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High-Gain Patch Antennas Boost Wi-Fi Capacity In Crowded Lecture Halls

Posted by Soulskill on from the it-all-comes-down-to-focus dept.

An anonymous reader writes "To boost its Wi-Fi capacity in packed lecture halls, Georgia Institute of Technology gave up trying to cram in more access points with conventional omni-directional antennas, and juggle power settings and channel plans. Instead, it turned to new high-gain directional antennas. They look almost exactly like the bottom half of a small pizza box, and focus the Wi-Fi signal from the ceiling-mounted access point in a precise cone-shaped pattern, covering part of the lecture hall floor. Instead of the flaky, laggy connections, about which professors had been complaining, users now consistently get up to 144Mbps (if they have 802.11n client radios). 'Overall, the system performed much better' with the new antennas, says William Lawrence, IT project manager principal with the university's academic and research technologies group. 'And there was a much more even distribution of clients across the room's access points.'"

5 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If WiFi is necessary for the lectures, by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes it's useful to look something up online, test a formula, or download notes so you can understand the material better and ask informed questions.

    Regardless, it's less distracting if everyone's wifi just works (TM) than for students to be spending more time messing with their wifi configuration than listening to the lecture.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. News? by Andhesaidtome · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is hardly newsworthy that a group of IT network techs 'fixed' their coverage and performance problems using directional antenna technology. Radio techs have been doing exactly that since they learnt about propagation. A newsworthy story would be that they have (finally) started incorporating at least basic RF theory in all IT networking related courses and subjects.

    1. Re:News? by bananaquackmoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I take it you've never actually been to a crowded lecture hall or conference room? There are thousands of these things with administrators that have no clue about this idea. It IS news to many people who are responsible for this exact sort of thing. It may not be news to you, but there have been many times where I was in a crowded area where I would kill for wifi, but it wouldn't work due to crowding.

  3. Are you serious? by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    URGENT! URGENT! URGENT!
    DISTRIBUTION: ALL STATIONS
    MESSAGE READS:
    IT guys fix their spotty wireless coverage by installing the proper antennas.
    END URGENT MESSAGE

    Wow, thank God for that. Good thing that we have slashdot to tell us that a university installed some standard equipment on their campus. Be sure to run an article when MIT replaces a couple of their switches next month.

    --
    -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
  4. Re:"New" high gain antennae? by CaptQuark · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Directional antennas are not new. But configuring an array of directional antennas to precisely cover the seats in the lecture hall to minimize the number of users on any single access point is a new and novel way to deploy wireless access.

    Deploying the same number of omnidirectional antennas in the same space would lead to massive overlap, interference, and clients unnecessarily switching between APs when they perceived a stronger signal from a different AP.

    I haven't heard of a high density environment purposely set up this way therefor I think it is indeed newsworthy.

    ~~