From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from bifrost.lang.hm (lang.hm [66.167.227.134]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by lists.bufferbloat.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B5C773B2B3; Mon, 27 Jun 2016 03:44:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from asgard.lang.hm (asgard.lang.hm [10.0.0.100]) by bifrost.lang.hm (8.13.4/8.13.4/Debian-3) with ESMTP id u5R7i8VU021084; Mon, 27 Jun 2016 00:44:08 -0700 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2016 00:44:08 -0700 (PDT) From: David Lang X-X-Sender: dlang@asgard.lang.hm To: Sebastian Moeller cc: Bob McMahon , make-wifi-fast@lists.bufferbloat.net, "cerowrt-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net" In-Reply-To: <2D664EFF-A25C-46FA-A8F9-46CD7B8C2ECE@gmx.de> Message-ID: References: <1466803464.927322699@mobile.rackspace.com> <2D664EFF-A25C-46FA-A8F9-46CD7B8C2ECE@gmx.de> User-Agent: Alpine 2.02 (DEB 1266 2009-07-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: [Cerowrt-devel] [Make-wifi-fast] more well funded attempts showing market demandfor better wifi X-BeenThere: cerowrt-devel@lists.bufferbloat.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Development issues regarding the cerowrt test router project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:44:19 -0000 On Mon, 27 Jun 2016, Sebastian Moeller wrote: >> On a wireless network, with 'normal' omnidirctional antennas, the signal >> drops off with the square of the distance. So if you want to service clients >> from 1 ft to 100 ft away, your signal strength varies by 1000 (4 orders of >> magnatude), this is before you include effects of shielding, bounces, bad >> antenna alignment, etc (which can add several more orders of magnatude of >> variation) >> >> The receiver first normalized the strongest part of the signal to a constant >> value, and then digitizes the result, (usually with a 12-14 bit AD >> converter). Since 1000x is ~10 bits, the result of overlapping tranmissions >> can be one signal at 14 bits, and another at <4 bits. This is why digital >> processing isn't able to receive multiple stations at the same time. > > But, I you add 10 Bits to your AD converter you basically solved this. > Now, most likely this also needs to be of higher quality and of low internal > noise, so probably expensive... Add to this the wide-band requirement of the > sample the full band approach and we are looking at a price ad converter. On > the bright side, mass-producing that might lower the price for nice > oscilloscopes... well, TI only manufactures AD converters up to 16 bit at these speeds, so 24 bit converters are hardly something to just buy. They do make 24 and 32 bit ADCs, but only ones that could be used for signals <5MHz wide (and we are pushing to 160 MHz wide channels on wifi) also note my comment about walls/etc providing shielding that can add a few more orders of magnatude on the signals. And then when you start being able to detect signals at that level, the first ones you are going to hit are bounces from your strongest signal off of all sorts of things. You will also find that noise and distortion in the legitimate strong signal is going to be at strengths close to the strength of the weak signal you are trying to hear. As I said, I see things getting better, but it's going to be a very hard thing to do, and I'd expect to see reverse mu-mimo (similarly strong signals from several directions) long before the ability to detect wildly weaker signals. I also expect that as the ability to more accurately digitize the signal grows, we will first take advantage of it for higher speeds. David Lang