Ben
17th February 2008, 12:18 PM
Can 3G data, via the plethora of USB dongles now available in the shops, really be a replacement for fixed broadband?
To find out, I ran a test over 10h 30m from my Mac mini to test for stability and performance. I used an SSH connection to another machine, and a ping, and left them over night. I also downloaded some updates.
I was testing Vodafone's 'Mobile Broadband' HSDPA with the Huawei USB modem.
Ping result:
37544 packets transmitted, 37517 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 107.938/138.707/4423.319/93.100 ms
Statistically that's a 0% loss, much better than would be acceptable to the vast majority of broadband users. Average ping is also very good at 138.707ms, which is about what you'd get from a UK fixed broadband connection if you were browsing websites hosted in the USA. It's even acceptable for some online gaming, such as World of Warcraft, where latency would show as 'Green'. It's important to note that there was no connection drop. Just pure, non-stop HSDPA.
The spikes in latency are where I downloaded updates. Where the connection maxed out there was an obvious degradation in service. That would suggest to me that these devices really are only good for one user at a time - if you were sharing this connection with somebody else who was downloading then it'd feel rather unpleasant!
But the answer to my question is an emphatic yes. Mobile broadband performs well enough to be a replacement for fixed broadband. As speeds increase and more HSPA features are deployed the playing field is going to become much, much more level.
To find out, I ran a test over 10h 30m from my Mac mini to test for stability and performance. I used an SSH connection to another machine, and a ping, and left them over night. I also downloaded some updates.
I was testing Vodafone's 'Mobile Broadband' HSDPA with the Huawei USB modem.
Ping result:
37544 packets transmitted, 37517 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 107.938/138.707/4423.319/93.100 ms
Statistically that's a 0% loss, much better than would be acceptable to the vast majority of broadband users. Average ping is also very good at 138.707ms, which is about what you'd get from a UK fixed broadband connection if you were browsing websites hosted in the USA. It's even acceptable for some online gaming, such as World of Warcraft, where latency would show as 'Green'. It's important to note that there was no connection drop. Just pure, non-stop HSDPA.
The spikes in latency are where I downloaded updates. Where the connection maxed out there was an obvious degradation in service. That would suggest to me that these devices really are only good for one user at a time - if you were sharing this connection with somebody else who was downloading then it'd feel rather unpleasant!
But the answer to my question is an emphatic yes. Mobile broadband performs well enough to be a replacement for fixed broadband. As speeds increase and more HSPA features are deployed the playing field is going to become much, much more level.