AT&T to begin implementing N-SET in an effort to reduce 3G network strain

Lol viewfly, not quite.

According to RR, in theory due to the setup time required for voice, the phone in it's idle state will be on 2G & change to 3G when data is used. So in theory a non data user will never see the 3G symbol.

Ofcourse this is merely an academic discussion but hey atleast I made you make one post w/o mentioning the *data hog* iPhone.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

Sneaky. Those womenly 'viles' at play once again.

 

Yep, I'm thinking the same way, if it ever really happens.

 

Interesting discussion...keeping in mind it's all a rumor, and the debate is purely acedemic/theoretical/mental bubble gum...I'd say this looks good and makes sense from the "outside". But really, from the network side is impossible or doesn't make sense.

Load balancing has to be dynamic and based on the cells load at any particular moment. If you had a meeting in the local library of Granpa Joes, then the 2G cells would be overloaded and the 3G cells would be mostly vacant. And the opposite would happen if Buisness Bob had a big meeting with a bunch of Tilt and 3G BB users.

Not to mention, how would AT&T deterime who qualifies as Grandpa Joe and Buisness Bob? Everyone with a iPhone or BB is a heavy data user? Then AT&T would be like Santa Clause making a list of everyone whos naughty (2G user) and nice (3G user). They don't have the time for that, plus to tune the network to individual users is impossible or at the minimum a major headache. And then each base station vendor has different parameters for load balancing, so what works for an Ericsson base station might need another approach for a Nokia base station.

In short, I'd say that AT&T has to already have some form of load balancing in their network, and maybe they are looking to revise it somehow to push more voice on 2G and make more room on 3G for data. How they do it is really hard to speculate. And the talk of iPhone and BB users being immune sounds kind of far-fetched to me...

 

I doubt this will be based on any kind of account profiling. If this is really implemented, it will probably be some kind of soft balancing that will try to push voice users back onto 2G even if the phone is 3G capable, and then only when there's heavy 3G load. I doubt that ALL calls will be 2G and you won't get dropped if you have 2G disabled.

Further, it will probably only make a difference in areas where 3G bandwidth is limited--and if they keep seeing people pushed over to 2G, they should be reallocating more bandwidth from 2G to 3G (if they can). I imagine there are situations now where they have 5 MHz of 3G and 5 MHz of GSM, and everyone is sitting on 3G making voice calls, GSM is at 15% capacity, and the next guy wants to surf the web, but can't get a 3G connection. Plus, they can't change some GSM spectrum over to 3G because they need to do it in 5MHz chunks.

If they're saying the iPhone and Bold won't be affected it is probably because those phones will be grabbing data more often and be targeted for the 3G network (ie load balancing will always push them towards 3G). My guess is that this will affect more voice-only users with 3G phones--they'll end up on a 2G connection (and probably get better battery life!).

RadioRaiders: What would be involved in letting a call set up on 3G, and then handing the call off to a 2G connection at the same site? I assume "N-SET" would know a handsets 2G/3G capabilities. How bad are the chances of a dropped call in this case vs regular handoffs?

 

It's possible. Risk of a dropped call is always present when making a HHO (Hard Handover). To be "safer" it's usually a better idea to do admission control at call set-up, ie: if a 3G cell is at 80% capacity, any new call setups would be done on 2G, rather than forcing current 3G caller to HHO/IRAT (IRAT=Inter Radio Access Technology) to 2G.

 

So has anyone seen any evidence of N-SET? Or is was it just a hoax?

I haven't, but then I'm one of the 'immune' users (with the iPhone)

 

I haven't either. I don't believe it was a quite a hoax; N-SET in some form is probably in effect but not as drastically as reported.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

When I was in my hometown yesterday I had a strange problem that may be related. First off, they didn't get 3G service that long ago. Anyway, I was on Route 1, had 3G service (full bars) and I tried to make a call. Phone showed "Dialing" on the display for like 15 or 20 sceonds then I got a call failed message. Tried again and call connected. Moments after connection call started to drop out with choppy reception. Call dropped then phone had full service (EDGE). Tried call again but call dropped. Then phone was showing 1 bar 3G. Ended up turning off 3G at the next traffic light so I could make a call. It was constantly switching between 2G and 3G with the signal strength fluctuating wildly.

-Jay

 

That just sounds like normal AT&T "3G" activity to me.

 

Doesn't really sound like ATT N-SET concept. You should have switched to EDGE and stayed there. Seems more like choppy service in a new 3G area while you were driving around (I assume).

 

This was very much not my "normal" experience. I haven't had similar call experiences since the integration of blue/orange quite some time ago. I usually have very good call quality - so good that often times people are shocked if I tell them that I'm not calling on a cell phone.