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New Lighting Technology To Wipe Out Wi-Fi Access?
Richard Evans writes "Focus on Broadband Wireless Internet Access has an article
[cached by google ]
on the potentially catastrophic interference to Communications Users Of The 2.4 GHz Band e.g. Wi-Fi, DECT and Bluetooth by a new lighting technology called RF Lighting."
This article says that Sirius and XM Radio will be effected. That's really bad. Part of the reason it's worth paying for is because of the sound quality...having this happen in it's relative infancy could be realllly bad. I wonder if there's a way to shield these lights...like some sort of compound mixed into/spread on the glass that reduces the RFI. Either that or, as a geek community, we should just hope that this idea doesn't take off!
I don't know what this lighting is, although I suspect it may be "sulfur" lighting.
However if it's going to trash your wireless network then the chances are good that you won't even install it in the first place. That takes care of homes and _probably_ office buildings.
The problem is going to be "public areas" where the lighting is installed to save on electricity costs, and then interferes with ISP's as the article stated. This of course assumes that the lighting is so much more efficient than sodium or mercury vapor that it's worth the expense of installing it in the first place.
And it's going to take years.
Far from an ELE.
Absolute statements are never true
Couldn't the RF Light manufacturer just shield the light fixtures e.g. a Microwave Oven?
In fact, I would think the FCC would make them, if they had an output over a certain threshold.
'He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.' - Douglas Adams
I'm not a big supporter of the FCC (who frequently overstep their bounds), but this is exactly why parts of the radio spectrum need to be regulated. The entire reason that the FCC keeps such tight control is so that companies that invest in radio equipment have some assurance that the guy next door won't simply drown out his signal with more powerful equipment.
But then again, every time my boss walks by with his cell phone, my monitors fuzz out and my speakers make strange noises from whatever signals the cell phone is emitting...
Travis
The article makes a big point out of the collision between the frequency spectrums, however I personally am interested to find out more about the lighting technology that is "high efficiency and RF based". It seems the article kind of missed that explanation, and I can't find much information on it. The lighting's website is down that is referred to, and as far as I know this could be a "made up" problem (by this dude who wrote the article) primarily because it's only a problem if the lighting technology catches on.
Are the light technology elements mounted in the ceilings like conventional flourescent lights or does it use some kind of a central light-source idea. If it's high-brightness and high-efficiency anyway, the light source could be placed at a central (shielded) location and fiber optics used to distribute the light.
I'm all for new light technologies, although often flourescent lights are pretty good, there is still a lot of room for improvement. (Time delay to full brightness, hazardous materials, cheap ballasts that buzz, bad fluorescent tubes that put off funny-colored lights) But interfering with wireless spectrums (even unlicensed ones) seems like a bad idea in general... the amount of noise in any spectrum is becoming a serious concern for the design of "robust" wireless technologies.
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Why get all in a lather about RF lighting?
If solid state lighting takes off we'll get great efficiency and no 2.4 GHz spectrum pollution.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
This article is utter garbage!!!
The first link (off-site) from the article referred to, in fact the makor of said "RF-Lightning-Craptacular VC-Money Whoring" company has a "our website is under construction" on it.
C'mon people - stop posting obvious flamebait articles at the highest level. This was a freakin waste of everyone's time.
It seems unlikely to me that these things will be all that catastrophic in their effects. To be power-efficeint light sources, each bulb will have limited power with which to generate interference. To be power-efficient enough to make a difference in this market, this technology should probably consume <10 watts for the equivalent of a 60-watt light bulb. Considering that most of that energy will be going into visible light, it can't be a very strong signal source. Even in large installations like gas stations, where many such small sources would exist, the effect should fall off quickly. Don't use them in your home, and your wireless LAN should be safe.
The reason the satelite radio providers are running scared is that these things are mainly slated for use in street lights. Since cars tend to drive under street lights, and car users are the big market for satelite radio, someone's business model will have to give. Even small intereference feilds can be a big problem if they interupt your line of sight, particularly with high frequencies.