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New Phased-Array AP Boosts 802.11b Range

Posted by timothy on from the bring-it-on-quickly dept.

ttul writes "Vivato, a well-funded wireless startup, today came out of stealth mode to announce its "WiFi" switch product, a super high performance 802.11b access point that uses an array of hundreds of antennas to provide wide-area coverage to standard 802.11b clients. See stories at Wired, and The New York Times. Vivato's new AP completely changes the economics of WiFi especially for providers such as FatPort and WayPort, who now have the technology to deliver 11Mbps to your laptop even if you're miles from a location -- it's the Jetson's, folks!"

8 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Wi-Fi all hype no action? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What does everyone think of Wi-Fi really? I mean we have a Wi-Fi connection at my school, but why would I really want to use it? What use is it to have a connection "anywhere", when most conference rooms and what have you have a cord connection nearby which is infinitly more secure.

    Personally I think This story makes several good points about the so called "Decline of Wi-Fi". Is Wi-Fi quickly becoming Why-Fi? Simply an expensive gadget which in general doesn't aid the modern human at all?

    Sidenote: Perhaps this would be a good idea on airplanes...

    1. Re:Wi-Fi all hype no action? by Zeinfeld · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What use is it to have a connection "anywhere", when most conference rooms and what have you have a cord connection nearby which is infinitly more secure

      First off convenience, you don't need to mess with wires. Secondly if you have the system configured right ie using the revised scheme done by the A team after the B team messed, then wireless can be more secure than ethernet. Network access can be restricted to NIC cards that are authorized to access that LAN. The basic technology was originally designed for ethernet but came out for wireless first after their 'difficulties'.

      Sidenote: Perhaps this would be a good idea on airplanes...

      Actually that is in the works. They are already required to be robust against microwave radiation from onboard kitchens so WiFi is not far out.

      However your other comments about WiFi being on its way out suggest to me that either you have never used the technology or you are a troll.

      --
      Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
      Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
    2. Re:Wi-Fi all hype no action? by Martin+Blank · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Cost is a big reason for wanting wifi.

      I'm generally suspicious of wireless (I have a semi-paranoid security perspective), but cost could be a huge consideration for me, as I'm trying to figure out how to get my apartment complex to set up high-speed internet. Between a Cogent 100Mbps connection for $1000 a month and this for a central antenna, the costs to the complex may well be able to drop from close to $100,000 for wiring it into every unit to perhaps $5000-$10,000, maybe less. That's far more reasonably in the eyes of the owners, as they can pay it off more quickly. With a little luck, we might actually even be able to get some pretty high speeds for maybe $20 a month -- and the complex might even make some decent profit with it.

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
  2. RANDOM OFFENSIVE FRAGMENT TROLL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    maggots exploding out of my shit-soaked pants

  3. Telco's are obsolete! by Mac+Degger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Think about it: if 1 in 10 (maybe a lot less) people get one of these babies, and run a reasonable VoIP software on it...all you need is a wifi PDA and you've got "free" telephone services!

    Hmmm, I guess you'd also want IP6 running...but wow! what a thought: technology makes another middleman obsolete!

    --
    -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  4. Asymmetry and number of users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The use of a phased array antenna for transmission to the client is nice, but I wonder if it requires the client to be modified to run special tracking software that sends back multipath information to the basestation to enable it to tune its beam.

    This makes me think that the data-link would probably end up being asymmetric --- high data rate down to the client but not so good coming back. Not only would the upstream rate be partially consumed by the multipath measurements, but also the single antenna on the client would have a harder time beamforming out to the receiver array.

    The power constraint is probably on the total output from one array and as such, the number of users that any one of them can support is probably fairly limited. This suggests that things can get quite interesting if we put a bunch of these in close quarters. The optimal solution would be for the AP to collaborate and divide up the users among them not by simple distance (voronoi regions) but by effective distance involving the specific multipath environment! Otherwise interference would be a serious problem.

  5. Re:Is this a good thing? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sometimes the FCC regulates how directional you're allowed to be.

    The magic word here is EIRP, Effective Isotropic Radiated Power. It's how bright you look to someone who's in line with your RF beam. Even if your total power is low, and you're avoiding interference with people who aren't in line with your directional beam, high EIRP can cause problems for innocent bystanders anywhere on the line between you and your intended recipient.

    EIRP increases with transmitter power and with antenna gain (== directionality).

    This is why it's technically illegal to put a better antenna on your cordless phone, and why the phones don't come with easily replaceable antennas.

    Now, if these people are really smart, they could set their beamforming code to plant a null on any 802.11 network that's not a customer, in which case they'll avoid interference.

    Fred KC7YRN

  6. I don't know whats funnier... by tgd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The fact that clearly no one who works at slashdot reads their site, or the fact that 2/3 of the people reading this article don't either.

    FWIW, people, the replies on the story from this morning are better than these. ;-)