Characterization of a 3G EV-DO Network- a Measurement Study

Abstract—The growth of mobile streaming applications has increased the importance of a better understanding of 3G EV-DO performance. This paper provides performance measurements for a series of experiments that offer an in-depth, crosslayer understanding of EV-DO. Insights are provided for data rate control, packet encapsulation/combination, early completion, packet interarrival time, packet loss pattern and queue management. Key results are: data rates for non-mobile EV-DO users are more stable than previously reported with little variance over short time scales and more random behavior over long time scales; low-level packet encapsulation/combination happens frequently; and custom service provider configurations (e.g., advanced queue management), and operating system differences (e.g., clock granularity for device drivers) can obfuscate network behavior relative to EV-DO specifications. Index Terms—3G, EV-DO, bandwidth estimation I