Common causes of 4G industrial routers and 4G DTU packet loss

Both 4G industrial routers and 4G DTUs transmit data through networking. However, in the process of data transmission, once the network becomes unstable, packet loss is likely to occur. So why does the packet drop line appear? The most common reasons for dropping packets during networking are as follows.

  1. Link congestion

As data travels through the network, it needs to travel through multiple devices and links. If one of the links is at full capacity when the data arrives, it has to wait before sending it over the wire.

If the network device is far behind, it won't have room for new data to wait (queue), so the only thing it can do is discard the information.

It might sound harsh to hear data being "thrown away", but most applications handle this gracefully, and users probably won't notice it. The user's application realizes the packet loss, the transfer speed is reduced, and retransmits the data. If this is a file download, email, or other non-real-time application, the effect will be minimal as long as packet loss doesn't continue to occur.

Some apps simply don't handle this very well, and the effect is very noticeable to the user. 4G Industrial Router vs 4G Gateway If you are on a call and the network loses some data, there is no time to resend the packets because it is a live session. Users often hear audio interruptions during small packet loss, and if packet loss is severe, the phone may be lost. Another key application with a low packet loss threshold is video conferencing. If data is lost between the two endpoints, the video will show artifacts and the audio will be distorted.

Recommended actions:

Increase bandwidth on congested links.

Implement Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize real-time traffic. This won't help with congestion on the link, but it can prioritize applications such as voice or video, reducing the chance of loss.

  1. Line failure

The traffic report shows that your link is not overused, and the 4G industrial router and 4G gateway, and hardware utilization are within specification. The next common problem that causes a fall is a failed physical component.

If the hardware is not working properly, it usually results in seeing error messages in the device console or in the system log.

If there is a link problem, it can usually be seen as a bug in the interface. This can be seen on copper and fiber optic cables.

Recommended actions:

The faulty hardware must be replaced, or the faulty link must be repaired.

These are the most common causes of network packet loss, but there are many other causes of packet loss. The best way to determine the root cause is through a network assessment and detailed troubleshooting.

  1. Network software errors

While we can hope that the software written for our networking gear is perfect, I can assure you that it is not. These network devices are quite complex, and it's a matter of time before you stumble across a bug.

These bugs can cause new features to not work properly when deployed, or they can go undetected for a while before you notice a performance issue.

Once performance issues are detected and troubleshooting begins, 4G routers and 4G gateways can often find these types of issues using syslogs and packet captures. 

Recommended actions:

You must upgrade the software on the affected device.

  1. Equipment performance

If the device has sufficient bandwidth, it is also possible to experience packet loss if the industrial router or switch device cannot keep up with the traffic.

Suppose the link of the data transfer equipment was recently upgraded from 1Gb to 10Gb because the traffic report shows that you are at full capacity during the peak hours of the day. After the upgrade, your graphs show bandwidth up to 1.5Gb and still experience network performance issues. The problem may be that the device cannot keep up with the traffic and has reached the maximum throughput that the hardware can provide.

Traffic reaches the device, but the device's CPU or memory is maxed out and can't handle the extra traffic.

This results in packet loss for all traffic that exceeds the capacity. 4G/Cat-1/НБ ДТУ

Recommended actions:

The hardware must be replaced with new equipment that can handle the maximum throughput, or possibly clustered additional hardware to increase throughput.

The 4g industrial router developed and produced by someone adopts multi-layer protection technology to ensure stable and reliable transmission without dropped calls and packets Wake-up and hardware power-off restart mechanism. Users are welcome to apply for a prototype trial.

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Ebyte — национальное высокотехнологичное предприятие, специализирующееся на исследованиях и разработках беспроводных модулей и промышленных IoT-терминалов. Неза...
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