WARNING: Everyone Should Update to iPhone to 2.0.2 Immediately!

The Inside Deets on iPhone 2.0.2 and Dropped Calls

200808280024

Daniel Eran Dilger

The mysteriously terse synopsis of the improvements made in iPhone
2.0.2, listed only as “bug fixes,” didn’t shed much light on why
Apple’s Jennifer Bowcock could tell USAToday that “the software update
improves communication with 3G networks.” However, our source close to
AT&T helped illuminate why the update was necessary, what the problem
was, and why the update didn’t immediately impact users equally.

The iPhone 2.0.2 update “fixed power control on the mobile,” the
source told RoughlyDrafted. UMTS, the technology used to deliver
AT&T’s 3G network, refers to phones and other client devices as “UE”
for user equipment, and the base transceiver station towers as “Node
B.”

Why the iPhone 3G dropped calls

“In UMTS,” the source said, “power control is key to the mobile and
network success. If the UE requires too much downlink power then the
base station or Node B can run out of transmitter power and this is
what was happening. As you get more UEs on the cell, the noise floor
rises and the cell has to compensate by ramping up its power to the
UEs.”

“If the UE power control algorithm is faulty then they will demand
more power from the cell than is necessary and with multiple users
this can cause the cell transmitter to run out of power. The net
result is that some UEs will drop their call. I have seen the dropped
call graphs that correspond to the iPhone launch and when the 2.0.2
firmware was released. The increase in dropped calls,” the source
said, were the result of “dropped calls due to a lack of downlink
power.”

Why the iPhone 3G suffered poor data throughput

“The power control issue will also have an effect on the data
throughput, because the higher the data rate the more power the Node B
transmitter requires to transmit. If the UEs have poor power control
and are taking more power than is necessary then it will sap the
network’s ability to deliver high speed data.”

“This is one of the reasons why AT&T has been sending text messages to
users to persuade them to upgrade to the 2.0.2 software. In a mixed
environment where users are running 2.0, 2.0.1, and 2.0.2, the power
control problems of 2.0 and 2.0.1 will affect the 2.0.2 users.”

“It is not the network that is fault but the interaction of the bad
power control algorithm in 2.0 and 2.0.1 software and the network that
is at fault. The sooner everybody is running 2.0.2 software the better
things will be. Having seen the graphs the 2.0.2 software has already
started to make difference.”

That explains why some users saw no immediate impact after installing
iPhone 2.0.2, and why tests of individual iPhone 3G models showed no
significant difference between the 2.0 and 2.0.2 software: the problem
was only evident when a critical mass of phones all acted in concert
to run a given cell tower out of power. This also explains why users
in locations such as San Francisco and New York were seeing bigger
problems than users in less densely populated areas where fewer iPhone
3Gs were in use.

4phun <vic.healey@gmail.com> wrote in news:42fa9d6a-c95f-4d08-beee-
051eefe78684@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

> This also explains why users
> in locations such as San Francisco and New York were seeing bigger
> problems than users in less densely populated areas where fewer iPhone
> 3Gs were in use.
>

Haaalp! I'm drowning in BULLSHIT!!

4phun <vic.healey@gmail.com> wrote in news:42fa9d6a-c95f-4d08-beee-
051eefe78684@l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com:

> The Inside Deets on iPhone 2.0.2 and Dropped Calls
>

WARNING - These webpages aren't for the faint of heart or those who used to
work for the government and can't stand acronyms-ad-nauseum any more:

Strap on your acronym safety belts and click:

http://www.umtsworld.com/technology/power.htm

.....no wonder EVDO wipes their ass....(c;