Losing traffic, live streams buffer

Romeor

Hello,

Am got myself 5G NSA connection from provider I've got another fiber connection. The connection came with NR7101. I've already installed these updates:

FW: 1.00(ABUV.6)C1
Module FW: RG502QEAAAR11A07M4G

The connection max BW is 500/50 Mbps and am getting it without problems. Connections to IPTV servers is 300 mbps both fiber and 5G (its the same ISP, just different technologies, so route is the same).

The issue:
When I watch HQ IPTV (incl 4K) stream in original SAT TV quality using NR7101 in LTE mode, it is ok, while it downloads not that fast like 25-40 mbps per HLS chunk. But as soon as I switch it to NSA mode and APP "understands" it can have higher bitrate and starts to download them at 70-90 mbps rate, picture starts to buffer as from time to time I see some kind of holes in TV port's traffic. It just doesn't get any data for some time, then its preloaded buffer runs out and it starts to buffer. When I switch to fiber connection, there is no such an issue while it still gets chunks at 70-90 mbps bitrate. TV's port is 100 mbps. So the issue is only when I watch it in NSA mode and it seems like NR7101 issue to me. Sometimes after router restart it works fine for some time then it happens again. Some pics attached.

This is in LTE mode



This is using fiber as uplink



and this is in NSA mode, you can see those "holes" in traffic. With smaller ones it doesn't buffer, but as they come more often and become one large, like last one, it stops and buffers. From provider end-pont the NAT session doesn't get broken, its just something wrong with 5G router.



Oh and the connection is still up. When this pause happens I can ping the server, can telnet to it's port and can surf the internet.

And the most funniest thing is when some other device watches youtube or something similar (ie generating traffic) there are no such issues also.

Romeor

Latest FW update V1.00(ABUV.7)C0 fixes this behaviour. From the release notes we can find the issue

9. [Internal Iusse #30757] [TR-369] Modify manual APN setting by SET message cause connection abnormal and connection unstable

Noddy

Must admit I do see packet errors and get issues with buffering and I too am using NR-NSA on the latest firmware / modem module.  Yet speeds are similarly quick, depending on conditions 100 - 300Mbps.

Romeor

my drop and error counters are 0, but today I understood the issue has nothing to do with burst. Traffic was ok today (only 23-36 mbps burst) but still these pauses appear and buffering starts.

Romeor

upper graph is 5G and lower is Fiber. Same ISP, same IPTV stream provider, same channel, same time. Traffic is just blocked

Romeor

Now i even locked my modem to one EPG so it would be less factors. Just randomly even when I get same IP address it can behave like on the picture or be stable. Restart - loosing, restart - not loosing. Kind of very random performance. Any way to debug?

BrandSafway

Hi, seems like no one is trying to help. Lets see if i can give soint tips. I had similar issues.

Not exactly the same. As soon as i would cross a specific threshold i would not get a data throughput, despite being connected to the cell, i suspected the Zyxel. I made sure to exclude a router problem by using a Digi-EX50 and i had the exact same issue.

In the end it turned out the cell i was connecting to was the fault. When i connected to another cell using the Zyxel cell lock feature (not possible with the Digi-EX50) the issue was gone. So make sure you can reproduce the issue on different cells using cell lock. Your packet errors are quite high, it was the same for my with the faulty cell but make sure it's not an cable issue or something blocking the line of sight to the cell tower. Best signals are still archived with a line of sight connection and pointing the Zyxel to the cell itself. I suspect a 25-30° degree angle with the Zyxel, though no information was ever provided by Zyxel.

I recommend to use www.cellmapper.net to find the best cell for you. Best is not always the closest or the one with the best signal. I prefer to test each cell to find the most stable and least overloaded cell and cell lock the Zyxel to that cell.

Romeor

Latest FW update V1.00(ABUV.7)C0 fixes this behaviour. From the release notes we can find the issue

9. [Internal Iusse #30757] [TR-369] Modify manual APN setting by SET message cause connection abnormal and connection unstable

Romeor

....

BrandSafway

most of the issues i have come across with are not with the Zyxel device but actually with the cell connected to. i have 12 devices running for enterprise sites.

Romeor

I  had nokia 5g modem connected to the same cell. it was ok before zy update released and became ok also.
but why i deleted my previous post is it seems, like it is now more of my hardware issue after the zyxel modem. i will dig into it later deeper