Line statistics - Technicolor DWA0120 router - as provided by SSE

Fustbariclation · Post by **Fustbariclation** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 7:45 am

I have a DWA0120 router, supplied by SSE. I am having line speed issues, probably because of poor line quality. I'd be grateful for any help interpreting the statistics.

I get:

DSL Type VDSL2
DSL Mode Fast
Line Rate 5.77 Mbps 32.4 Mbps
Data Transferred 1009.85 MBytes 6716.86 MBytes
Output Power 2.7 dBm 11.7 dBm
Line Attenuation 6.3, 37.8, 57.6 dB 18.1, 49.1, 74.7 dB
Noise Margin 5.9 dB 8.8 dB

I understand that the noise margin of 8.8db is 'fair', not good.

I am not sure what all the Line Attenuation figures apply to. I can't find a manual for the router that explains this. I can see that the figures of 49.1Mbps and over are not good, but I'd like to understand what they refer to.

Any help gratefully received!

Post by **Philip** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 8:38 am

Hello, welcome to SG.

Line attenuation is basically signal loss, or noise. It increases with distance from the exchange and depends on line quality, larger numbers mean more noise. Noise margin is the difference between noise and signal level.

Here is some more info:
https://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-is- ... uation-371

Fustbariclation · Post by **Fustbariclation** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 8:48 am

Thank you! Thank you for the information too.

I'm particularly interested to know what attenuation the figures refer to. I have only one link to the outside world, but the attenuation is reported as:

Line Attenuation 6.3, 37.8, 57.6 dB 18.1, 49.1, 74.7 dB

The first triplet are the attenuation for uploads, and the second three for downloads. I'm not sure what the three values of the triplets are.

6.3 and 18.1 would be perfectly fine for line attenuation
57.6 and 74.7 are dreadful.

Are these for three different frequencies? If so, what are the implications? What are the frequencies?

I'm sort of assuming that I'm getting a poor line speed of 32.4Mbps, when it should be at least 38Mbps, because of that final figure, the 74.1db line attenuation - but I'd like to know. I don't have any detailed documentation on the router and can't find any on line.

Post by **Philip** » Sat Jan 07, 2023 10:59 am

The three different numbers are likely three different frequency bands.. VDSL uses 25kHz to 17.66MHz frequencies, they can get interference from amateur radio bands.
32 to 38 Mbps is not much difference, DSL is often prone to interference as the copper pairs are not shielded.
What does your ISP advertise as your maximum possible speed that you should be getting? If you're not ever getting ~80% of their advertised speed you can try talking to them about testing your line, etc.