Abstract
In the cellular environment, operators, researchers and end users have poor visibility into network performance for devices. Improving visibility is challenging because this performance depends factors that include carrier, access technology, signal strength, geographic location and time. Addressing this requires longitudinal, continuous and large-scale measurements from a diverse set of mobile devices and networks.
This paper takes a first look at cellular network performance from this perspective, using 17 months of data collected from devices located throughout the world. We show that (i) there is significant variance in key performance metrics both within and across carriers; (ii) this variance is at best only partially explained by regional and time-of-day patterns; (iii) the stability of network performance varies substantially among carriers. Further, we use the dataset to diagnose the causes behind observed performance problems and identify additional measurements that will improve our ability to reason about mobile network behavior.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Sommers, J., Barford, P.: Cell vs. WiFi: on the performance of metro area mobile connections. In: Proc. ACM SIGCOMM IMC (2012)
Tan, W.L., Lam, F., Lau, W.C.: An Empirical Study on 3G Network Capacity and Performance. In: Proc. IEEE INFOCOM (2007)
Huang, J., Xu, Q., Tiwana, B., Mao, Z.M., Zhang, M., Bahl, P.: Anatomizing application performance differences on smartphones. In: Proc. ACM MOBISYS (2010)
Liu, X., Sridharan, A., Machiraju, S., Seshadri, M., Zang, H.: Experiences in a 3G network: interplay between the wireless channel and applications. In: Proc. ACM MOBICOM (2008)
Jurvansuu, M., Prokkola, J., Hanski, M., Perala, P.: HSDPA Performance in Live Networks. In: IEEE ICC (2007)
Laner, M., Svoboda, P., Romirer-Maierhofer, P., Nikaein, N., Ricciato, F., Rupp, M.: A comparison between one-way delays in operating HSPA and LTE networks. In: Proc. WINMEE (2012)
Vacirca, F., Ricciato, F., Pilz, R.: Large-Scale RTT Measurements from an Operational UMTS/GPRS Network. In: WICON (2005)
Laner, M., Svoboda, P., Hasenleithner, E., Rupp, M.: Dissecting 3G Uplink Delay by Measuring in an Operational HSPA Network. In: Spring, N., Riley, G.F. (eds.) PAM 2011. LNCS, vol. 6579, pp. 52–61. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Romirer-Maierhofer, P., Ricciato, F., D’Alconzo, A., Franzan, R., Karner, W.: Network-Wide Measurements of TCP RTT in 3G. In: Papadopouli, M., Owezarski, P., Pras, A. (eds.) TMA 2009. LNCS, vol. 5537, pp. 17–25. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Deshpande, P., Hou, X., Das, S.R.: Performance Comparison of 3G and Metro-Scale WiFi for Vehicular Network Access. In: Proc. ACM SIGCOMM IMC (2010)
Elmokashfi, A., Kvalbein, A., Xiang, J., Evensen, K.R.: Characterizing delays in norwegian 3G networks. In: Taft, N., Ricciato, F. (eds.) PAM 2012. LNCS, vol. 7192, pp. 136–146. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Zheng, H., Lua, E.K., Pias, M., Griffin, T.G.: Internet routing policies and round-trip-times. In: Dovrolis, C. (ed.) PAM 2005. LNCS, vol. 3431, pp. 236–250. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Huang, J., Qian, F., Guo, Y., Zhou, Y., Xu, Q., Mao, Z.M., Sen, S., Spatscheck, O.: An in-depth study of lte: Effect of network protocol and application behavior on performance. In: Proc. ACM SIGCOMM (2013)
Zarifis, K., Flach, T., Nori, S., Choffnes, D., Govindan, R., Katz-Bassett, E., Mao, Z.M., Welsh, M.: Diagnosing path inflation of mobile client traffic. In: Faloutsos, M., Kuzmanovic, A. (eds.) PAM 2014. LNCS, vol. 8362, pp. 21–30. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)
Schulman, A., Navday, V., Ramjeey, R., Spring, N., Deshpandez, P., Grunewald, C., Padmanabhany, K.J.V.N.: Bartendr: A practical approach to energy-aware cellular data scheduling. In: Proc. ACM MOBICOM (2010)
Lee, Y.: Measured TCP Performance in CDMA 1x EV-DO Network. In: Proc. PAM (2006)
Claypool, M., Kinicki, R., Lee, W., Li, M., Ratner, G.: Characterization by Measurement of a CDMA 1x EVDO Network. In: Proc. WICON (2006)
Mattar, K., Sridharan, A., Zang, H., Matta, I., Bestavros, A.: TCP over CDMA2000 networks: A cross-layer measurement study. In: Uhlig, S., Papagiannaki, K., Bonaventure, O. (eds.) PAM 2007. LNCS, vol. 4427, pp. 94–104. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Arlos, P., Fiedler, M.: Influence of the Packet Size on the One-Way Delay in 3G Networks. In: Krishnamurthy, A., Plattner, B. (eds.) PAM 2010. LNCS, vol. 6032, pp. 61–70. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nikravesh, A., Choffnes, D.R., Katz-Bassett, E., Mao, Z.M., Welsh, M. (2014). Mobile Network Performance from User Devices: A Longitudinal, Multidimensional Analysis. In: Faloutsos, M., Kuzmanovic, A. (eds) Passive and Active Measurement. PAM 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8362. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04918-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04918-2_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04917-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04918-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)