High-Gain Patch Antennas Boost Wi-Fi Capacity In Crowded Lecture Halls 104
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.'"
Re:If WiFi is necessary for the lectures, (Score:5, 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.
News? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you serious? (Score:5, Insightful)
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MESSAGE READS:
IT guys fix their spotty wireless coverage by installing the proper antennas.
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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.
Re:"New" high gain antennae? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Re:News? (Score:4, Insightful)