Wi-Fi World Record 235
supersam writes "Interline Wireless Technology, a Polish company has reportedly set a world record in stretching the range of a Wi-Fi network for an amazing 110 Kms at 2.4 GHz. They achieved this using an antenna developed by them and an INTEL Pro/Wireless 2011 Access Point."
Re:Wi-Fi jargon (Score:0, Informative)
It's just the speed of the signal. It translates to about 450 mph.
Didn't use to make much sense to me either, but then I took a bs in cs.
that's 110 kilometers... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:110 Km? (Score:2, Informative)
google calculator [google.com] says its something like:
110 kilometers = 68.3508311 miles
They stole his idea... (Score:3, Informative)
First time I've seen this happen... (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone got a Polish->English translator?
I checked Google, Babblefish & Dictionary.com with no luck.
Re:that's 110 kilometers... (Score:-1, Informative)
For those who don't understand Polish (Score:4, Informative)
So this is a relatively cheap method to get Internet access in distant locations, specifically in mountains, where it is difficult to get a wire.
Regards
Some details... (Score:5, Informative)
So this isn't all that bad... considering the average laptop wireless card puts out, what, 20mW? 50mW? using a 500mW amp to achieve a much greater distance is pretty sweet. By comparison, the article quotes a Swedish experiment which used stratospheric baloons and a 6W amp, but they don't mention the distance achieved.
Mind you, rules about how much power certain appliances / transmitters can put out with or without a permit vary across the globe, and I'm not sure whether 500mW is legal for private unlicensed use in Poland or not. But if it is, more power to them.
Now, where can I get mine??
110kms? The world record is already 310km. (Score:5, Informative)
is the story from July of an outfit getting 310km using WiFi from ground to a balloon. This was done by Alvarion and the Swedish Space Corporation and acknowledged by Guinness (as in world records not as in beer).
Re:Wi-Fi jargon (Score:4, Informative)
The speed of the signal is the speed of light.
The frequency of the signal is 2.4GHz
The distance the signal was received at was 110Km
The wavelength was 299 792 458/2 400 000
= 124.913524m
I take it you never did any physics then
Re:First time I've seen this happen... (Score:3, Informative)
I didn't translate, but I summarized the most important bits.
Here's the equipment they used (which I didn't include in my other post):
# Antennae - Interline PARABOLIC maxi, 27 dBi
# Access Points - INTEL Pro/Wireless 2011 Access Point, made by SYBMOL
# Cables and connectors - BELDEN H-1000, H-155, RG-316, VITELEC connectors
# Wireless cards - Lucent ORiNOCO PC Card Silver/chipset Agere, ZCom XI-300/chipset Intersil
# Amplifier - 2.4 GHz, 500 mW
Amateur radio operators do more than this... (Score:4, Informative)
105 km is a good ways off. But Amateur Radio operators have been getting better than this with their voice transmissions (and possibly digital) on frequencies from 50 MHz to 10 GHz at the 2003 September VHF QSO Party.
See some of their setups at http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/?con_id=53 [arrl.org].
Our university station was making contacts on frequencies greater than 2.4 GHz for distances longer than 200 miles. Contrary to common sense, Line-of-Sight is not necessarily required to get microwave transmissions to work over long distances. But they're very weak ;-)
ground attenuation... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Some details... (Score:5, Informative)
Initially they didn't use an amp, and were getting 20% thruput, which allowed for a 1Mbps link to be established. That link kept going down every few seconds, tho, so they put in the amp. This boosted their RSS readings from 8 to 28, which meant 80% thruput. Having reached that, they tried to ftp a file and although they don't say how big it was, it was copied over at 40kBps, or around 0.5Mbps.
I don't know about you, but seeing ping replies in the single digits and low teens while ~70miles away makes my spine tingle.
Re:First time I've seen this happen... (Score:1, Informative)
This is a world record. (Score:1, Informative)
There isn't much to block a radio signal if you're in a balloon; so the news that Alvarion has managed to reach a 310 km distance probably isn't as exciting as it sounds.
Re:ground attenuation... (Score:2, Informative)
(city is located in between 100 and 148 meters above sea level), and (as I believe - it's
Re:that's 110 kilometers... (Score:3, Informative)
You can, though it is easier to see Kent from france, as the white cliffs of dover stand out quite well.
BTW, it is about 20 miles, (across the straights of dover) and there are tall cliffs on both sides, which improves sight lines
my personal best: 21.7 miles with 802.11b (Score:5, Informative)
I did a 21.7 mile shot using Cisco Aironet BR342, Andrew 19dB solid dishes, and YDI [ydi.com]
500 mw amps.
I'm a bit embarrased to admit using a wireless LAN product for backhaul work, but some morons [americanrelay.com] overtightened
the patch cable on an Andrew P2F 5.2-5.8 GHz 2' dish hooked to a WiLan AWE-120 5.8 GHz radio and put their link out
of service.
Despite extensive tweaking the link never managed more than analog modem speeds. It helped in recomissioning the UNI band stuff, but was otherwise
useless for hauling traffic.
802.11[bag] is NOT an access product. Take a look at Alvarion's [alvarion.com] Breeze Access II, or better yet just wait for an
802.16 product meant to do access work.
802.11[bag] is NOT a mobile access product. That market belongs to licensed band products with ISDN like performance offered by cellular companies.
Anecdotal evidence of mobile access to one police department in a town of 12,000 does not equal proof of concept for operation in urban areas; its plain
dumb luck coupled with no competing ISM band ISP(yet).
802.11[bag] is NOT a backhaul product. Backhaul radios are made by WiLan, Redline, Aperto, Proxim, and others. The minimum cost is $2,500 an end just for
the radio, most of them are in the UNI band, the full duplex products are generally split band 5.2/5.7 GHz, and they provide typically eight to ten
mbits for entry level products, unlike 802.11b which NEVER, EVER gets 11 mbits in long shots, with 1 or 2 mbits being the typical rate.
802.11[bag] SHOULD NOT BE DEPLOYED BY MONKEYS. Are you a MoNkEy? If you haven't read Matthew S. Gast's 802.11 book published by OReilly and you
don't fully grok the implications of the shared MAC layer, you are just throwing nuts and filth from the treetops into the already busy ISM band.
Slashdot's coverage of other topics is relatively even. The coverage of radio is focused on 802.11[bag] and this is quite laughable most of the time
to those of us who have actually owned and operated a wireless ISP. Personally I think the editors ought to be giving us a whole lot more information
on ICOM's D-STAR [icomamerica.com], a 23cm (1.2 GHz) amateur band voice/data system.
Re:that's 110 kilometers... (Score:4, Informative)
Damn straight you don't!
Distance will not be a problem - at only 21 miles (34 km) across at the narrowest point, weather permitting, you can clearly see 'Le Francais' from the White Cliffs of Dover.
you can't go any further due to the curvature of the earth
WTF? Surely you can't see any further! Actually you're miles out here too.
The distance (in km) of the horizon on earth, on a plain, is approximately s(13h) where h is the height (in metres) of the eyes multiplied by the 13, and s is the square root symbol slashcode can't cope with.
Were you to mount an antenna on the beach, you would find that the horizan at around 5km away would be a big problem.
Stick it up on said White Cliffs of Dover, at 250m above sea level, and you will have no problems with line of sight.
The only barrier to this idea is the regulations governing the area.
Sources: Channel [wikipedia.org], Cliffs [dover-web.co.uk], Horizan [wikipedia.org]
Re:and probably not legal (Score:5, Informative)
Translation (Score:3, Informative)
----
Wi-Fi - World Record - 110 km @ 2.4 GHz
Two-way DSSS communication in 2.4 GHz band at a distance of 110 km
INTERLINE company, leading Polish microwave antenna producer, set itself a goal to check possibility of establishing a wireless link in 2.4 GHz band with sequential spectrum spread DSSS (802.11 b standard) at a range currently being only a subject theoretical dispute. The aim of the enterprise was a practical assessment of possibilities and study of phenomenas concerning such a link.
It should be stressed that the link built is typical ground link and that diversivies it from the one built at the end of 2002 by Swedish company Alvarion and Swedish Space Corporation, which used a stratospheric baloon.
What is equally important, all elements used in the INTERLINE experiment are off-the-shelf, unmodified equipment available comercially (1.1 meter parabolic antenna and a 500 mW amplifier). Swedish experimentators used 2.4 m parabolic antenna and a 6000 mW amplifier.
Two localisations were chosen for the link: Wrocaw (a city) and a Hala pod Sniezka (Sniezka is a highiest mountain of Karkonosze), S-W from Jelenia Gora. The distance is around 110 km.
People
In the experiment actively participated:
Piotr Kroplewski - owner of the INTERLINE
Wiesaw Karpowicz - Manufacturing Manager
Maciej Kaminski - Technical Division Manager
Krzysztof Mularczyk - Wireless Network Specialist
Krzysztof Juszczyszyn - Manufacturing Technologist
Localisations
One of a key stages of the experiment was a choice of localisations for stations which were to create a point-to-point link. First of them is a 11 stage house on a one of Wroclaw's districts.
Second one, key to the experiment, is a glade by the summit of nieka, nerby Dom lski shelter (1400 meters above sea level)
Equipment
For the experiment following equipment was chosen:
Antenas: PARABOLIC maxi, 27 dBi - product of INTERLINE
Access points: INTEL Pro/wireless 2011 Access Point - made by SYMBOL
Cables and connectors: cables BELDEN H-1000, H-155, RG-316, connectors VITELEC
Wireless cards - Lucent ORiNOCO PC Card Silver/chipset Agere, ZCom XI-300/chipset Intersil
aMPLIFIER - 2.4 GHz, 500 mW
Of course there were also 2 laptops. Additionally we had: UPS, a set of tools, spare cables, connectors and a gas solder (just in case).
End-point Wroclaw
As the date of the experiment was set a time between 12th and 14th of September 2003.
First stage was mounting and directing an antena in Wroclaw to point towards nieka mountain. Due to good visibility in Wroclaw in the day of installation (2003.09.12), this mountain, which is 1602 meters above sea level, was clearly ivsible. During the directioning vertical angle was important, due to the fact, that the other end of the link was 1400 meters above sea level.
Installation components
1. Access Point
INTEL Pro/Wireless 2011 Access Point + Amplifier 2.4GHz/500 mW
(here you can read yourself)
2 Antena cable
Belden H-1000
Length: 5 meters
plugs: type N
3 Connector
INTERLINE N/RP-BNC
Length 30 cm (0.3 m)
plugs: type N and RP-BNC
4 ANTENA
INTERLINE PARABOLIC maxi
type: directional parabolic antena
gain: 27 dBi
radiation angle: 4degrees/6degrees
Installation - Karkonosze mountains, Kopa-nieka
On 14th September 2003 all the equipment has been transported with OPEL Frontiera (we had obtained permission of the Karkonosze National Park authorities) to the meadow near the nieka's summit.
On the installation place weather was as usually in the mountains. Almost all the time the place was covered by clouds. Only from time to time for a dozen seconds wind split the clouds and we were offered splendid views of surrounding mou
Re:that's 110 kilometers... (Score:2, Informative)
The distance to the horizon can be calculated using the formula:
where "D" is the Distance to the horizon (in nautical miles); and
"h" is the height of the observer (or antenna) in feet.
To find the distance you can communicate over the earth using line-of-sight communications (like 2.4 GHz is), you need to do the DTH (Distance to Horizon) calculations for each antenna, and then add them together. This gives you the total distance.
To get the required 110 km, you would need two antennas about 650 feet (200 meters) tall.
Re:and probably not legal (Score:2, Informative)