The Norwegian Mobile Network maintained quality and stability throughout 2020
Not only did the Internet pass the test of the pandemic, as we talked about in our last blog. The three major mobile networks in Norway also did. Throughout 2020 they maintained their quality and stability, despite the increase in traffic caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic. The networks experienced very little downtime and packet loss, and the speed of the network has been higher than ever before. These are the main conclusions of our 8th annual report on the Norwegian mobile network published in May 2021.
Picture is taken by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Simula Metropolitan’s Center for Resilient Networks and Applications (CRNA) performs long-term measurements of the Norwegian mobile broadband networks. To do this, we have built a country-wide measurement infrastructure. Overall, we have 147 small computers that act as measurement nodes. These computers are spread all over Norway and placed in government buildings, schools and private homes. Each measurement device mimics a typical end user and connects to all major mobile operators in Norway using commercial subscriptions. The findings from this setup form the basis of an annual report on the stability and performance of these networks. The ongoing project is funded by Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation and monitors the three largest mobile providers in the country; Telenor, Telia and Ice, each having built their own mobile network infrastructure.
Down-time, packet-loss and speed in 2020
Our observations of the mobile networks focus on three different aspects of stability, comparing its performance with previous years.
The first one is stability in terms of up-time vs down-time. Are the connections always available?
Our observations showed that the mobile networks’ stability was as good in 2020 as the previous year. For Ice and Telia 80% of the connections had down-time of less than 0.01 %, which translates to under nine seconds per 24 hours. For Ice this is a great improvement; up from 60% in 2019. For Telenor the 2020 figure was 60%. Also, we have observed very few instances where a number of connections is lost at the same time, and the few times it did happen it took place during night-time, indicating that it was caused by planned maintenance.
The second aspect of stability measure relates to “packet loss”. Do the packets of information, which all internet traffic is divided into, actually reach their destination or is a proportion of them lost?
The observed packet loss in 2020 was at the same level as 2019, with Telenor still experiencing the lowest number. Telia’s numbers were nearly as good and Ice reached the same level during the last three months of the year, after having experienced a higher packet loss for the first nine months.
Speed is the third aspect we measure. How stable is the performance of the mobile network in terms of speed?
New technology allows merging the capacity from several frequency bands. Since the nodes we use for our observations do not support this technology, we are unable to measure the maximum possible speed of the current network. However, we can comment on performance over time and how speed affects the experience of the end user. We started measuring speed in 2016 and the observed speed has, broadly spoken, been unchanged since then, but we saw a slight improvement for all the networks from 2019 to 2020. The speed is also fluctuating less than before. In terms of speed Telenor performed a little better that Telia and Ice during the first months of the year but after a small drop they ended up at the same level as the two other networks.
New for 2020: Monitoring of 5G, Broadband over satellite and congestion
As 4G has been rolled out over the past years, we have seen a steady improvement of the mobile network. This roll-out is now complete and the 2020-report includes for the first time measurements from the country’s first 5G networks, available in certain pilot areas. It is worth noting that the 5G networks are still under construction and are therefore also continuously changing. We are likely to experience improvement in stability and performance over time.
Generally, the 5G networks in Norway are currently quite unstable causing frequent shifts between 4G and 5G. In the Telia network we have measured download speeds between 200 and 400 Mbits per second, however there are still big variations in speed. In the area we measured Telenor’s 5G, we did not manage to achieve the same high speeds, which is probably because they had not finished the configuration of the network.
Broadband over satellite
Another first in 2020 was the monitoring of a Broadband service delivered over satellite. It would be important to understand the stability and performance of this delivery method, should the planned “Broadband-Guarantee” be implemented (where all households would be given the right to a basic Broadband service). We observed broadband provided via a geostationary satellite. Download speeds were measured between 15 and 40 Mbit per second and the speed varied throughout the day/night and also according to how many users were active. Upload speeds were measured between 4 and 5.5 Mbit per second and proved to be relatively stable. The packet loss was higher than the mobile network, normally between 0.07and 0.5 %, and some days it increased to 1%.
Congestion
We have developed ways of measuring congestion, meaning a situation where the traffic is so high that the performance of the network is notably reduced. Not surprisingly, congestion was observed more frequently in built-up areas than the more rural ones. The typical effect of congestion is that download speed is reduced by four to five Mbit per second. However, we did not find excessive congestion in any of the measurements, providing yet another indication that mobile networks coped well with the increased traffic caused by the Pandemic.
So, overall good marks for the Norwegian mobile network. 2020 was a special year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Movement restrictions and home office have reportedly strained communication networks. This year’s report, however, shows that the impact on Norwegian mobile networks was negligible. We actually have recorded fewer outages, lower packet loss, minimal congestion, and higher speeds. These positive developments have mainly been driven by the transition from 3G to 4G, which is now complete. In the years to come CRNA will continue to monitor the stability of the mobile network as the new major upgrade from 4G to 5G takes place.