Simulate low bandwidth in android

Question

Does anyone know a possibility to simulate a low bandwidth on Android phones (i.e. EDGE or G3) while connected to WiFi?

Is there a app for this?

It it possible to do something like this on android devices?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Edit: I don't want to use the emulator. I need it to do reproducible performance measurements for my bachelor's thesis. Using UMTS is just not reproducible enough that's why I'm looking for something to simulate it.

Answer 1

You can also just change the preferred network type to 2G.

Its not as fine-grained as throttling your bandwidth via the PC but its a lot simpler to implement.

On Android 5 Lollipop go to:

1. Settings
2. More
3. Cellular Networks
4. Preferred network type

You'll notice the change to a slower GPRS network as an E icon on the top status bar of the screen.

Answer 2

you can limit bandwidth in Android emulator.

eg:

emulator -netspeed gsm

Speeds for reference in increasing kbps:

                            UP       DOWN
                      -------- ----------
    gsm   GSM/CSD         14.4       14.4
    hscsd HSCSD           14.4       57.6
    gprs  GPRS            28.8       57.6
    umts  UMTS/3G        384.0      384.0
    edge  EDGE/EGPRS     473.6      473.6
    hsdpa HSDPA         5760.0   13,980.0
    lte   LTE         58,000.0  173,000.0
    evdo  EVDO        75,000.0  280,000.0
    full  No limit           ∞          ∞

more:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-console

Answer 3

I solved the problem by slowing down the network of my PC with network simulator. Then I created a virtual wifi with win 7 and connected my phone with it.

Answer 4

If your developing on OS X, you can use Network Link Conditioner to slow down your internet connection, then turn on internet sharing and connect the Android phone to that network.