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Anyone here who understands Wifi + mobile networks better than I do able to ELI5 why 3/4G is more reliable than 802.11 in so many situations?
by ajdlinux 9y ago
Anyone here who understands Wifi + mobile networks better than I do able to ELI5 why 3/4G is more reliable than 802.11 in so many situations?
- rayiner 9y agoProbably lot's of different reasons. WiFi networks have to share unlicensed bands with other WiFi networks and hundreds of other things. Cellular networks have dedicated spectrum. LTE also uses a more integrated and centralized set of protocols for connection setup ("attach") and traffic management. See: https://hpbn.co/mobile-networks https://hpbn.co/mobile-networks (scroll down to "radio resource control"). For example, getting an IP address is part of the attach procedure. (I feel like DHCP is responsible for 99% of flaky WiFi). Also, the RRC controls each cellular radio to a much greater extent than the 802.11 base station controls each 802.11 device.
- ajdlinux 9y agoAll good points. Also as someone who's a software engineer working in the firmware space, I suspect LTE base stations are just plain more reliable than home WiFi routers...