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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.'"

3 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

    ~~

  3. Re:$591.25 a pop, for the antenna alone ! by wadeal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    (Involved in various facets of WiFi Projects for approx. 50 commercial sites).

    Any commercial grade AP is going to cost you around the $500 mark. At the least.

    Your point?