Minimum up/Download speed required

flyham

what is the minimum upload and download speed required at the radio end to operate remote successfully with smartlink? Being in a rural area my home internet options are very limited. Is 1 mbps upload enough?

thanks!

mitch KE0UAS

KD0RC

Hi Mitch, I find that more importantly, it is the latency. I often operate remotely using my phone as a WiFi hotspot. I usually get enough bandwidth, but fairly often, the latency is too high to maintain a connection. Under these conditions, the audio is so choppy as to be unusable.

When on the road, I am usually operating from remote mountain locations with very poor cell service. Sometimes it is almost like operating from home, and sometimes I can't stay connected more than a few minutes.

Since the only thing going "up" is text API commands and transmit audio, I would think that 1 Mbps should suffice. The bigger requirement is download speed and latency, as you are receiving API responses, panadapter data, waterfall data and receive audio.

By slowing the refresh rates of the pan and waterfall, you can get away with considerably less download bandwidth. I usually choose the low-bandwith setting in SmartLink.

flyham

Thanks for the detailed response. The number I was told for latency was 50-60 ms. Do you think that would work?

mitch KE0UAS

flyham

Im referring to the internet service that my Flexradio will be connected to. Not the internet I will use on the remote end. Not sure if we’re on the same page there.

mitch

KD0RC

Hi Mitch, I see... Well I'm not sure, but 1 Mbps might be OK. I think that the 50 - 60 ms latency would be fine. It is difficult to put hard numbers around what works and what doesn't. There are just too many factors involved and they all interact.

Are you using a satellite-based internet service? If so, the issue is often one of Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT). SmartLink does not work with CGNAT. If you have CGNAT at the radio end, you will probably need to use a VPN without SmartLink to get around the problem.

If you already have a Flex 6000 series radio, give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised when I got my goofy situation to work (at least sometimes...).

John KB4DU

As Len said, there are a lot of variables, and they interact in unknown ways. Also, for the most part ite internet is a shared resource, kind of like an interstate highway. Few users, not much congestion, many users traffic jam. Using my iPad, I can usually work remote, but it only does one pan/waterfall at a time. Sometimes I turn off the waterfall. Maybe try to remote to the home QTH from a public WiFi just to see how it works for your situation.

flyham

I’m currently on a cellular based network that has better speeds but I haven’t had any success getting smartlink to work. The other internet option I am looking into is a wireless service that would use a receiver pointed at a local radio tower. They can provide a static ip, but the limitation is the upload speed of 1 mbps.

flyham

Do you need a public IP address for a vpn to work?

Doug Allen

Just began experimenting a few days ago. Using SmartLink and my Kinetic ISP DSL 6 Mbps down and 0.65 up I can use my home Lenovo laptop, also on the my Kinetic network, anywhere within a couple hundred feet of the Kinetic router. No issues on CW or SSB. The latency is 3 ms. However, I've taken my laptop to the local library and local coffee shop and using their pretty fast down and uploads, I can seldom connect, and never for more than 30 seconds or so. I think it's a combination of my Kinetic slow speed and latency. A recent bufferbloat test is representative of my Kinetic latency, 48 ms plus additional 58 ms when download is active and additional 252 ms when upload is active. The Bufferbloat web site rates this as grade D, which is not good. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that I can operate remote except on the same network as my Flex 6500/computer. Flyham, perhaps your slightly greater speeds are adequate, but it may be that latency is the real issue?

Doug K4LY

Mike-VA3MW

If you are testing with limited bandwidth, make sure you reduce the FPS and RATE to a minimum (slide the sliders all the way to the left). This will reduce your upstream to about 250Kb/sec.

Also, make sure you do not use DAX and that it is turned off. DAX is not required for CW and SSB communications.

BTW, I just chased a bad bufferbloat issue down and it was related to the NIC card on my PC. Once I updated the drivers on it and took the 2.5G NIC card OFF auto-negotiate, my BufferBloat when from a D to a B.

Mike va3mw