5 years of flawless MicroCell service - now getting interference on calls?

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@GLIMMERMAN76 wrote:

we you could turn HDvoice aka enhanced LTE back on to see.  What I found it HDvoice has trouble with microcell.  Hope you got it licked....

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Good point GLIMMERMAN76. I think we'll monitor VOIP and call performance throughout the weekend with the 'Enhanced LTE / HD Voice' turned off  ... and if no performance issues we'll turn the 'Enhanced LTE / HD Voice' back on next Monday and see if the alien voices return. At that point we may consider the solution found and the project closed.

What is bizarre is that we've had the Samsung Galaxy NOTE4 phones for nearly two years and since we never interacted with the 'Enhanced LTE / HD Voice' setting before, this setting was most likely turned 'on' the entire time and we experienced no call performance issues until this month. Ghost in the machine! 

I don't know about red flags since you've only provided one "Advanced" tab statistics set.  The others are the Connection Summary results that don't show what I need to see.

However, the Maximum TCP delay is high and the incoming jitter is high also.  Can't draw any conclusions from the limited amount of data but depending on how often your incoming jitter is running above 5 msec, you could be experiencing VOIP voice quality issues.  I'd really like to see some Advance Statistics output during times where your node is experiencing more traffic, ie. during the later part of the day and early evening.

Perhaps switching off the Enhanced LTE/HD Voice setting will help but the fact that you didn't have this problem for 2 years makes me think the problem is ISP related.  Regardless, I agree with your plan to test the phones with the setting off and then on to see if you can replicate the distortion you have reported.

Concerning the number of lines to enter for the test, we use 1 as the default for a home VOIP network.  I'd also run the test for 60 seconds instead of 30 so it is over a longer period of time.

@AlexanderGR8

depends on if your area just got hdvoice....  I cant use it because calls become all garbled because of LTE coverage holes here in IL.  HDvoice was add to most phones thru software updates in the last year.

@AlexanderGR8

Looking at your most recent VoIP results, the jitter and max TCP is still a problem as Avedis53 indicated. I use one line for the same reason that Avedis53 pointed out. 60 seconds is probably not a bad idea either because a longer time duration is more apt to pick up any problems during the testing phase.

My guess is that you have two issues.One is the LTE (HD Voice) that Glimmerman76 mentioned) and the other issue is your line quality. If keeping LTE disabled on your phones work, that's great because that's something you can control. If you still have sporadic issues after disabling LTE, then it's proably related to your line quality. In that case, there's nothing we or AT&T can do and you will have to work with Comcast on correcting that.

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@OttoPylot wrote:

@AlexanderGR8

 

Looking at your most recent VoIP results, the jitter and max TCP is still a problem as Avedis53 indicated. I use one line for the same reason that Avedis53 pointed out. 60 seconds is probably not a bad idea either because a longer time duration is more apt to pick up any problems during the testing phase.

 

My guess is that you have two issues.One is the LTE (HD Voice) that Glimmerman76 mentioned) and the other issue is your line quality. If keeping LTE disabled on your phones work, that's great because that's something you can control. If you still have sporadic issues after disabling LTE, then it's proably related to your line quality. In that case, there's nothing we or AT&T can do and you will have to work with Comcast on correcting that.

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@OttoPylot

he didnt disable LTE just enhanced LTE(HDvoice VoLTE at the moment)

Thanks to everyone for your  input. This process has been very enlightening to say the least. I appreciate your time and willingness to be of assistance.

Below is another 'Advanced' report of VOIP test results conducted at 3 PM EDT this afternoon. I will try to post another report of test results this evening during primetime and then again before retiring.

If I am understanding you all correctly, (asssuming that VOIP test results remain consistent), there appears to be Comcast ISP line issues with the following:

• Maximum TCP is high - (what is normal TCP delay?)
• Incoming Jitter is high - (normal incoming jitter is < 5 msec ?)

* Based on your experience with these matters can I simply call up comcast and report these issues and they'll just come on out and troubleshoot these line quality issues?

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@AlexanderGR8 wrote:

Thanks to everyone for your  input. This process has been very enlightening to say the least. I appreciate your time and willingness to be of assistance.

Below is another 'Advanced' report of VOIP test results conducted at 3 PM EDT this afternoon. I will try to post another report of test results this evening during primetime and then again before retiring.

If I am understanding you all correctly, (asssuming that VOIP test results remain consistent), there appears to be Comcast ISP line issues with the following:

 

• Maximum TCP is high - (what is normal TCP delay?)
• Incoming Jitter is high - (normal incoming jitter is < 5 msec ?)

 

 

* Based on your experience with these matters can I simply call up comcast and report these issues and they'll just come on out and troubleshoot these line quality issues?

 

 

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You can try. You will more than likely have to keep bugging them because the MicroCell is not their product, so it's not their problem (based on other customer reports who had the same type of issue with Comcast). There is an explanation of the VoIP interpretation on the 8x8 site and I do have some information in my Tech Guide (see link in my sig).

It would appear that your TCP delay and jitter are constant as far as the averages go.  Here is a data set I received for my connection just now.

Speed test statistics
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Download speed: 15644 kbps
Upload speed: 4254 kbps
Download consistency of service: 93 %
Upload consistency of service: 99 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum TCP delay: 29 ms
Average download pause: 2 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 45 ms
Average round trip time to server: 47 ms
Estimated download bandwidth: 38295 kbps
Route concurrency: 2.4479346
Download TCP forced idle: 72 %
Maximum route speed: --

VoIP test statistics
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Jitter: you --> server: 0.4 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 0.2 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Estimated MOS score: 4.2

General information
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IP address: 71.84.128.86
Local time: Mar 25, 2016 5:38:49 PM
Test server: http://voiptest.8x8.com:82/

If you look at Otto's posted stats and mine, you'll see TCP delays of 42 and 29 msec.  Yours are running 152 and 132 msec.  The greater the delay, the greater the possibility of VOIP communication issues.  Likewise with jitter.  Otto and my outgoing jitter are 0.0 and 0.4 msec.  Yours were 1.8 and 1.3 msec.  Obviously, 0.0 msec jitter is the best result but your outgoing jitter numbers aren't too bad.  Our incoming jitter is 0.1 and 0.2 msec, respectively.  Yours was 6.0 msec both times.  Ideally, jitter should be less than 5 msec.  Get above 5 msec and audio degradation can start to occur.

Now keep in mind, those numbers are averages.  If you dig deeper into the test results on the graphs page, you will see this under the detailed analysis link at the bottom of the page:

Upstream Loss: 0.0% (=0/500)
Upstream Order: 100.0% (=249500/249500)
Upstream Jitter: ave=0.32ms, max=9.260000000000002ms
Downstream Loss: 0.0% (=0/500)
Downstream Order: 100.0% (=249500/249500)
Downstream Jitter: ave=0.24ms, max=19.748000000000005ms

As you can see, the maximum upstream and downstream jitter are significantly higher than the averages, which look acceptable.  Now consider your 6.0 msec jitter average.  I would expect to see some pretty substantial peaks if the average is 6.0 msec. 

If you look at the graphs under the Graph tab and select Upstream or Downstream jitter, you can see how your jitter is varying over time.  If you go to the bottom right-hand corner and select "Detailed Analysis" and go down to the bottom of that page, you will see some data that resembles the format I posted right above this paragraph. 

Please post that information.

Expecting Comcrap to fix a line quality problem like this is like waiting for Godot.  It won't happen.  They don't care about your VOIP problem with a third party product that they don't want you to use because they want you to use their internet telephone product instead.  I would expect them to say that the line quality is within acceptable (to them anyway) limits and bid you a good day.  Sad, but that's the reality of these kinds of problems.

I sadly agree with Avedis53. Good luck with Comcrap.

Ladies and Gentleman we have a winner! 

It's been nearly two weeks since my original post and I'm here to report that we haven't experienced one single incident on either phone since turning off the 'Enhanced LTE' switch. Of course the intereference could always return but sometimes the simplest solution is the best - and in this case that's all it took.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in. I learned a lot and am grateful..

Sincerely,

Kevin