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A weak cellular signal can be a major hindrance to both personal and professional activities. If you’ve ever experienced frustrating dropped calls or sluggish data speeds, it might be time to consider installing a signal booster, also known as a wireless repeater. These ingenious devices can take an existing signal, amplify it, and rebroadcast it within a specific coverage area, providing a significant improvement in your connectivity experience. However, choosing the right signal booster for your specific needs involves a few important considerations. In this article, we’ll delve into what wireless repeaters are, how they work, and how to select the appropriate one for your situation.

Understanding Wireless Repeaters

A wireless repeater, as the name suggests, repeats or amplifies existing cellular signals. In situations where you have a good signal outside, but very weak or non-existent signal inside, a repeater system is a great addition. It can also be helpful in areas where you have dead spots inside. Use the repeater to take the stronger signal and speeds you have available in another section of your location and boost it to those dead spots. If needed, multiple antennas can be used inside to effectively broadcast the signal where it is required.

The Site Survey – Is It Necessary?

Before investing in a signal booster, it’s crucial to perform a site survey to determine whether a booster is a viable solution for your location. This step involves testing the current signal strength at the target area. For most repeaters, like those offered by reputable brands such as weBoost and SureCall, it’s essential to have a signal strength of at least -108dB or greater (i.e. closer to 0) to see significant improvement. However, Cel-Fi systems can work with even weaker signals, ideally around -118dB or better. If your signal is too weak or nonexistent, a booster may not be effective.

Finding the Best Placement for the Hardware

Proper placement of the signal booster components is crucial to ensure optimal performance and prevent interference between antennas. When using repeaters with both exterior and interior antennas, you must maintain a certain amount of separation between them to avoid oscillation (interference).

If you use omnidirectional antennas on both ends, you may need more separation and can achieve this by placing obstructions between them or using aluminum foil to block their view of each other. When using directional antennas, simply aim them away from each other. Additionally, it’s important to install antennas at least 20 cm (8 inches) away from people to comply with safety standards.

The Exterior Antenna

Based on your site survey, identify the location where you receive the strongest signal and/ or the best bandwidth speeds from your cellular service. This is where you should mount the exterior antenna. If mounting on the roof is not feasible, try to position it on the side of the building that offers the best performance. This will help maximize the booster’s efficiency.

The Amplifier

The amplifier, a critical component of the signal booster system, should be placed at least 10 feet away from the interior antenna to prevent interference. The amplifier is the only piece of the system that requires power so position it near a power outlet. It’s also important to install the amplifier in a location with proper ventilation and within its specified temperature operating range, as it tends to generate heat during operation.

The Interior Antenna and Coverage Areas

How much coverage are you looking for? Keep in mind that the amount of coverage greatly depends on the starting signal strength – i.e. the signal strength where your exterior antenna will be placed. However, the obstructions between your cellular device(s) and the interior antenna will also affect your signal. Consider where you primarily use your cellular devices, as this should guide the placement of the interior antenna.

Ideally, install the interior antenna in a central location within this “hotspot” area while maintaining adequate separation from the exterior antenna and amplifier. The closer your devices are to the interior antenna, the stronger the signal boost they will receive. The signal strength will diminish, at least slightly, by the edges of the boosted coverage area.

How Much Cable Do You Need?

Taking into account the above considerations, you can determine the required length of cables for your installation. Many repeater kits include cables, but if the provided length is insufficient, consider purchasing a separate cable of the required length. Connecting multiple short cables with adapters will introduce signal loss, potentially reducing the effectiveness of the booster system.

Next Steps

Wireless repeaters, or signal boosters, offer an effective solution for improving cellular connectivity in areas with weak or unreliable signals. Once you’ve assessed your signal strength and considered the placement of hardware components, the next step is to select the right signal booster model that aligns with your specific needs. This involves comparing available options from reputable manufacturers, considering factors like coverage area and frequency compatibility. By taking these next steps in the selection process, you can confidently choose the ideal wireless repeater to ensure stronger and more reliable cellular connectivity in your home or office.

Need assistance determining if a wireless repeater/ signal booster is right for you? Contact the 5Gstore team for further guidance. We’ll discuss how to do the site survey, how to interpret your results, and which repeater system to select.

When it comes to boosting cellular signal, it can be extremely helpful to perform a site survey. This is a simple cellular network strength test of signal and bandwidth.

Verifying where you have the best signal and bandwidth speeds first, will not only help determine the ideal placement for your external antenna, but that there is enough available signal to increase network performance. Even the best outdoor antenna or amplifier kit can only increase your signal if there is a signal available to draw in. On the other hand, if your signal is already strong, a signal booster might not provide enough benefit to be cost effective.

While this is mainly done for fixed applications. such as at your home or business. You may also do this if you’re traveling and planning to stay in the same location for an extended period.

There are tools like the SureCall Site Survey kit which is made specifically for testing signal strength. However, unless you need an easy way to test multiple carrier signals, a cell phone or cellular modem can be sufficient. Cell phones will, of course, be limited to only the carrier they are linked to. Though if you have a cellular modem – Peplink, Cradlepoint, Digi, Inseego, Sierra Wireless, etc – you can test any carrier for which you have an active SIM card.

Before you get started, it’s important you understand the data you’re looking for. RSSI, (Received Signal Strength Indicator), as well as RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power). These are both values that measure signal strength. RSRP is what you will want to refer to when looking at LTE and 5G signals. These signal values will be represented as a negative number. The closer this number is to 0, the stronger the signal strength.

Also note the RSRQ (Received Signal Received Quality) and SINR (Signal to Noise Ratio). These values are what you’ll refer to for the signal quality of LTE and 5G connections. The SINR value will be the only value that is a positive number. Not all modems will list this value.

Each of these values varies for different technologies and carriers as they depend on the particular abilities of the modem – essentially how well it can extract a signal. The values shown in the charts here are what we typically reference.

We cannot guarantee a particular signal or improved performance, regardless of the signal strength and quality. This is because of the many factors which affect signal values. Such as:

Distance to the cell tower.
Tower load.
Physical barriers (mountains, buildings, trains, etc).
Competing signals.
Signal from a cellular booster.
Weather.

Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer to what constitutes a successful connection. It is possible to disconnect with excellent, as well as poor values. You have to take both signal strength and signal quality into account. You could have an excellent signal, but disconnect because of poor quality. And vice versa. You may also stay connected because of good signal, but have poor bandwidth speeds because of poor signal quality.

The variance of a signal is a significant factor in the success of a connection. Measurements of signal strength and signal quality for a specific moment do not reflect on the stability of a connection, as these values will vary as conditions change.

Some factors, like cell tower load, can’t even be measured. You can only gain some idea as to whether or not tower load affects your connection by testing at different times of day. This allows you to find averages, but also helps to confirm if you’ll see any improvement when the tower is at full load.

We understand that finding RSRP and RSRQ on a cell phone could be a bit tricky compared to cellular modems and routers. Some phones will only list RSRP. In the event you cannot locate these specific values from your cellular device, doing a site survey using the signal bars as a reference is fine. At a minimum, the signal bars will give you some data to compare with. It’s also best if you can perform speed tests in multiple points at the location. This can help determine if bandwidth performance improves. Especially when you’re not seeing a change in signal bars.

To perform the site survey, try to answer the following, as best you can.

What is the RSRP indoors, at the location you use your device?
At that location, what are your speeds? You can use a site like speedtest.net to check your download and upload speeds.
What is the best RSRP you could find immediately outside and around the building?
At that location outside, what are your speed test results?
If the signal outside the building is not significantly better than it is inside, walk or drive in the direction of a better signal until you find a significantly better signal. At that location, what are your speedtest results?
What’s between you and that optimal signal? Trees? Elevation? How far away is it?

For your reference, you can find instructions for locating your RSRP and RSRQ/ SINR on the Apple iPhone, Samsung, Google, Blackberry, and Nokia phones here.

For different router instructions, check out our YouTube Channel.

If you have more questions, or would like assistance determining if an antenna or amplifier system can help you, reach out to our team by phone, email, or chat!

Tag: RSRP

Boosting Your Connectivity: A Comprehensive Guide to Signal Boosters