High Packet Loss in the Evening Only

[dncan29]

I've been having periodic packet loss for the last month or so at very specific times in the evening, and am at a bit of a loss on what to do.

To start off I'll explain that I live in a remote area, so I use a mobile SIM in a TP-Link router for household internet. The phone mast is quite literally at the bottom of the garden, so I've always had a very strong signal and quite fast speeds - enough for gaming and streaming simultaneously. I also have a number of smart devices around my home, including several Google Home devices and smart switches. Never had any issues in nearly 2 years with this setup.

Beginning at the start of December 2022, I noticed that I was getting very high packet loss (up to 30%, with higher spikes) while playing online. At these times my wife also noticed that YouTube, Netflix and iPlayer were buffering regularly or playing at low quality. We assumed at first that it would just be a temporary glitch, and left it at that.

After a few more nights I started investigating further. To start off I tried disconnecting our wifi boosters - no change. Resetting the router - no change. Comparing wired (PC) and wireless connections no  difference. After resetting everything and even trying the hotspot on my phone, I gave up. Give it a couple of weeks, I thought. It's the Christmas holidays, maybe the lines are just busier than usual.

Come January and with no further change, I used pingplotter to test our connection over a few days and the results have been quite interesting:

This is an example taken over a 48 hour period. My latency (black line) is very stable. The red bars show packet loss. What's interesting here is that every day, at 15:00 on the dot, the packet loss starts to rise. It peaks and drops again at 19:00, then rises sharply throughout the evening before tailing back to zero at 23:00.

This cycle repeats every day, without fail, near enough to the minute. And it's exactly the same whether I'm on a wired or wireless connection, and is also the same using the hotspot on my phone (and we've tried this with 2 different Vodafone SIMs).

Surely this must be some technical glitch on Vodafone's end? As I mentioned it only started beginning of December 2022, but the connection is unusable for gaming in the evening and streaming is also slow.

Is there anything more that can be done?

Thanks for any help

[KJASTR]

Hi how long it is fine ? My contract ends in few days. I changed to smarty and they fine with packet loss, little high ping but speed they offer is crap.

I am considering to stay with Vodafone on 30 days contract.

[Lynxthecat]

From around May the crippling packet loss issue was resolved by an engineer following my complaint. And I notice that we haven't had any more replies on this thread. For me, the normal Vodafone 4G service that I have relied upon since 2020 is back. Naturally the service received will hinge upon the proximity of your local cell tower and how heavily loaded it is.

[KJASTR]

Thx i give them a call and see what they can offer for me to stay.

I put Vodafone sim card now, i have scheduled tarkov games with my pals tonight. Let's see how it would go.

Thanks for fast reply. 

[Lynxthecat]

Nobody on this forum seems to understand bufferbloat in 4G/5G/Starlink connections. Absent special intervention (see e.g.: https://github.com/lynxthecat/cake-autorate) that will always be a huge issue when a saturating load is imparted to the connection. Also, it is worthwhile securing an outdoor modem/router or antenna that points to the cell tower. Indoor routers give comparatively weak LTE signal stats.

[bpr]

Who are you referring to? FYI my packet loss is still an issue so the issue hasn't been fixed network-wide.

[KJASTR]

Thanks for this replies. Now i won't be bother calling them again if you guys still struggling. 9th July it is official end for me with this company then. 

[KJASTR]

It is not latancy problem it is packet loss on ridiculous high lvl. I tested 3 other network providers which they had worse signal and aerial parameters then vodafone in my location. They had higher ping but no constant packet loss.

[nullabletype]

This isn't high latency related, this is a significant number of packets not reaching their destination. It isn't a case of packets arriving late/high ping and is also observable under any load condition. I’m using an external antenna directed specifically to the mast. Three also use this same mast, and i have no issues with packet loss on their service (although i see late packets when load is high). The signal stats are also better on Vodafone than Three (in “excellent” ranges on most scales) due to different cell position so it is not related to that.

Generally speeds are better on Vodafones service, which is why it would be my preference but when half the data is being lost the speed reported is useless.

[Lynxthecat]

Ouch understood - seems network-wide issue still present then. I suggest just raising complaint and bypassing customer service / tech support with their requirements for speed test screenshots etc. Please keep us posted on what happens. 

[chrisb1983]

I have been suffering with this now for a few months up to 60% packet loss on some occasions. 

From what I can tell it seems like its vodafone's load balancing method when usage is high.

I'm using a Huawei B535 with a Lebrara sim (Vodafone's network) with an external antenna and decent signal stats via LTH Monitor. If I swap the sim card to Giff Gaff (O2 network), the packet loss vanishes. 

The only way I can reduce the packet loss is to connect to a cell tower 400-500 meters locked exclusively to band 20, rather than the full spectrum of bands (typically bands 1,3,7 and 8 ) from a cell tower 1.5 miles away that gives me 4G+ and far better speed, but dreadful packet loss, even though the signal strength is still very strong.. For me its a trade off, speed Vs stability.

The band 20 tower I am connecting to typical has alot less load due to its "out of town" location, hence leading me to believe its a load balancing method Vodafone are using.