At some point, we've all tried to stream a fine episode of Tech Quicky and run up against a Wi-Fi range limit.
So, have you ever wondered, why can't we just boost it to maximum power and extend the range?
To answer, we reached out to our good friend and Wi-Fi expert, Joel Crane, and we'd like to thank him for his contributions.
Two of the most obvious ways that we can increase range present other technical problems.
You see, at slow speeds, the modulation scheme, the small adjustments in the waveform that actually carry the data,
is much simpler and easier for equipment to understand.
But as speeds get faster and faster, the modulation schemes are more complicated and more prone to errors and interference.
So, the farther away from the access point you get, the slower you have to go.
In fact, if your access point is sending out a signal and not getting any kind of reply from another gadget,
acknowledging that it received the signal, the AP will keep slowing the speed down and down and down until it gets a response.
And this is a big part of the reason that speeds get slow if you walk farther away from your router.
Now, as we demand faster speeds for high-def streaming, gaming, and file transfers,
simply slowing down our Wi-Fi to make it go farther isn't a viable solution.
So, back to more power then, right?
Well, not quite. The Wi-Fi standard doesn't have a super high-transmit power to begin with in order to comply with telecommunications laws in different countries.
For example, in the United States, you can't go higher than 200 mW and most routers are configured by default to transmit at this maximum.
So you can't turn it up any further, legally. However, that doesn't mean that getting better Wi-Fi range is a fool's errand.
One trick that actually does work fairly well is to focus the Wi-Fi signal in one direction.
You see, a typical home router has omnidirectional antennas,
where the signal is transmitted evenly in all directions and kind of like a big donut shape.
But if your router is at one end of your house and your couch is at the other, that's not the best setup.
Instead, you can get something called a patch antenna, which looks like a big flat panel and sends the signal out in one direction.
They're more common in commercial settings or at trade shows,
but there is nothing stopping you, for example, from sticking one on the side of your house
and blanketing your backyard in a strong Wi-Fi signal. Another trick that's built into some Wi-Fi standards is the use of a long guard interval.
Here's what this means. Between short parts of the transmission called symbols are short-time intervals before the next symbol is sent.
These guard intervals are there to cut down on the interference between symbols.
So if they're short, you get more data, but if they're long, you get less interference
and therefore longer range at the expense of some speed.
Wi-Fi 6, by the way, is introducing extra long guard intervals for outdoor use,
where ranges often need to be longer. Of course, another winning strategy is to cut down on interference in other ways.
You can do this by using narrower channels, so by using 40 MHz instead of 80 on the 5 GHz band,
as well as making sure that you don't have unnecessary transmissions flying around your house,
like from baby monitors or Bluetooth devices that you aren't actually using.
And this one can make more of a difference than you might think. In fact, a huge part of how wired Ethernet has gotten faster
has simply been by cutting down on noise inside the cable.
However, other than the tips we've mentioned in this video, I wouldn't expect too much new tech in the near future that can extend Wi-Fi range
without adding more antennas in something like a mesh network.
Speed and range are always going to be balancing acts, so you gotta pick.
Do you want the Baconator, or do you want to lose weight and feel good?
You only get to pick one. So thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos,
leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible, and don't forget to subscribe.
It's worth it, I promise.