Carrier aggregation possibilities

[miboss]

Being very new, I'm not quite sure I fully understand CA and what is needed to take advantage of it. With that said, before I decide on what modem I choose, I'd like to try to figure out if I can take advantage of CA at my location. Here's a rough map of what I'm dealing with. The closest tower only has band 13, but farther out there are towers with bands 4,13, and 66. Initial test with just my cell phone on the house porch (pointing to closest tower) give me a -81 dbm signal strength, and that is through trees.

cell_towers.JPG

Here are the approx. distances to each tower from my house (starred)

1. 2160 ft
2. 3.5 ml
3. 4.3 ml
4. 5 ml
5. 5.5 ml
6. 7 ml

First question...Does CA

1. require 1 tower with 1 band
2. require one tower with multiple bands
3. require multiple towers on the same band
4. multiple towers with multiple bands

Given the above map is it worth purchasing a modem that can take advantage of CA?

[Viper67857]

1 works if both the modem and the tower support intra-band CA on the band available, otherwise it's 2.

Also, the only modems without any CA are dated AF and will also have no MIMO support... Go with the highest category you are willing to spend for.

[miboss]

1 works if both the modem and the tower support intra-band CA on the band available

Is there a way to tell if a tower support intraband CA, or is it just trial and error?

[Yipzy]

Currently, CA is supported through one tower with multiple bands. I read technology is there for CA on multiple towers but not activated in general. There is no intraband CA for B13. You will get CA on tower 2, either via 4+13 or better yet 66+13 if modem supports band 66. It depends if your reception is good enough for tower 2 with better speeds and your modem will pick the closest tower 1 no matter what because it has a stronger signal. There are a very few modems that allow you to lock onto a different tower if desired for better speeds. Carriers do not want you to do this but Quectel comes to mind from what I have been reading with AT+QNWLOCK=?

The last time I tried to lock onto another tower. My modem (not Quectel) would not activate CA but it did lock onto the tower I wanted on a specific band. Someone with a Quectel (the ones I have are not in my possession anymore) could help you confirm whether CA still works or not but I would imagine it's still better even not if you could lock onto band 4/66 with OK reception because it has channel bandwidth of 20MHz most likely vs the 10MHz on band 13.

You could check the signals of cells near by with a phone depending on what kind of phone you have.
Android - use LTE Discovery and Network Cell Info Lite.
iOS - use Field Test Mode by dialing *3001#12345#* then call button.

[Viper67857]

Also, the most fool-proof to lock onto a specific tower, with any modem, is a highly directional antenna... If that's the only signal it can see then that's what it gets... Parabolic grids are the best for this.

[Yipzy]

Also, the most fool-proof to lock onto a specific tower, with any modem, is a highly directional antenna... If that's the only signal it can see then that's what it gets... Parabolic grids are the best for this.

Didn't think about that but yeah that should theoretically work too if you aim at the right direction and the modem sees the tower far away with better signal it will pick that over the closest one.