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."

Comments

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[mfh]

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.