3 ms·

Isn't 5G supposed to solve the mobile latency issue?

nine_k 2y ago
The connection to your local tower can have a negligible latency. The connection all the way to the datacenter may take longer. Then, there is congestion sometimes, e.g. around large gatherings of people; it manifests as latency, too.
- the8472 2y ago
  But from the tower onward it shouldn't be any different from fixed internet connections, except for the gatherings, I'll grant that one. So then (modern) mobile shouldn't be all that special.
  - nine_k 2y ago
    At a previous job I had to specifically accommodate the backend API design to slow, large-latency 3G links which much of our East Asian audience had at the time. South Korea is one thing, Malaysia, quite another.
    - joshstrange 2y ago
      Could you talk a little bit more about what changes you made on the back into accommodate that? That sounds interesting.
  - kiwijamo 2y ago
    A lot of traffic still goes over 4G or even 3G in many countries. Most countries have only deployed 5G NSA (non-standalone) which means mobiles uses both 4G and 5G at the same time. Only a few networks in a few countries have deployed 5G SA (standalone) where mobiles use 5G only -- and even those few networks only deploy 5G SA in certain places e.g. selected CBDs. I live in the largest city in my country and I only get 4G still in my suburb and much of rest of my city is 5G NSA which means in most places phones stil use 4G for uplink and a mix of 4G and 5G for the downlink. Hence there is still a long way to go until most traffic (in both directions -- i.e. uplink AND downlink) is over 5G.
KaiserPro 2y ago
> Isn't 5G supposed to solve the mobile latency issue? Kinda. So 5g is faster, but its still wireless, and shared spectrum. This means that the more people that use it, or the further they are away, the speed and bandwidth per client is adjusted. (I'm not sure of the coding scheme for 5G, so take this with caution) For mobiles that are further away, or have a higher noise floor, the symbol rate (ie the number of radiowave "bits" that are being sent) is reduced so that there is a high chance they will be understood at the other end (Shannon's law, or something) Like in wifi, as the signal gets weaker, the headline connection speed drops from 100mb+ to 11. In wifi, that tends to degrade the whole AP's performance, in 5G I'm not sure. Either way, a bad connection will give you dropped packets.

The connection to your local tower can have a negligible latency. The connection all the way to the datacenter may take longer. Then, there is congestion sometimes, e.g. around large gatherings of people; it manifests as latency, too.

the8472 2y ago
But from the tower onward it shouldn't be any different from fixed internet connections, except for the gatherings, I'll grant that one. So then (modern) mobile shouldn't be all that special.
- nine_k 2y ago
  At a previous job I had to specifically accommodate the backend API design to slow, large-latency 3G links which much of our East Asian audience had at the time. South Korea is one thing, Malaysia, quite another.
  - joshstrange 2y ago
    Could you talk a little bit more about what changes you made on the back into accommodate that? That sounds interesting.
- kiwijamo 2y ago
  A lot of traffic still goes over 4G or even 3G in many countries. Most countries have only deployed 5G NSA (non-standalone) which means mobiles uses both 4G and 5G at the same time. Only a few networks in a few countries have deployed 5G SA (standalone) where mobiles use 5G only -- and even those few networks only deploy 5G SA in certain places e.g. selected CBDs. I live in the largest city in my country and I only get 4G still in my suburb and much of rest of my city is 5G NSA which means in most places phones stil use 4G for uplink and a mix of 4G and 5G for the downlink. Hence there is still a long way to go until most traffic (in both directions -- i.e. uplink AND downlink) is over 5G.

KaiserPro 2y ago

> Isn't 5G supposed to solve the mobile latency issue? Kinda. So 5g is faster, but its still wireless, and shared spectrum. This means that the more people that use it, or the further they are away, the speed and bandwidth per client is adjusted. (I'm not sure of the coding scheme for 5G, so take this with caution) For mobiles that are further away, or have a higher noise floor, the symbol rate (ie the number of radiowave "bits" that are being sent) is reduced so that there is a high chance they will be understood at the other end (Shannon's law, or something) Like in wifi, as the signal gets weaker, the headline connection speed drops from 100mb+ to 11. In wifi, that tends to degrade the whole AP's performance, in 5G I'm not sure. Either way, a bad connection will give you dropped packets.