I am new to the Mikrotik world. I bought an LtAP LTE6 kit to use as an LTE hotspot. I have two different SIM cards from T-Mobile and AT&T and with both, I get close to terrible performance. I test the same sim cards in a phone or a tablet, and I get much better performance (~10x as measured at TCP/UDP layer by speedtest.net). I get 1-2 Mbps at best with LTE6 and I get 20+ Mbps with a tablet or a phone. Latencies (as measured by ping to 8.8.8. are also pretty high with LTE6 ranging between 150 ms to 450 ms, where I expect 10-20 ms.

I am less familiar with measurements on LTE signal strengths but the mobile app gives me fair to good signal strength and good signal quality. I also have a SureCall LTE signal booster and I tried with it, it didn't make a difference or made it worse in some scenarios.

My configuration is default and I haven't adjusted any setting. Is this the performance of LtAP LTE6 or do I need to do some tuning?

Thanks in advance.

It should not be required but you could go and check that your LTaP APN settings are correct and that it is set to use only LTE network mode.

Stupid question: You have connected the external antennas with coaxial cable?
Lte internal antenna on Mikrotik are weak.

Is not the first time that I see that R11e-LTE6 have poor performance compared to a smartphone.

I'm suspecting about this interface.

I use R11e-LTE-US and R11e-LTE and works very well both.



This is my speedtest today at 19:10 using only R11e-LTE.

RSRP: -95 dBm
RSRQ: -12 dB

Regards.

Thanks, interesting. So R11e-LTE performs better than R11e-LTE6? Is this the case for others as well?

I use the internal antennas but I ordered an external one too. Any suggestions on antennas welcome.

I have the same issue with my newly installed LGH LTE6 kit with a R11e-LTE6 modem.

However it seems like its never connecting on the LTE network (see attachment).

Any idea on how to solve this?

Thanks, interesting. So R11e-LTE performs better than R11e-LTE6? Is this the case for others as well?

I use the internal antennas but I ordered an external one too. Any suggestions on antennas welcome.

I'm not sure 100%, I only suspect it.

About external antennas I use L-COM HG72710XP-065. In my signature you can find a bit more details.

Regards.

In my testing no current Mikrotik modem performs very well in the US due to the fact they lack a good number of the bands in use in the US. Quectel EP06-A (Cat6) or Quectel EC25-AF (Cat4) are the best thus far in my testing. If you are only going for basic connectivity for remote administration and not throughput the LTE6 will probably suffice. And yhopefully they will start replacing mPCIe slots with M.2 slots as most of the modems are moving to the M.2 form factor. Also the Quectel modems I use are certified for Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Sprint, FirstNet etc.

Thanks jspool. Do you use these modems on Mikrotik? If I buy one (assuming I do the installation myself), will RouterOS recognize it? If so, I may consider adding one.

Thanks jspool. Do you use these modems on Mikrotik? If I buy one (assuming I do the installation myself), will RouterOS recognize it? If so, I may consider adding one.

Mikrotik supports them pretty well. I use the EC25-AF, EC25-V, EC25-A, EP06-A with Mikrotik. The AF model works on about every carrier The EG25-G works very well with Sprint. The modems default mode will show up in a Mikrotik as a PPP device. You can change the modems mode to ECM and it will show up as an LTE device.

Helpful info: viewtopic.php?t=150149

AT Command to switch mode: at+qcfg="usbnet",1

Ok, thank you for the information, this is very helpful. I think I will buy one of these to add as a second modem to my LTaP. I currently have two SIMs (AT&T and T-Mobile) but obviously I can only use one at a time with a single modem. I can take advantage of a second modem to simultaneously use both SIMs. If you needed to pick one, would you recommend EP06-A or EC25-AF?

@tenedos i know this isn't relevant to this post but how can i get my post to the forum approved?

EC25-xx(whatever) has a USB2 minipcie interface and will work in the LtAP with out hardware issue as LtAP's chipet is USB2/MiniPCIe cpu based board.
EP06-xx IS USB 3.0 interfaced card on the hardware interface and will require you to tape/glue or cut pins on the card to get it to work in USB 2 mode(minipcie) on the LtAP.
See : https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Cellular ... _modems_01

My experience is the internal antenna on the LtAP-mini for 4G/LTE is poor unless your sitting near a cell tower for it to be 'good!'.
Ideally you will need to drill and install u.FL -> SMA patch lead adapters(5-10cm, quite cheap on ebay or tech stores) internally in the plastic lid and connect the card's u.FL sockets.
You should also add a 3rd u.FL -->SMA to connect to the MT boards GPS u.FL socket. Up to you if you use that later, but be warned you will need to buy an active phantom powered GPS antenna to go with it.
Have a look at this for antenna installation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKqCHfS-SeU

See MiniPCIe PINs : https://pinoutguide.com/Slots/mini_pcie_pinout.shtml

EP06-xx will work natively(usb3) with NEWER chipsets like the IPQ-4018 & ipq-4019(https://www.qualcomm.com/products/ipq4018), as found in the RBwAPGR-5HacD2HnD and newer models.
See my post : viewtopic.php?t=150368

EC25-xx is a good CAT4 modem, EP06 is a CAT6 modem, and supports Carrier Aggregation(e.g use a secondary band, or same band, different cell) for b/w increase.
Where possible always use 2x antennas, yes you can get away with the main, but the secondary antenna assists in noisy areas /diversity setups.)

To note R11e-LTE6 is a CAT6 modem and will outperform R11E-LTE speed wise. You should make sure whatever card you get supports the frequency/bands of your preferred SIM card-supplier. Be sure to check if the LTE6 will work without the usb2/3 mod in the ltap-mini, the biger mikrotik 'ltap' uses a different CPU(usb 3 compatible / https://www.mediatek.com/products/homeNetworking/mt7621)

Ok, thank you for the information, this is very helpful. I think I will buy one of these to add as a second modem to my LTaP. I currently have two SIMs (AT&T and T-Mobile) but obviously I can only use one at a time with a single modem. I can take advantage of a second modem to simultaneously use both SIMs. If you needed to pick one, would you recommend EP06-A or EC25-AF?

With the hardware you are using the EC25-AF would probably be the best. Definitely recommend ufl to SMA pigtails and a good external LTE antennas. And make sure the modem firmware is updated to latest for best results.

With the hardware you are using the EC25-AF would probably be the best. Definitely recommend ufl to SMA pigtails and a good external LTE antennas. And make sure the modem firmware is updated to latest for best results.

Example of "Good external LTE antennas"?

PD: If you can't find U.FL to SMA + SMA to N pigtails, you can use U-FL to RP-SMA + RP-SMA to N pigtails. Only make sure not combine SMA with RP-SMA.

Regards.

I bought a EC25-AF and it got finally delivered. I installed it but it is nowhere to be seen in RouterOS.

[admin@MikroTik] > interface print
Flags: D - dynamic, X - disabled, R - running, S - slave
# NAME TYPE ACTUAL-MTU L2MTU MAX-L2MTU MAC-ADDRESS
0 ether1 ether 1500 1596 2026 C4:AD:34:6E:2A:A4
1 R wlan1 wlan 1500 1600 2290 C4:AD:34:6E:2A:A5
2 R lte1 lte 1500 AC:50:43:1A:EE:FD
[admin@MikroTik] > port print
Flags: I - inactive
# DEVICE NAME CHANNELS USED-BY BAUD-RATE
0 serial0 1 Serial Console auto
1 gps 1 115200
[admin@MikroTik] > system resource usb print
# DEVICE VENDOR NAME SPEED
0 1-0 Linux 3.3.5 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller 480
1 2-0 Linux 3.3.5 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller 5000
2 1-1 MikroTik R11e-LTE6 480
[admin@MikroTik] >

I am a bit lost. I am running v6.47.1. Any suggestions?

BTW, I didn't tape anything but it sounds like I don't need to do it.

Ok, I managed to get at least the ppp-out1 interface with the following command:

/system routerboard usb set type=mini-PCIe

But it is disabled and I cannot enable it:

[admin@MikroTik] > interface print
- dynamic, X - disabled, R - running, S - slave
# NAME TYPE ACTUAL-MTU L2MTU MAX-L2MTU MAC-ADDRESS
0 ether1 ether 1500 1596 2026 C4:AD:34:6E:2A:A4
1 R wlan1 wlan 1500 1600 2290 C4:AD:34:6E:2A:A5
2 R lte1 lte 1500 AC:50:43:1A:EE:FD
3 X ppp-out1 ppp-out
[admin@MikroTik] >
[admin@MikroTik] > interface enable ppp-out1
failure: no such data channel!
[admin@MikroTik] >

However, it is recognizing the modem:

[admin@MikroTik] > port print
Flags: I - inactive
# DEVICE NAME CHANNELS USED-BY BAUD-RATE
0 serial0 1 Serial Console auto
1 gps 1 115200
2 usb3 1 9600
[admin@MikroTik] >
[admin@MikroTik] > system resource usb print
# DEVICE VENDOR NAME SPEED
0 1-0 Linux 3.3.5 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller 480
1 2-0 Linux 3.3.5 xhci-hcd xHCI Host Controller 5000
2 1-2 Quectel EC25-AF 480
3 1-1 MikroTik R11e-LTE6 480
[admin@MikroTik] >

What next?

Solved the problem by migrating to v7.1beta2

Solved the problem by migrating to v7.1beta2

Very interesting.

Thanks for reporting that!

Regards.

EC25-AFX works with MBIM in ROS7.1beta2 just from R07A03 without isolating any pins: