Novatel Wireless Ovation MC950D USB HSPA Modem - Performance
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As with everything that requires a SIM, don’t forget to insert it. The modem is marked with useful arrows and a little SIM card is sketched on its back, so basically, you can’t insert it the wrong way. Now that the card is in – let’s begin!
We plug it into our test system, which runs Windows XP. The device is automatically detected and the wizard pops up and leads you through the setup process. The drivers are installed without any assistance from the user. Then we have a customized Vodafone operator-based “control panel”-like menu that allows us to monitor the status of our connection, data speeds, signal strength, overall statistics, and so forth.
(Image Courtesy of Novatel Wireless)
The modem was tested in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where both HSUPA and HSDPA technologies were present. So basically, there was full-throttled tri-band 3G UMTS support. I didn't have sky-high expectations, since the clerk at Vodafone stated that it should “average” around 1.5mbps-5mbps if everything goes right. Reaching absolute peak speeds requires the signals to be “perfect.”
The device scanned through all of the possible networks, and in less than 30 seconds, we were already online. The small indicator LED on the Ovation MC950D turned yellow, since that’s the color representing HSDPA; green is for GPRS and blue is for HSUPA. Right away, we head over for some bandwidth testing, and the results were decent and impressive: circa 2.8mbps download and 750kbps upload.
However, we can’t ignore the fact that Frankfurt is one of the dominant cities of Europe (alpha world city along with Chicago, Hong Kong, and L.A.), and with its powerful economic growth and technology edge, this was sort of to be expected in the middle of the metropolitan area. You can always ask a few operators in your area about their “average” speeds, so you know what to anticipate.
Now let’s talk a little bit about its architecture; this part can be skipped if you aren’t interested in in-depth information. The Ovation MC950D is based on Qualcomm’s MSM7200 chipset. Its CPU core is ARM1136EJ-S (528MHz Jazelle Java accelerator) RISC and supports the ARMv6 instruction set. The chip has the following features: 274MHz ARM9 coprocessor, embedded QDSP4000 and QDSP5000 DSP (GSM, GPRS/EGPRS Multislot Class 12, EDGE, UMTS/WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, MBMS baseband), embedded gpsOne GPS module, Qcamera, Qtv, Qcamcorder, Qvideophone.
(Image Courtesy of Semiconductor Insights, 2007).
In our case, we’re interested in its QDSP400 and QDSP500 DSP – Digital Signal Processing – capabilities. This is where the 3G and 2G technology signals are interpreted and processed. The physical limitations of these two DSP chips are 7.2mbps on downlink and 5.76mbps on uplink. The downlink limitations are similar to the advertised ones, while the uplink is lower (2.1mbps advertised).
(Die architecture design of the MSM7200 – Photo Courtesy of Qualcomm)
As I mentioned earlier, the “perfect maximum” peak of 7.2mbps for downlink data access speeds is going to be quite hard to reach, since it requires absolutely accurate and powerful signals. However, the uplink speeds are currently quite low all around the world, mostly because of HSUPA. So the chip has higher capabilities, but right now the HSUPA “category 6” isn’t matched worldwide (category 6 = 5.76mpbs).
Summing this up, this modem is certainly future-proof, mostly because 3G technologies are currently in heavy development and are going through a sort of “redesigning” and “reinventing” process. Chances are as soon as we arrive at a stage where 4G technologies and standards dominate, reaching the architectural limitations of 3G is going to be somewhat easy.
For a brief overview on the status of 4G, check out the article I wrote a while ago. It’s also been published here on Dev Hardware. There you can also read a short summary and history of earlier technologies, such as 2G, what the current 3G technologies offer along with their limitations, and ultimately what to expect from 4G.
As a final note, we have also tested this modem in Romania with a network operator called Orange. We are somewhat struggling in the area of HSDPA in terms of coverage, but around our capital city Bucharest and the other large cities, both HSDPA and HSUPA are within the acceptable margins.
The results that we gathered here weren’t impressive at all compared to Frankfurt’s Vodafone, but still. In terms of HSUPA coverage it averaged around 800-850kbps and peaked at a maximum of 1.1mbps. Not that this is relevant, but there are only a few zones with full-throttled HSDPA coverage in Bucharest. In those areas, the speeds were better, cornering 2mbps per download.
All in all, we must not underestimate the proficiency of this modem due to lack of powerful network operators or weak signals. We must understand that 3G is still a relatively new technology and in certain zones, the “network” is under constriction. Sooner or later it should reach decent speeds and coverage practically everywhere in the world. This might take some time -- one or two more years, or who knows.
Ultimately, one of the main drawbacks of 3G technologies, such as the HSDPA and HSUPA, is their somewhat higher ping latencies compared to cable, ADSL, optical fiber, or any other sort of “wire-based” connectivity, or even satellites for that matter. More often than not, these latency rates can reach into the hundreds, like 400-500ms. In general, it offers better all-around performance that is reachable from a popular Wi-Fi hotspot.
Oh, and we should also point out that some carriers sport a built-in feature that encodes graphics while surfing web pages, for example. This level of compression depends on network operators, but it is somewhat noticeable with Vodafone. This improves performance by a lot, but sometimes it might hinder aesthetic design and, thus, sabotage the customer. It can be turned off, though.
Right now there’s only one thing left to do. It’s time for the conclusion!
Next: Conclusions >>
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