Chapter 5. Carrier Networks: Down the Rabbit Hole
Thereâs a point in Lewis Carrollâs Alice's Adventures in Wonderland where Alice believes she may never be able to leave the room she has found herself in after following the rabbit down its hole. She starts to question her decision:
I almost wish I hadnât gone down that rabbit holeâand yetâand yetâitâs rather curious, you know, this kind of life.
The world of mobile performance can feel the sameâparticularly when you start to explore mobile carrier networks. If youâre looking for consistency and stability, you should look elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you enjoy the energy and excitement found in the chaos that surrounds an unstable environment, then youâll find yourself right at home.
Variability
The complexity of a system may be determined by the number of its variables, and carrier networks have a lot of variables. Their performance varies dramatically depending on factors such as location, the number of people using a network, the weather, the carrierâthere isnât much that you can rely on to remain static.
One study (http://www.pcworld.com/article/167391/a_day_in_the_life_of_3g.html) demonstrated just how much variance there can be from location to location. The test involved checking bandwidth on 3G networks for three different mobile carriersâSprint, Verizon, and AT&Tâin various cities across the United States. The diversity of the results were stunning.
The highest recorded bandwidth was ...
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