Questions about Noikia Fastmile 5G Gateway 12: Radio Signal Strength

[Ou81]

I moved into a new apartment in downtown Ottawa (800 metres south-west from Parliament Hill) in early December. I had arranged for a self-install of the basic Rogers Xfinity Internet service as the building is pre-wired for Rogers. Unfortunately, the hardware got stuck in limbo with Purolator durning the postal strike so I had to use my iPhone's hotspot feature for internet access (web, email and TV streaming). This worked as well as could be expected, but I was worried about running out of data after about a week, as I only have 100 GB / month on my Rogers phone plan. 

When I got down to 20 GB of data remaining, I panicked and called a local Rogers retail outlet asking them if they could suggest a temporary solution. They suggested I come in and pick up a Noikia Fastmile 5G Gateway 12. $40 / month with 500GB of data (if I go over I'm throttled to 10Mbps down so it's essentially unlimited) and no contract. Two hours later I had it up and running in the apartment. I have been consistently getting 100-110 Mbps down and 10-10.7 Mbps up according to the Rogers basic internet speed test and which I am very happy with.

The gateway has an admin control panel accessible at 192.168.1.1 and provides a lot of useful information. I have the gateway pluged into a D-Link Gigabit switch with a number of devices, including my main work computer, HP Laserjet, NAS, and VOIP phone plugged into it. I also have numerous devices connected to it via WiFi.

I would like to understand the numbers I am seeing in the "Radio access" section of the admin control panel. It's splt into two sections; 5G and 4G. Specifically I'd like to understand if higher or lower values represents "better" performance.

I have attached screen shots of the 5G and 4G "Radio access" sections below but will enter the values here just in case the attachments are not embedded into the messsage and appear as links (I have never attached an image to a post so don't know what to expect).

Radio Access - 5G:

- Connected, 4 out of 5 bars

- RSRP: -83 dBm

- SNR: 1dB

- RSRQ: 13 dB

Radio Access - 4G:

- Connected, 4 out of 5 bars

- RSRP: -84 dBm

- SNR: 0 dB

- RSRQ: -15 dB

- RSSI: -51dBm

The Rogers basic internet speed tests are pretty consistent and show:

- Ping: 18-19 ms

- Jitter: 6-12 ms

- Download: 104.6 - 107.1 Mbps

- Upload: 10.1 - 10.7 Mbps

I ran the speed tests this morning while trying slightly different positions of the gateway which is on a small desk with wheels and 1 - 3 feet from the window. I tried positions that varied by 2 feet left to right and 18 inches up and down. The best jitter reading (6ms) was when it was elevated about 18 inches above the desk. Elevating it did not seem to affect the ping, download and upload speeds significantly. I believe I have a direct line of sight to the nearest Rogers antenna, which a tech support person suggested to me earlier today, was likely located near Laurier and Kent, about 200 metres from my window. There's another tower at Laurier and Bay which is behind me (and all of the concrete and apartments across the hall) and about 200 metres away.

I was hoping that someone might be able to explain what the radio access numbers mean and if higher or lower values indicate "better" performance.

Thanks in advance!

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