posted by Soulskill from the did-you-try-blowing-in-it dept.
CWmike writes "Verizon Wireless admits that laptop users with USB modems on its new high-speed LTE network may experience up to a two minute delay when switching over from a 3G coverage zone. 'Hand-offs can take up to a couple minutes, but that was expected and a fix is in the works,' Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson told Computerworld. Also, to get back on LTE once already having been in an LTE zone, one tester said it was necessary to unplug the modem and plug it back in again. Nelson said that was not necessary, although he did say it could take up to two minutes to reconnect to LTE. Nelson said Verizon was working with a modem maker on the hand-off problem, but didn't say which maker. Business Insider said the hand-off problem occurred with an LG model. 'We're working with the modem maker for quick update, but no ETA yet.' Nelson said. A Mac OS version was also said to be close."
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Hand-Off, Reconnect To Verizon LTE Can Take 2 Minutes More

Hand-Off, Reconnect To Verizon LTE Can Take 2 Minutes

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  • "...but that was expected..." (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    By whom?
  • You might want to get this sorted out by Christmas, folks.

    Just in case, y'know, you release a high-demand 4G mobile device anytime around then.

  • This is news to anyone who gets the first iteration of a new product?

    • Yes. These should have been sorted out in Beta.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arivanov ( 12034 )

      This is news to anyone who gets the first iteration of a new 3GPPproduct?

      Corrected this for ya.

      It is not entirely unexpected when standartisation madness runs supreme. FFS, the world has long become Ethernet based. It takes less effort to originate IP from the terminal and NAT or route IPv6 than to translate to PPP and/or something similarly obsolete and Layer 2 in something that pretends to be a "modem". WTF is a "modem" and why it is a "modem"

      If the "modem" is actually doing IP what is it running on is utterly irrelevant. It also makes the entire hand-over malarkey similarly i

  • I don't think wireless modem problems in general should surprise anyone. I'm using a Verizon USB device right now, and while it usually works all right, it has random weird misbehavior like claiming to be connected yet being unable to do anything, or claiming an "invalid username and password" when no new user info has been entered. Probably just standard hardware quirkiness.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by trum4n ( 982031 )
      my 40$/month cricket USB modem NEVER did that. also, my Sprint phone teathers flawlessly. still cheaper than verizon...and without all the suck. was a verizon user for 10 years, then grew up.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by willzzz ( 701172 )
        Try getting 35+Mbps down and 5-8Mbps up on Sprint when their WiMAX capacity is under-engineered on average. VZW has all their LTE cell sites on FIBER with a shit-load of capacity.
  • My Verizon 3G service that I use for my business (no wired DSL or Cable available) was out the other day and while I was on the phone with Verizon figuring it out, they were trying to upsell me on this. With a 5GB data limit, I wasn't about to since I routinely go over it on the 3G. I just switched back to Clear who swears they got THEIR reliability issues sorted out in my area.

    • Clear is a bunch of liars:

      http://i.imgur.com/jTnpJ.png [imgur.com]

      That image isn't mine, but I got the same "not junk mail" from them and it is my only impression of them so far. I wasn't impressed by their mailing.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by willzzz ( 701172 )
        What? You're EVDO should improve and maxing it out. Areas where the cell towers have LTE deployed have fiber back-haul deployed on the RAN with GigE or higher. LTE has more capacity per sector than cable DOCSIS-2.0 in Verizon's configuration and the same as DOCSIS-3.0 if VZW doubled the spectrum like the European carriers have (e.g. TeliaSonera). You will get 5-35+Mbps and 5-8Mbps up and pings of 30ms within the RAN and 45-100ms to the internet if it's peered/transit is good. Seriously yes there's bandwidth

  • On the plus side (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 13, 2010 @10:25PM (#34542630)

    This means it now takes 2 minutes longer to exhaust your monthly quota.

  • This is news? (Score:3)

    by mr100percent ( 57156 ) on Monday December 13, 2010 @10:25PM (#34542632) Homepage Journal

    Designers have to strike a balance; if it polls the towers too often and tries to connect via 4G, it would drain the battery and possibly slow down the connection. Switching from a 2G to 3G network on AT&T is similiar, although usually its about 30 seconds

  • LTE seems like a rip off (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cervo ( 626632 ) on Monday December 13, 2010 @10:47PM (#34542712) Journal
    first off, this piss poor service that was just advertised. Two minutes to reconnect?? Sounds like it isn't ready for prime time...

    Next, look at the per use charges. I'd rather have a slower connection with much hire quotas (or no quota) than a super fast connection with a tiny quota. Good luck to anyone who wants to watch videos.

    As it is cell service is a huge rip off, and LTE is even more of a rip off than 3G. But what do you expect from providers who charge a fortune for delivering simple text messages and the rate hasn't gone down as their networks are upgraded...In fact ATT's rate went up (they used to be free to receive, but after the Cingular merger the double charging started....).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Konshu ( 1643829 )
      I think you would be a great candidate to start a new company that moves away from such poor business models, quick get on kickstarter now!

  • Similar problems with Sprint 3G/WiMAX.. (Score:3)

    by faedle ( 114018 ) on Monday December 13, 2010 @11:36PM (#34542964) Homepage Journal

    While I can't say it takes two minutes, the handoff between the WiMAX network and 3G is very rough.

    For starters, since they're literally two separate networks, you will lose any open TCP connections because the IP address changes. If you are in a marginal 4G coverage area, you can have it bounce between the (poor) 4G signal and 3G network. The Overdrive hotspot has settings for fine-tuning how quickly it will try to switch and how often, but most of the time unless I'm in a known-strong 4G coverage area it's better to just lock the device at 3G and not even let it try to swap. Similarly, if you're in a strong 4G area the reverse is true.

    Secondarily, I have nothing but problems trying to use any Sprint 4G device in Seattle. Both my hotspot and my Evo 4G phone do weird things (often crashing entirely), but only in that market (I've had no trouble in other markets, especially my home market of Portland). The Evo 4G will actually crash about 20% of the time I switch the 4G on up there.

    I think that they really need to work on making the two networks as seamless as possible. I know that's not going to be easy from a technical perspective, but it kinda shows that the technology is not quite ready for prime time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nyder ( 754090 )

      While I can't say it takes two minutes, the handoff between the WiMAX network and 3G is very rough.

      For starters, since they're literally two separate networks, you will lose any open TCP connections because the IP address changes. If you are in a marginal 4G coverage area, you can have it bounce between the (poor) 4G signal and 3G network. The Overdrive hotspot has settings for fine-tuning how quickly it will try to switch and how often, but most of the time unless I'm in a known-strong 4G coverage area it's better to just lock the device at 3G and not even let it try to swap. Similarly, if you're in a strong 4G area the reverse is true.

      Secondarily, I have nothing but problems trying to use any Sprint 4G device in Seattle. Both my hotspot and my Evo 4G phone do weird things (often crashing entirely), but only in that market (I've had no trouble in other markets, especially my home market of Portland). The Evo 4G will actually crash about 20% of the time I switch the 4G on up there.

      I think that they really need to work on making the two networks as seamless as possible. I know that's not going to be easy from a technical perspective, but it kinda shows that the technology is not quite ready for prime time.

      Not sure if this will make you feel any better, but I have problems with 3G coverage in Seattle. Well, had problems. Decided to let my cell phone go. No home phone, no cell phone. I win!!!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There is no comparison between 3G/WiMAX handover and 3G/LTE handover.

      3G & WiMAX are two separate networks and there is no true handover between them, just disconnect/connect.

      However, 3G/LTE handover is standardized in 3GPP and you can maintain packet connectivity since you will basically keep your GTP tunnel to the GGSN (the GTP endpoint & packet router). This is very similar to 2G/3G handover, and 2G/LTE handover should be possible as well.

      These current issues are due to the infancy of LTE, and due

    • Just adding some additional data. I have a Samsung Epic in Portland area. I sometimes use 4G on my phone. I do not believe my phone has ever crashed in the 2 months I have owned it.

  • "A Mac OS version was also said to be close"

    I hope you mean the driver. If I have to install some shitty software you monopolizing bloatware manufacturing retards came up with, the deal is completely off the table.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by willzzz ( 701172 )
      It's not a driver problem, it's a software problem. If you don't want to use VZAccess you don't have to, you just don't get any support. Anyways if you understand the engineering fundamentals and the technical specifics read this: http://community.vzw.com/t5/4G-Discussion/4G-LTE-Data-stick-Mac-Linux-Windows-other-authentication/td-p/347794 [vzw.com] The LTE UML290 card supports standard GSM 3G/4G/LTE stack and works just fine with Apple's generic dialer or the Windows connection thing in Win7 or Linux. The VZAccess

      • You have to run it ONCE in VZAccess though on Windows atm (coming soon for Mac) for authentication and the SIM card programming

        Then the deal is off. I'm not interested in any device that doesn't work out of the box with my Mac.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Dog-Cow ( 21281 )

          Verizon is weeping in misery now. Truly. Really.

          Ah, who am I kidding? Verizon could not possibly care less that you, personally, will not purchase an LTE dongle for use on their network. It's not as if you were considering it anyway.

        • Then the deal is off. I'm not interested in any device that doesn't work out of the box with my Mac.

          You must miss out on a lot of stuff, then.

  • Why would any inter-computer handshaking process require a scale of minutes? Someone is not thinking here.

    Processors are running HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF OPS PER SECOND ... how can a simple handshake take more than a few milliseconds?

    (I've yet to understand why Wifi connections, as another example, aren't almost instantaneous; communication between two computers, even with really generous timeouts should not take on the scale of seconds.)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Do you know anything about how they work, or are you just shitting on something you don't understand?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pz ( 113803 )

        Do you know anything about how they work, or are you just shitting on something you don't understand?

        I have implemented similar identification protocols and never had to include a seconds-long timeout which, I strongly suspect, is what drives most of the delay in, say, getting an IP address from a Wifi base station, or from the local cell tower. It takes microseconds to form and send a packet. If it only takes a few hundred milliseconds to fetch a web page from a site that knows what it's doing all of which is going across the net and not the last hop to your device, then why does it take anything close

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by willzzz ( 701172 )
      I don't have the fucking time to descibe the protocol differences of 3GPP and 3GPP2 and protocol fail of LG and their shitty drivers. The UML290 model doesn't have this problem and uses a newer Qualcomm chipset.
  • Really is there anything that LG makes that is not utter and complete crap? Perhaps I just had some uniquely bad luck with the LG products I've purchased but at this point I'd buy almost anything made of conflict diamonds and pureed kitten claws over anything made by LG.

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