Upstream Power Level

[Bvertly]

Are upstream power levels typically this low on Vodafone Fibre 2? Currently getting -7.6 dBm

I swapped from BT about two months ago and have noticed a big difference when playing games on my new Vodafone connection. I play a clientside game, where hits and kills are registered on an individuals computer and then sent to the game server for registering. They are then checked and cross referenced with the oponents data. If there is lag in sending your data then it can appears as a kill lag on screen. I have noticed hits coming through instantaneously, one big instantaneous mag dumb followed by a kill, and none of my hits getting registered.

I think I may have an upload issue with my Vodafone connection. I live right next to the local exchange. It's my next door neighbour. Street cabinet in right outside my house. Line is likely very short, hence all the other good line stats. But the upload looks horrible. Errors and low power levels.

Modem is connected directly to the test socket. No filters needed as no phones or fax machines in the house. No other internal wiring that could be at fault as I'm connected to the test socket. There's some interleaving on the download side for some reason, but no delay has yet been added.

How does the upload side look to you guys?

DSL Status Information

DSL Mode

ITU-T G.993.2_Annex_B (VDSL2)

DSL Uptime

1 day, 13 hours, 18 minutes and 3 seconds

Line Coding

DMT

Status

Connected

Number of Cuts

0

Link Power State

L0

Line Quality

	Downstream	Upstream
Current Rate	79999 kbps	19999 kbps
Maximum Rate	104392 kbps	30988 kbps
Signal-to-Noise Ratio	12.1 dB	15.4 dB
Attenuation	DS1 6.2 dB, DS2 11.8 dB, DS3 17.5 dB	US0 2.6 dB, US1 8.9 dB, US2 12.6 dB
Power	13.9 dBm	-7.6 dBm
CRC Errors in last 2238 minute(s)	0	470
K (number of bytes in DMT frame)	0	0
R (number of bytes in RS code word)	8	16
S (RS code word size in DMT frame)	0.0518	0.3781
D (interleaver depth)	16	1
Delay	0 ms	0 ms
	Downstream	Upstream
Super Frames	0	33835086
Super Frame Errors	0	470
RS Words	1739455232	1420445574
RS Correctable Errors	260	75892
RS Uncorrectable Errors	0	0

	Downstream	Upstream
HEC Errors	0	0
OCD Errors	0	0
LCD Errors	0	0
Total Cells	3479063709	0
Data Cells	436227764	0
Bit Errors	0	0
	Downstream	Upstream
Total ES	0	432
Total SES	0	0
Total UAS	27	27

[Ripshod]

In the expert settings on the router there's a diagnostics function. Also the vodafone app has diagnostics. Can you run both and post the results?

[Bvertly]

I don't have the app set up. This one is from the router.

[Ripshod]

You're running double NAT, not advisable for gaming.

Without a dedicated vdsl2 modem there's not a lot you can do. The vodafone router doesn't have a modem mode, nor can you disable NAT on it. The only option is to set the RX27 as an AP. 

Even if we could get around that there's still another existing problem.

Maybe @Jayach would have a suggestion, being a vdsl customer?

[Bvertly]

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll swap the router over to AP mode now. 

Yeah, as you know, the second router shouldn't have any effect on power levels, especially as the issue was there before the router was installed. I live in a flat so maybe the wiring here isn't the best. The wiring to the master socket is likely to have been installed by the developers before being handed over to BT, and is probably of low quality. If I remember correctly when I installed the modem, the wiring looked to be aluminium and not copper.

My ping has always been very high here even with BT, and even though I'm right next to the exchange. Maybe I'm noticing it more now due to having double NAT, but ping even on the BT Smarthub 2 was terrible compared to the previous places I live that had VDSL connections.

Thanks for your help.

[Ripshod]

I'm just waiting for your images to be moderated for the traceroute results. I think they'll be most interesting.

Incidentally I've seen several reports of wifi packet loss on the RX27 Pro - around 3% on 5GHz. Have you noticed any? 

[Bvertly]

I haven't noticed because only my phone's and printer are connected to the 5 GHz. My Laptop is connected to the 6 GHz frequency and is really only used for YouTube and web browsing. My PC is wired in when it's switched on. There may be a delay loading videos and especially a long delay starting a speedtest, but I haven't paid enough attention to notice. I've only been paying attention to gaming performance and the ping I get on the line. Previous ping on BT was the same I get now with vodafone and is comparatively very high to where I've lived before.

[Jayach]

Here are my figures to compare. I don't game so I honestly can't say how good my connection would be for that.

DSL Status Information

DSL Mode

ITU-T G.993.2_Annex_B (VDSL2)

DSL Uptime

3 days, 19 hours, 34 minutes and 49 seconds

Line Coding

DMT

Status

Connected

Number of Cuts

0

Link Power State

L0

Line Quality

  Downstream Upstream

Current Rate	79998 kbps	20000 kbps
Maximum Rate	81907 kbps	25524 kbps
Signal-to-Noise Ratio	4.3 dB	9.2 dB
Attenuation	DS1 9.0 dB, DS2 21.7 dB, DS3 33.8 dB	US0 2.0 dB, US1 14.9 dB, US2 24.2 dB
Power	12.7 dBm	4 dBm
CRC Errors in last 5494 minute(s)	0	1427
K (number of bytes in DMT frame)	0	0
R (number of bytes in RS code word)	10	0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame)	0.0874	0.3819
D (interleaver depth)	8	1
Delay	0 ms	0 ms

I'm a lot further from my cabinet, and that may be why the upload power level is different, it may not have to "pump" so hard.

I'm also not sure what a negative db reading signifies, I've really never understood decibels.

[Bvertly]

I've believe it mean that 0 dBm is the reference point, and according to ChatGPT, the optimal power level it represents is 1 mW. A negative means you are under optimal power and by how much, and a positive value is how much you are over. I'm not sure how they regulate it on a VDSL line. I know Virgin Media sticks you on to the best tap available in the street for the length of your line and then adjusts power levels with filters on the back of the modem if needed... But that's DOCSIS, I've no idea how it works for VDSL.

-7.6 dBm seems to be quite a bit below the reference point of 0 dBm. 

Do Vodafone employees monitor these forums, and if so, can then comment and arrange engineer visits if needed?

[Cynric]

@Bvertly Because dB is not a linear scale 0 dB is equal to 1 unit-of-measure, your figure is between 0.25 and 0.1 of the reference value.

[Cynric]

Here are my figures from a Zyxel router (once the image is approved). I do play some on-line games and do not experience problems. My router shows Receive power as a negative.