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Researchers Identify Wi-Fi Dead Zones Cheaply
schliz writes "A new technique developed by HP Labs and Rice University could lower the cost of identifying 'dead zones' in large wireless networks. The technique '[combines] wireless signal models with publicly-available information about basic topography, street locations, and land use.' This enables Wi-Fi architects to test and refine their layouts cheaply before a network is deployed by focusing measurement efforts on areas that potentially could be dead zones. The technique requires only about one-fifth as many measurements as a grid sampling strategy."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085407/
This is one of those technologies that is a kick in the pants and a pat on the back. It'd be nice not to have to find the weak spots (and work around them), but on the other hand, it would be nicer if dead zones were impossible by default. That's not possible with Wifi in its current iteration, due to the power consumption required and the spectrum assignment operational constraints being non-uniform globally.
Even with almost sci-fi advances in wireless data transmissions, we still have a long way to go before we can get steady signals nearly anywhere and yet fluid pockets of global communication will be necessary, in a world market that could collapse, eventually.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
How many people is this actually relevant for? I don't mean to discount the result, but if Slashdot posted every little algorithmic improvement published at a conference, we'd have tens of hits a day.
Of course they're finding them cheaply! They really need the money!
Much more practical than hawking wifi t-shirts (http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/illuminated/991e/) to geeks and watching them walk around hitting on female passers by...though not nearly as fun!
The primary function of government is to pretend to fail
I for one am glad that they are interested in increasing public safety.
...Any area that has high risk of zombie infestations should be eliminated.
We have the greatest government in the world, then.
The software is called Decibel Planner
All the data we use is publicly available(although not free and definitely NOT cheap).
you mom's stromboli is excellent
Can you hear me now?
What do you mean I'm fired? You found a better way to do this?
publicly-available
Never hyphenate with an adverb ending in -ly.
Spelling Nazism
Obligatory*
He said pretend.
Step One: Take a business laptop or two with a wireless card (preferably with Linux installed, but we can understand...)
Step Two: Walk around the city streets carrying it. Ignore people who look at you strangely.
Step Three: Every block, take a look at your wireless receiver. Write down your signal strength. If you are in an alleyway, pay the local hobos or pay cash to the local drug dealer (note that both add cost to the mission)
Wait, the wireless network needs to be setup? Never mind then...
Reminds my of Brian Kernighan's 1995 Usenix Tcl/Tk conference paper, Experience with Tcl/Tk for Scientific and Engineering Visualization.
http://www.ece.rice.edu/~jpr/com0895-robinson.pdf
http://www.portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
Would it not be possible for each wi-fi base station to be able to measure the signal strengths of other base stations? The topology of the network would be given from the different signal strengths Then it would be possible to identify holes through the connectivity data of the mesh.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
the "Can you hear me now" guy?
McVey
Yeah, the US Army plots signal coverage areas and plans retransmission of radio signals based on this type of topographical information. We have been doing it for like, decades. You know, when there were people taking grid samples for topographical data, back before imaging satellites put those guys out of business.
This is common knowledge in the RF world. I think WiFi providers have just been too smart in the wrong areas of expertise for their own good. Sampling works, but a good understanding of RF theory goes a long way in helping you determine where the gray areas are that you need to go to to do the sampling. Grid sampling (which I can guess the meaning of, but have never done) sounds ridiculously inefficient.
It might have been a great way to tread water in a company and stay employed though; "Where the hell is bob!?" "He is out plotting grid samples sir" "Oh, right. That bob guy is so indispensable".
Bob, you are fired.
What the hell are they talking about, if the guy carries a laptop with him and hitches a ride with the guy from Verizon, they could pretty much do the same thing in the same places, we could even offer the guy from Verizon a bit more money and he could carry a device like a palm pilot that just checks for wifi connections, 2 birds with one stone.....seriously please, why should the public pay or even worry about for the big companies plight on making their products and services better???
Hey, I'm thoroughly convinced! Aren't you?