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How do i do this myself now? I always have put my phone in air plane mode when i was in a train due to the modem consuming a lot more energy. I always assumed

How do i do this myself now? I always have put my phone in air plane mode when i was in a train due to the modem consuming a lot more energy. I always assumed and still doe its due switching towers and less connecitivy which means using more power. Whenever people argue that public transport doesn't need wifi i would argue against it due to power usage and also for more accessablity of the internet in general.

masklinn 5y ago
> How do i do this myself now? As the essay notes, it's through TelephonyManager on Android. On iOS it used to be possible through CoreTelephony private APIs, but I think Apple cracked down on these a few years back and either removed them entirely or locked them down behind entitlements, as they were getting abused by analytics frameworks.
- hansor 5y ago
  There are plenty of free android applications showing you your local cellular info with CID LAC, CI etc. For example "Signal strength" APK. It's just matter of time until you will find one with logging and export ability. You can always write it down with pencil :)
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Naw, this is HN, so it'd be more like take a screen shot, upload to some ML tool you cooked up in a weekend that OCRs the data, loads it into a NoSQL database with the cotnent presented in the latest fad JS framework using Lamda functions or some other cloud hosted CI/CD blue-green deployment to support both users.
lstodd 5y ago
Something like Network Cell Info / Net Monitor / G-NetTrack on Android. They actually show tower locations with signal strengths. What I don't get is why the author didn't draw the signal strength of all towers that were visible. This info is also trivially available. What public transport needs are microcells, and to hell with wifi.
teeray 5y ago
I think trains are kind of a special case in telephony when it comes to handoffs. It’s a unique situation where you have hundreds and hundreds of UEs[0] having to detach and re-attach, which makes for a very busy MME[1]. Sometimes those phones are only briefly connected to a given eNB[2] too, which makes all that effort for naught. [0] Phones [1] The system which sits immediately behind cell towers and coordinates handoffs [2] Tower
- exikyut 5y ago
  The canonical solution in train/subway/metro systems seems to be full-length antennas that span the tunnel corridor. The cool solution would be base stations built into train carriages that then uplink through some kind of backhaul. I think (but need to properly evaluate) that some Australian trains use something like this. EDIT: Nooope nope nope, horribly misread. https://goughlui.com/2014/03/23/random-post-railcorp-gsm-r-rollout-opal-stuff-and-other-observations/ https://goughlui.com/2014/03/23/random-post-railcorp-gsm-r-r...
_trampeltier 5y ago
https://www.wigle.net/ https://www.wigle.net/

masklinn 5y ago

> How do i do this myself now? As the essay notes, it's through TelephonyManager on Android. On iOS it used to be possible through CoreTelephony private APIs, but I think Apple cracked down on these a few years back and either removed them entirely or locked them down behind entitlements, as they were getting abused by analytics frameworks.

hansor 5y ago
There are plenty of free android applications showing you your local cellular info with CID LAC, CI etc. For example "Signal strength" APK. It's just matter of time until you will find one with logging and export ability. You can always write it down with pencil :)
- dylan604 5y ago
  Naw, this is HN, so it'd be more like take a screen shot, upload to some ML tool you cooked up in a weekend that OCRs the data, loads it into a NoSQL database with the cotnent presented in the latest fad JS framework using Lamda functions or some other cloud hosted CI/CD blue-green deployment to support both users.

lstodd 5y ago

Something like Network Cell Info / Net Monitor / G-NetTrack on Android. They actually show tower locations with signal strengths. What I don't get is why the author didn't draw the signal strength of all towers that were visible. This info is also trivially available. What public transport needs are microcells, and to hell with wifi.

teeray 5y ago

I think trains are kind of a special case in telephony when it comes to handoffs. It’s a unique situation where you have hundreds and hundreds of UEs[0] having to detach and re-attach, which makes for a very busy MME[1]. Sometimes those phones are only briefly connected to a given eNB[2] too, which makes all that effort for naught. [0] Phones [1] The system which sits immediately behind cell towers and coordinates handoffs [2] Tower

exikyut 5y ago
The canonical solution in train/subway/metro systems seems to be full-length antennas that span the tunnel corridor. The cool solution would be base stations built into train carriages that then uplink through some kind of backhaul. I think (but need to properly evaluate) that some Australian trains use something like this. EDIT: Nooope nope nope, horribly misread. https://goughlui.com/2014/03/23/random-post-railcorp-gsm-r-rollout-opal-stuff-and-other-observations/ https://goughlui.com/2014/03/23/random-post-railcorp-gsm-r-r...

_trampeltier 5y ago

https://www.wigle.net/ https://www.wigle.net/