Increase the speed of Yota in the zone of a weak signal with your own hands

I am happy that everything worked out

So, behind several weeks of experiments. Screwdrivers, wrenches and a drill rest on the shelves, and harmony reigns in the house, since all its inhabitants, as it should be, disappeared into their rooms, immersed in social networks, weather forecasting services and electronic encyclopedias in search of long-awaited information . the brain, which with irrepressible curiosity is ready to absorb all this into its infinite drive.
This article will discuss how in the zone of very weak signal reception Yota managed to achieve a fairly good speed of Internet access. I do not pretend to the uniqueness of the used technologies and approaches. The objective of this publication is to show how, at low cost, at home you can make the WiMAX-modem work more efficiently.

Historical event in Sochi

How did it all start? Of course with the arrival of Yota in Sochi. Up to this point, the Internet for me was a real luxury, and Squid with a system for collecting statistics of incoming traffic, a method of saving and controlling costs on the Internet.
WiMAX changed everything. Now I was not tied to a specific address, the access speed was higher, and most importantly there was a feeling of inner freedom (it was possible not to think about traffic anymore). Only the fact that it all worked in an office in the city center turned out to be a bit of tar, but at home on the outskirts, the Yota modem did not want to catch the network at all, and if he sometimes succeeded, then not for long (RSSI: less - 80dB, CINR: no more than 4dBm). It was all because of the forest that dissolved in the spring, which stood a wall between the house and the intended location of the base station.

It was necessary to look for a solution and I thought to do the following:
1. Purchase D-Link DIR-320 Wi-Fi router and flash it with official firmware supporting internet connection via WiMAX Samsung Yota modem
2. Design a container (“barrel”) into which this router could be installed with a modem
3. Fix this container with the equipment inside on the high mast
4. Connect, enable, configure and verify the result.

All managed to do in one day off. The router with the modem was raised to a height of about 8 meters. The signal level doubled, the Internet began to work stably, but the average speed did not reach 50 Kb / s. The result was difficult to call the long-awaited, but still it was the result. And now, at a minimum, the task of uniting all devices at home into a local area network was solved, which also had, though not high-speed, but still stable Internet access.
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The next step I thought was to buy a WiMAX antenna with a pigtail, but I was embarrassed that after connecting it, the “whistle” without an external antenna could no longer be used (because the internal antenna is permanently cut off), but this is not good. Another thought came to my mind (which I managed to learn on the Internet earlier) - to focus on the “whistle” signal with the help of an ordinary satellite “dish” (which at that time lay under a layer of dust in the attic awaiting its finest hour). So did. I lowered the “barrel” with the router from the mast and began to make the first upgrade of the system (in the slides below).

Around one green forest, it's great, but through such a wall the signal does not pass.


And what if you climb higher?


To do this, we will analyze the converter and push the Yota modem into its case (in the previous photo on the right - everything is assembled)


The platform with clamps will securely hold the router on the mast.


We install a router on the platform (even if the “whistle” does not confuse you, it is actually mounted on a plate - see the photo above)


From above, a platform with a router from rain and sun will securely cover the bucket with a cap.


Fasten the "barrel" with the router and the plate on the mast.






As a result, the Internet access speed increased by an order of magnitude, almost to one megabit per second, CINR increased to 22dBm, and RSSI to -55dB.
Now my sister will be able to find material for his thesis at lightning speed, mom and dad can watch the weather on TV on AccuWeather.com, and I can read Habr in the blooming garden on Eee.


In general, everyone was satisfied!

Thanks to the reader for your attention, ...

Useful links and materials used

• Official firmware DIR-320 with Yota support
• Toyota logo

For convenience, I created the Google Chrome extension to track the signal quality of the Yota modem .