Certainly a reasonable and viable observation, however, it's not so much the "stronger" of the two, but which one is a viable signal and has open lines available at the split second that the request is sent out, and which one responds first and completes the handshake. As you are moving, then yes, the strength becomes a player in which towers you connect to, but stationary it's open turf for any "viable" tower within communicable distance.
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what is this
- Thread starter Firemedic67
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Certainly a reasonable and viable observation, however, it's not so much the "stronger" of the two, but which one is a viable signal and has open lines available at the split second that the request is sent out, and which one responds first and completes the handshake. As you are moving, then yes, the strength becomes a player in which towers you connect to, but stationary it's open turf for any "viable" tower within communicable distance.
Cellular communications depends on both phones talking to towers (handshake), which locks the signal to one tower and allows uninterrupted communications, and towers talking to towers (handoff), which assures a transfer of signal from on tower to the next without interruption - a smooth transition that we don't even hear in most cases. The orchestration of the two when moving is determined by speed and direction of travel (determined through triangulation of signal by three or more towers), and/or by signal strength - increasing on the tower you're heading toward, decreasing on the tower you're moving away from.
What seems to be the most bizarre is that I think Sally was put on this mission, not because she wanted to but her rild was attacking her battery and she could tell she was connecting to odd towers because her phone's time was from a different time zone rather than her own time zone. And if I remember correctly, she is not too far away from the other time zone but her phone should be connecting to towers on her own time zone which are closer.
Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums
Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums
No one has ever said otherwise. I was commenting on the oddity of tower connections.
I understand basically what "rild" is and what effect it has on your phone and battery drain. At one point I was at 50% battery and rild was the 70% of the usage. Often though the rild usage is around 2-10%. Turning of 4G doesn't remedy the problem. You have a 4G device and should be able to use the 4G service if available even if it is only and 4G extended area. Having the Maxx I don't have to be concerned with battery usage really and that is a huge plus. So leaving the 4G LTE service on and letting it switch back and forth throughout the day is not that big of a deal.
Using the "open signals" app (thanks Sally-C) I can see that both on 4G and 3G I am connected to the same tower. I thought 4G might be "over shooting" me so I walked 2 blocks from my home and scaled the warehouse where I work and at 40' in the air it has the same transition from 3/4G. Some days are better than others.
I knew checking back on this thread would be a good idea. FoxKat, dang!!! I don't know how but you have a real gift for making a, IMO, complicated science very understandable. I realize to many on here it is not complicated at all, but it is a little beyond me. Simply facinating. And Sally C... I have been addicted to that dang Open Signal all day. i know I'm not really adding anything to this thread. Just trying to throw a compliment out.:biggrin:
Yes, and looking at that map I'm amazed I get coverage at all!!! There's no color coverage at all where I am. And if I click on tower view, the one tower I though was fairly close isn't shown so maybe VZ doesn't have anything on that one. There is one that's about 10 miles away though. But since that's got a lot of things like buildings and sand dunes between it and me, it might not be a very good signal. Which is why I'm going over water to one much farther away.
I'm built into the side of a sand dune overlooking Lake Michigan which gives me great views, but poor coverage. Fortunately I can use wifi for my Internet connection and am not relying on 3G/4G. And we still have a land line for phone calls. I wish they'd put a tower closer to the lake though.
And perhaps you misunderstood my comment, as it was nothing more than a complement to SallyC, with no underlying connotations.
As for RILD, here's a diagram that might help confirm just where RILD sits in the hierarchy and what it's "intended" purpose is. Also for the benefit of everyone following, the screenshots below show what it is involved with - the services it's tied to if you will, and how it impacts battery consumption in extreme examples. We must keep in mind, when you see a percentage on the list next to a service or application, that is a percentage of the battery that has been consumed so far, not a percentage of the total battery's capacity, so in the case of the screen print there, a total of 60% of the battery's capacity is consumed, and RILD has consumed 35% of that 60%, meaning it has used 21% of the total battery capacity consumed so far. Also, this makes the assumption that the battery actually started at 100%, and not at 90% or somewhere in between which it may very well have. If it were 90% at start, then it's 35% of 50%, or 17.5% of total battery capacity that was consumed by RILD.
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Finally, you will always be connected to the same tower for 4G that you are for 3G, since 4G is an overlay of 3G, meaning it can't communicate with the cellular network unless it has a handshake with a 3G connection as well. 3G creates the "phone" connection, and then creates the "data" connection, then 4G enhances the "data" connection. I am going out on a limb here and say that there will never be a situation that 4G is running from one tower and 3G from another. Furthermore the Cellular handshaking and handoff system allows for only one tower to have control at any one time.
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The information below is a combination of Wikipedia and my own understanding/knowledge of same, simplified for our purposes.
Line of Sight transmission is just what it sound like...communication between two antennas that are essentially visible to each other either closely or at greater distances. This is probably the most common communication method of higher frequency communications (i.e. 800MHz and 2,100MHz Cellular - 3G & 4G). Shorter waveforms (higher frequencies) can travel through many non-metallic objects, and can be reflected from other both metallic and non-metallic objects (large buildings), and so can be picked up through walls. Even though you can't "see" the antenna, it is still considered line-of-sight "propagation".
Ground Plane effects (as I mentioned previously) are an important factor in VHF line of sight propagation. The interference (interplay) between the direct beam line-of-sight and the ground reflected beam often leads to an effective combined signal at the receiving antenna which results in a usable signal level. This makes SallyC's situation understandable considering the towers don't "appear" to reach or cover her area.
Isn't it VZW's ultimate goal to phase out the 3G spectrum? If that is true then 4G will have to carry both voice and data initiatons
Below is a post from Matt at Motorola forums, saying it's a known problem, but not just Motorola, and that they are giving it attention.
posted April 25, 2012 by Matt (Forums Manager)
Permalink
Yeah, this little devil seems to hang around. Does a reboot fix it? I know a hard reset will but would like to know if a regular power cycle does the trick.
We are seeing this in very low numbers across our portfolio (and based on some search results, we're not the only manufacturer to see this). It's definitely getting attention on our end.
Yeah, this little devil seems to hang around. Does a reboot fix it? I know a hard reset will but would like to know if a regular power cycle does the trick.
We are seeing this in very low numbers across our portfolio (and based on some search results, we're not the only manufacturer to see this). It's definitely getting attention on our end.
What is interesting is that it seems, thanks to Sally's investigative work, that we understand the RILD problem better than those at the motorola forum. Reading through the thread over there, no one seems to know the real purpose of rild or what causes it to spike. I think those people should come over to droid forums.
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Sent from my DROID RAZR Maxx using Droid Forums
Yes, and that is one reason why VOLTE (Voice Over LTE) is being developed.
By the way, I found a neat animation for Cellular communications handoff from one cell site to another.
HowStuffWorks "Cell Phone Codes"
And here's a couple neat pics/animations. Click on the one with the car to watch it...it's pretty funny.
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She's truly amazing IMHO. She's turning over rocks to find rocks underneath, and instead of saying, "hey, I found a rock under here", she's going to turn that rock over too! :hail: