Network handover in Google Fi
nicholasarmstrong.com
Network handover in Google Fi
1–10 of 54 posts
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#2I've been keeping track of Google Fi since it was released.
I'm hoping the new Nexus 5 (both LG and Huawei versions) is compatible with Google Fi, although I did call the Fi support number (and talked to a real human) and she said they haven't heard anything about support for the Nexus 5.
Here's hoping.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#3Interesting; "Data does not handover between networks" seems to contradict other reports I've seen that the data connection seamlessly hands off.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#4When Fi was announced they mentioned that public wifi traffic would go through a VPN to google's datacenters. At the time I assumed that they'd just run ALL traffic through the VPN, since that'd make for some very seamless switching. As bad as that would be from a privacy perspective, I trust Google more than T-Mobile or Sprint.
By running everything through the VPN, you'd be able to have TCP connections that didn't break when the network switched, since your device's public IP address would be in a datacenter somewhere.
Also with a VPN you'd be able to send voice traffic over both a carrier connection and the wifi connection at the same time to avoid dropouts.
There is something similar called Multi-path TCP (MPTCP) which uses latency to decide which TCP path to send traffic over.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#5I'm surprised that (it seems) google isn't using Multipath TCP to carry the VPN traffic to google. This would allow it to switch seamlessly between LTE and Wifi and in theory even LTE and LTE while maintaining the VPN connection and thus the call.
In fact, Apple uses this tech for Siri to reduce latency on voice queries.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#6I'm surprised that (it seems) google isn't using Multipath TCP to carry the VPN traffic to google. This would allow it to switch seamlessly between LTE and Wifi and in theory even LTE and LTE while maintaining the VPN connection and thus the call. In fact, Apple uses this tech for Siri to reduce latency on voice queries.
(author here) I didn't have a chance to test how the VPN works, but even if they were using MPTCP the switch wouldn't necessarily be seamless.
Especially how they are using it now - which hands over a Wi-Fi call (which is data) - to a cellular voice call (not data). It's a subtle point, but calls over cellular are not data, so they are not using TCP/UDP/MPTCP/etc.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#7When Fi was announced they mentioned that public wifi traffic would go through a VPN to google's datacenters. At the time I assumed that they'd just run ALL traffic through the VPN, since that'd make for some very seamless switching. As bad as that would be from a privacy perspective, I trust Google more than T-Mobile or Sprint. By running everything through the VPN, you'd be able to have TCP connections that didn't…
Precisely - that stable IP between networks is what you need to have completely seamless switches.
This is what Touch Mobile (www.touch.com) does for their handover, for instance.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#8I'm surprised that (it seems) google isn't using Multipath TCP to carry the VPN traffic to google. This would allow it to switch seamlessly between LTE and Wifi and in theory even LTE and LTE while maintaining the VPN connection and thus the call. In fact, Apple uses this tech for Siri to reduce latency on voice queries.
(author here) I didn't have a chance to test how the VPN works, but even if they were using MPTCP the switch wouldn't necessarily be seamless. Especially how they are using it now - which hands over a Wi-Fi call (which is data) - to a cellular voice call (not data). It's a subtle point, but calls over cellular are not data, so they are not using TCP/UDP/MPTCP/etc.
> but calls over cellular are not data
Does this change with VoLTE?
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#9I'm surprised that (it seems) google isn't using Multipath TCP to carry the VPN traffic to google. This would allow it to switch seamlessly between LTE and Wifi and in theory even LTE and LTE while maintaining the VPN connection and thus the call. In fact, Apple uses this tech for Siri to reduce latency on voice queries.
(author here) I didn't have a chance to test how the VPN works, but even if they were using MPTCP the switch wouldn't necessarily be seamless. Especially how they are using it now - which hands over a Wi-Fi call (which is data) - to a cellular voice call (not data). It's a subtle point, but calls over cellular are not data, so they are not using TCP/UDP/MPTCP/etc.
I see, for some reason I thought it was Voice over IP tunnelled to google via VPN (over wifi or LTE). My mistake.
Re: Network handover in Google Fi
#10When Fi was announced they mentioned that public wifi traffic would go through a VPN to google's datacenters. At the time I assumed that they'd just run ALL traffic through the VPN, since that'd make for some very seamless switching. As bad as that would be from a privacy perspective, I trust Google more than T-Mobile or Sprint. By running everything through the VPN, you'd be able to have TCP connections that didn't…
> Also with a VPN you'd be able to send voice traffic over both a carrier connection and the wifi connection at the same time to avoid dropouts.
Does this double the bandwidth you're using when MPTCP is in effect?