There is a connection, but there are nuances

Hi all!

We, Vigo, have not written anything here for a long time, since we have recently been improving our products and actively sharing information about our successes with the media. But since analytical reports and data collected with scrupulous accuracy most often remain behind the scenes, which do not always fit on other platforms, we decided to “additionally publish” the materials here, in my account.

Not long ago, the newspaper Kommersant (https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7048599) published our study on the quality of mobile networks at resorts. Below is the full version:

Vigo analysts reviewed the quality at the main resorts in southern Russia and identified the main problems affecting the quality of user experience for mobile network subscribers during the high season. On the Crimean Peninsula, the main degradation is due to the quality of transport networks, and in the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory there is a lack of radio network capacity.

As part of the study, the following popular resorts of the Russian Federation were analyzed: Sudak, Olginka, Lazarevskoye, Feodosia, Alushta, Anapa, Saki, Yevpatoria, Adler, Gelendzhik, Yalta, Tuapse, Sochi.

The comparison was carried out on the basis of crowdsourced data, namely: metrics of 4G coverage quality, 4G network capacity, transport indicators and measurements of the end user experience in Internet services – online gaming and online video. To assess the degree of degradation of resort networks under load, two periods were analyzed – low and high seasons with a total number of measurements of 24,462,081.

The main focus of our research was on the final quality of the user experience, since how long an Internet service user waits for a video to start playing or how often he experiences game lag ultimately determines his satisfaction with mobile communications. The quality of the user experience depends on many factors, such as: the quality of radio coverage, deployed radio technologies, frequency bands, bandwidth, QoS settings, quality of the backbone transport network. Moreover, different types of user experience have different requirements: video is the most sensitive to the quality of all network components, and for gaming, maximum speeds are not important, but fine-tuning of the radio and the quality of transport accessibility from the user’s device to the game servers are required in order to ensure a minimum network jitter, the value of which determines the appearance of game lags,” says Anton Prokopenko, Product Director at Vigo.

The table below shows the metrics of resorts during the high season.

Using these metrics, you can immediately demarcate the transport problem of mobile networks on the Crimean peninsula. This can be seen in the percentage of packet loss on user devices and indirectly in the quality rating of the gaming user experience.

The most congested mobile networks during high season can be divided into two groups:

1) Lazarevskoye, Olginka, Anapa – they experience problems with capacity precisely because of the influx of tourists during the high season, while Anapa is the record holder for the absolute volume of Internet service traffic. The resort is superior to both Sochi and Adler. The increase in load during the high season is 73%.

2) Adler, Gelendzhik – comparing the small increase in load, the share of RSRQ measurements >= -11 db (the metric is related to the utilized 4G capacity), the average download speed of online video, the absence of obvious transport problems, we can say that in these locations there are problems with capacity are systemic throughout the year.

4G networks are actively developing on the Crimean peninsula. The Miranda network is entering the market in resorts, forming coverage in the frequency ranges of 1800 FDD and 2100 FDD, while K-Telecom is developing a layer of 2600 FDD. However, patchy problems with coverage at resorts are still observed in Saki and Yevpatoria. In the Krasnodar Territory, from the point of view of coverage quality, mobile operators need to pay attention to Gelendzhik, Anapa and Tuapse.

Based on the analysis, the general conclusion can be as follows:

– In Crimea, despite the active development of the radio network, it is necessary to pay maximum attention to transport, since now this problem looks like a “bottleneck” and further development of radio coverage may not provide the best user experience even if there is sufficient network capacity.

– In the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, the main problem is the accumulation of a large number of people in a small area – the coastal zone, where any network built exclusively on the basis of macrocells will be overloaded. The traditional solution to such problems lies in the use of small cells (femto-, pico-, microcells) with a range of 10 m, where the main task is to avoid problems with interference between micro- and macrocells operating in the same frequency ranges. But here lies an economic nuance: the season lasts 5 months, and the rest of the time, the increased capacity will be idle; moreover, factors such as radio signal propagation conditions, availability of sites for base stations, availability of transport channels and their quality cannot be avoided. There is an option for mobile mobile base stations, but these are the same macro cells that cannot be tightly installed and they are inconvenient from the point of view of long-term operation, since they will require continuous maintenance of autonomous fuel generators. The option of offloading mobile networks via operator Wi-Fi is not yet being developed.

Best regards, Vigo team.