What Problems Are There With Mobile Networks Today?
The Challenges of Modern Wireless Communication
Every once in a while I will hear someone complain about some problem they are having with their cellular phone or wireless LAN. Dropped calls, poor audio, slow data speeds, frozen video streams, you name it, most people have experienced it. And occasionally I’ll hear someone reminisce about the good old days, when phones were connected to the telephone company with wires, and video came from an assortment of cable TV channels, all of which seemed to work perfectly.
Why Mobile Networks Encounter Issues
Of course, as someone who was around for “the good old days,” I can tell you that things hardly worked perfectly. There were outages, and sometimes those became big events as the outage dragged on for hours or days. But it’s also clear that there are more frequent, albeit more minor, issues with communications systems these days. Why is that?
Wireless systems are subject to a variety of impediments that their wired
(or fiber-based) cousins don’t have.
The proliferation of wireless devices, as well as other products that use radio frequency energy create a minefield of interference that affects the performance of these systems. There are a large number of interference sources, including microwave ovens, LED light bulbs, power supplies and various industrial devices. The level of interference from some of these devices is so bad that AM radio stations have seen their usable coverage areas decrease by as much as twenty percent!
In addition to interference, radio waves are subject to a variety of
physical effects that reduce their strength.
Foliage absorbs radio waves, steel and concrete walls block them, as well as produce reflections that are a form of self-interference. In many areas of the country, hills or mountains form inconvenient barriers to coverage, making reception spotty. But this isn’t the only reason for trouble in these systems.
The Incredible Complexity of Modern Mobile Networks
Your cellphone likely contains more computing power in it than existed in the entire world in 1960. The mobile network it’s connected to has many radio sites, all interconnected with complex computing systems that sort out and route the calls, make changes as you move around, and find the phone you want to call, even when it is three thousand miles away from home.
All of this is accomplished by an interconnected system of radio base stations, circuit switches, and computers too numerous to mention. With all that complexity, it is inevitable that there will be occasional failures. It’s not surprising when something goes wrong… the reality is, it’s surprising that it works so well!
No doubt that mobile networks today have more complicated issues today than the basic, albeit more difficult issues of the past. If you’re looking for further consulting on your mobile project, we’re here to help! We can troubleshoot issues or provide insight on how to make your communications solutions work better.