I'm experiencing the same issue. The red light appears every now and then. I'm not far away from a 5G tower and I think what happens is that the router switches between 4G and 5G (I'm using the 5G preferred mode) and somehow gets stuck. As you can see on the screenshot, it says network type is 5G but PCI and NRARFCN values are not populated. Instead, it looks like I'm connected to 4G. 
 

I have Deco X50 5G + Kaser 5G antenna (Kaser Set LPDA LTE External Directional Antenna 696-2700 MHz | 3300-3800 MHz high gain up to 12dBi).

 

Is there a fix for this problem?
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I connect to 5G, I see the following: - Cell ID: -1 - PCI 5G LTE: 57 - NRARFCN: 152690 Why is the cell ID -1?

  @Lmsp87 

 

Hi - unfortunately my Deco X50-5G is at my summer cottage and I cannot access the menus and cannot remember exactly how to do the steps, but I hope this helps:

 

Just a reminder - you propably have done all of this, but

1) Update your Deco to the lates firmware if not done already

2) Apply daily reboot e.g. 5:00am

3) Verify that if you are using the external antenna, that you have enabled those

 

Potential fixes:

* Disable 5G - stick to the 4G only, does the issue still persist? (My gut feeling is that with my case there were three equally strong base stations and one of those had 5G - and Deco just did not manage the situation. It sometimes even stick to the 5G by giving only 20% of speed I was able to get out from 4G. So 5G is "not an universal solution" and Deco may too aggresively stick to 5G even better results can be done with 4G only. I tried to play with directional antennas, but those improve signal strength, but may not help with special conditions with Deco. Deco is not "as smart" as it could be. You need to be smarter.

 

* I was forced to (due to 5G signal strength) to force the unit operate in 4G only. But if if you have good 4G, actually your speed can still be very good. In some cases 5G just does not work in one location, but with another operator it may work better.

 

* On top of sticking into 4G only in the Deco I was locking the frequency to the base station I found being the best - in my reply 2024-06-06 10:17:23 - last edited 2024-06-06 21:22:31 in this thread I described how the new released feature (new firmware) made it possible to lock in to the station you/I prefer (EARFCN and PCI manually in 4G). The tricky thing is that you need to observe by rebooting the device and moving the antenna to find the best station and it's characteristics and manually lock in to the base station you wish. The challenge is that this "a little bit beyond" of skills of an average user (that's me) and if the carrier - I believe - later change someting in their network, your Deco may not automatically find the new base station (???) 

 

* As a trial - if you can, just buy a prepaid data SIM from another carrier - does the issue repeat itself? Likely the competitor has base stations in different locations, and even they may not have "the best signal strength" but the 2-3 base stations on the air can be located differently not creating a situation there Deco is flipping back and forth between equally strong base stations.

 

After going thru this journey in several months - my gut feeling - you will save "grey hairs" if you test another carrier - that may solve your issue, but you do not know before you test it. If chaging the carrier is not the solution, only then start playing with manually setting frequencies. (Having said that - I was able to do it... ;-)  The challenge is, that outside of urban areas, there are issues with the network, and some carriers are "not willing to discuss in techncal details like locations and frequencies" with customers - that lead "a quick test wit prepaid SIM cards" is fast way to find if alternative carrier is the option.

 

In the end, Deco kindly provided new features (manual settings) in their firmware (thru Deco App) that I was able to make my system stable. But Deco may not be able to "improve Deco being smarter" in special conditions and the new manual tools provided (new features) are quite technical and instructions are relatively "weak" so an average user is somewhat confused what to do with those settings.

  @HenrikEkman 

 

Thanks a lot! I have indeed done 1), 2) and 3) as per your suggestion. I also read through the chain and came across your suggestion of locking the cell id. I actually tried to do this but for some reason the Cell Lock option on the app was greyed (I couldn't select it). I might have to do it via the browser when I'm home. As a background, I'm not far away from a 5G tower of my 'own' carrier and I enjoy a pretty good 5G signal/coverage. The preferred 5G option however at times switches to 4G for a reason unknown to me and the router gets jammed. It would be interesting to understand what drives this behaviour of switching between the bands. There must be logic that the router follows.

  @Lmsp87 

 

I'm sorry to hear you are walking similar kind of steps I had to walk ;-) but be strong - there's light in te end of the tunnel.

 

Interesting - any of the selections/manual settings were not grayed out for me... strange. Maybe you just should factory restart the Deco?

I did everything with an IOS app - I only used the PC/WIN access when installing an "pilot SW" for Deco team to install a test SW

Deco team never indicated, as far as I know, what is the logic - or how smart it is. You may consider to contact to your carrier to ask if they can reveal location of the base stations - do you happens to be in the middle of them (In Deco's perspective)

I was trying to be more clever to use directional antenna, but funny thing was that many times directional antennas are symmetrical - they also see well what is 180 degrees back - and I happens to be in the "line of sight" and exactly in the middle of two base stations (direct line) so a directional antenna may have made both of them stronger and Deco just could not handle it.

 

  @HenrikEkman 

 

Thanks! 

 

So here's what my investigation has revealed. The screenshots are in cronogolical order. The total time lapsed between these screeshots was roughly 4 minutes. As you can see, the router is constantly switching between 4G and 5G based on the signal strenght. In terms of logic of "when to make the switch", it is either looking at the relative signal strenght between 4G and 5G and once it becomes big enough it decides to switch, or alternatively it is following an absolute level trigger, e.g. -100 dBm. I would prefer slightly less strong 5G signal over slightly better 4G signal. As you can see from my screenshots, the RSRP values are not miles apart. If so, why switch? I think this constant switching eventually jams the router and you get the red light - it must be tiring! :D

 

With respect to external antennas, I have a directional antenna from KASER. The antenna supports 696-2700 MHz l 3300-3800 MHz high gain up to 12 dBi. 

 

Screenshot 1: I'm connected to the 5G tower near by. Cell ID -1.

 

Screenshot 2: I'm still connected to the 5G tower.

 

 

Screenshot 3: I'm still connected to 5G but I'm loosing my signal strenght. 

 

 

Screenshot 4: The router switched me back to 4G when the RSRP hit -100 dBm. With 4G, my signal strenght has improved.

 

 

Screenshot 5: The 5G signal came back and I switched from 4G to 5G which is my preference as per the settings.

 

 

Screenshot 6: The 5G signal has worsed as per the RSRP value. I'm not far away from -100 dBm.

 

 

Screenshot 7: Again all of a sudden I'm back to 4G with RSRP less than -98 dBm.

 

 

Screenshot 8: You guessed it right - the 5G signal has improved and we are back to 5G (see RSRP)

 

 

Screenshot 9: But it didn't last long... we are back to 4G..

 

  @Lmsp87 

 

Well well - seems like you've been able to detect what is happening and your observations are pretty align with mine - but the thing is, our setups are not equal so therefore the conclusion is difficult.

 

Few ideas:

* I have found that, prior the firmware update they fixed something and provided the manual frequency settings, especially flipping back and fort 4G and 5G was likely the issue. How conneceted that issue is with being in the middle of the base stations - I cannot say. Beyond my skills.

 

* Check out if your Decon can show the associated cell phone number that your SIM is using. Interestingly with my SIM card (provided by Telia in Finland) never shows the local phone number. I have no glue if that has anything to do with this issue you are facing, but the fact is when you as a test switch to another carrier:

a) Your 4G and 5G network environment will completely change - that may help Deco to survive in the environment

b) Different operators use likley different hardware for 4G and 5G networks, you never know if there are some "incompatiblities" that reveals themselves only in certain circumstances or with certain brands (or firmware versions). Type testing never has 100% coverage and manufacturer of Deco may not be in a dominant role in your region and therefore "lack of certain tests" or runtime to reveals issues

c) When you change the carrier, also your SIM card will change (my observation that sometimes even reading all data from the SIM card fails  and if that has any connection to the flipping agressively between base stations and 4G and 5G. The red light issue (before this improved firmware) truly lock the Deco not being able to even read the SIM card, only reboot with removing the SIM card helped.

 

Based on activity in this thread, it looks that there are still issues, and Deco is not as smart and robust as it could be, it is not likely you will not get a quick resolution. So therefore I'm leaning on suggesting you to try another operator. And if you do, please keep me posted - as I may need to do the same thing in the end. But just have not done it yet, but I've tested with another carrier's SIM card and it can show the local phone number.

 

Of course, in the end you may have HW that does not work properly - as long as you have warranty, you should see that avenue to eliminate the issue. I did that, and it did not help, but at least I did not have to wonder if the issue would be in my unit. The true story of my unit was that I bough it as a "second hand unit" there the person was selling after few months of use - it could be that he faced some issues as well that time. But now the HW has been exchanged under warranty so it was not a unit fault. The funny thing is that my unit, with the same SIM card works perfectly in downtown Helsinki - no issues at all. But when I move it country side, the issues are there - this is what I have validated. So when the environment change, it may challenge Deco's logic and the Deco fails operating nicely.

 

But gut feeling is - Deco may not be the "best (yet)" with X50-5G to be the most robust device in all circumnstances - and they are learning - which is OK - but this causes some challenges for very few users, but if you are one of those - you truly face the issues.