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Forum Discussion
How can I best use the two TS9 connectors on the back of the M1 to access multiple towers?
Question: How can I best use the two TS9 connectors on the back of the M1 to access multiple towers?
I am at the cell edges of two distinct towers, and I need highly directional antennas to ...
Well, I'm not an expert, but the FCC diagrams for the mr1100 do show the internals. But, to specifically answer your question, I don't believe Netgear has released that information -- nor I have I seen it explicity online.
BUT, what I do know is that CA (all CA -- not just on the MR1100) only works between bands -- on the same tower. Currently, no carrier supports CA across bands from multiple towers -- to my knowledge.
Many of us have wondered how to do 4x4 MIMO with only two TS-9 connectors. The answer is, you cannot. There were some posts on this board (or Howard forums, I forget) in late 2017 / early which showed images of folks taking the mr1100 apart to access all 4 antenna connectors on the internal main board.
We've also asked whether one of the TS-9's is primary and one is secondary, or what the deal is. But netgear won't say.
From empiracle testing, folks on the board seem to suggest:
1) try with one antenna first. Then compare to two. One might be sufficient / better than two
2) use a highly directional antenna and point it at your tower of interest
3) use amplification if necessary (surecall)
4) there is no band selection on the mr1100. Some bands will perform better than others.
5) you can use a combination of selective amplification, selective antennas, selective antenna orienataion, and notch filters to bias band selection to some degree. but it's largely a crap shoot.
If you're really out in the boonies and need reliable cellular internet for work, etc. you might have to caugh up the real money for a more "industrial" cellular modem. Like a MOFINETWORK or Cradlepoint. Plus a good amp (Surecall seems better than Wilson these days in the Prosumer market because they have individual band gain tuning) and quality LMR cabling and antennas.
Thank you for the answer!
I suspected much of what you have said. I did not know that CA was one tower only; I thought it could be spread across towers, but, then it made more sense to me to be to only one tower based on the readings.
My current 2x2 MIMO setup is pointing two 11dbi LPD antennas at the closest tower. I get the following speedtest results: 5Mbps/20Mbps/60Mbps (min/avg/max). These values match to the LTE signal strength/thoughput charts I have found for my reported signal strength (-100dBm). These speedtest values fluctuate during the day, and I think they are more dependent on the tower conditions than on my setup. Adding a signal booster doesn't seem to help much (I have tried it) as my RSRQ and SNR values drop low when its included. I seem to get the best performance on low power signals with higher quality metrics.
All of which means I am probably already in the optimal configuration.
Thanks so much for your answer! Please do reply back if you find out anything else.
My pleasure. Not sure what else I can offer. You might try:
1) one antenna only vs. 2
2) elevate your antenna as high as possible and aim for line of site to the tower
3) move your mr1100 as close as possible to the antenna, use high quality LMR cable, disable the Wifi, use a QC3 power supply (anker), and then run Ethernet into your house to a switch and one or more proper wireless access points (e.g. TP-Link EAP 225 or 245)
4) upgrade to a better cellular modem
I'm still not convinced that the mr1100 is doing CA at all. or more than 2xCA. Either that or the MIMO is screwer up, or both. My old iphone 6S routinely beats my Gen1 mr1100 on speed tests. These days with IOS12 I've gotten up to 160-170 Mbit on my 6S. From the same tower my mr1100 only gets 90-110 at most.