Re: ATT Microcell in Austin, TX

[Tom Beecher <beecher () beecher cc>]

Net neutrality!*

*Except if someone drives through a power pole.

On Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 11:11 AM Darin Steffl <darin.steffl () mnwifi com>
wrote:

> Matt,
>
> You're correct that if most of these small cells goes offline during a
> power outage, the remaining macro cells would not be able to handle the
> load well.
>
> Data would be nearly useless and phone/texts may be sporadic.
>
> I believe that when this happens, they should proactively block or limit
> video and file download/upload traffic as much as possible to make sure
> communications like calls and texts can go through with the highest success
> rate possible. Netflix and YouTube should never hinder more important
> communications in my opinion. Maybe it's as simple as putting a rate limit
> for each cellphone connected to these now overloaded sectors so no one can
> hog the cell capacity.
>
> It would be pretty sweet though if small cells all had a linked power
> source following the same fiber paths that all hook back into a large
> battery backup or generator somewhere. Maybe 30-40 small cells can have
> backup power from one macro cell generator. I'm not sure if they're
> installed that way or not but it would ideal. Otherwise, you're losing 10
> to 100x of the capacity of a cell network during power outages if the small
> cells go down.
>
> On Tue, Feb 18, 2020, 9:46 AM Matt Erculiani <merculiani () gmail com> wrote:
>
> > It will be interesting to see how this plays out as reliance on these
> > small cells for capacity grows. I'd imagine demand for cellular bandwidth
> > goes up during a power outage and not down.
> >
> > Is it reasonable to think that there could be a situation where cell
> > capacity is not available during a time of need because these sites will
> > simply go down and significantly reduce coverage/quality in dense
> > metropolitan areas?
> >
> > -Matt
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 19:15 Shane Ronan <shane () ronan-online com> wrote:
> >
> > > This is a small cell. They are very common across all of the carriers.
> > >
> > > It is NOT intended to provide primary coverage for the area.
> > >
> > > It IS intended to provide additional capacity to the immediate area.
> > >
> > > Think of the large cell towers as providing blanket coverage, while
> > > small cells provide hot spots of increased capacity.
> > >
> > > Most small cells have no battery backup or generator at all, as it's not
> > > feasible given the real estate available.
> > >
> > > On Sun, Feb 16, 2020, 5:58 PM Chris Boyd <cboyd () gizmopartners com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Since people on here like to talk about the generatorn run time on cell
> > > > towers, I thought y’all might like to see an ATT microcell in downtown
> > > > Austin, TX.  No apparent generator or battery on it.
> > > >
> > > > https://imgur.com/a/RY9Tg7h
> > > >
> > > > —Chris