Wi-Fi Versions and Propagation - Getting the most out of your wireless router
Tags: todayilearned, productivity
Published: 2022-01-05 04:24:31

#Wi-Fi! 

The thing that brings you wireless high speed internet, let's you browse Reddit while in the bathroom, and is probably serving up this blog to you right now! But, did you know, there are a few factors in play as to how good your internet is? Ever get that bit of a spike in connection whenever you're trying to hit the high score, or wonder what is going on with your internet when that website is taking so long to load? Well, maybe I can explain a little bit about what Wi-Fi is, and what you can do to mitigate the effects of the dreaded signal drop.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7c3q9advu82wxsyknaai.png)

A term now synonymous with wireless internet, Wi-Fi is the trademark name of a family of standards set by the IEEE, or the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. The Wi-Fi Standard is dictated by the Local Area Network (LAN) Standards, which in turn is dictated by the Media Access Control (MAC) Standards and Physical Layer Protocols for implementing wireless local area network communication. 

The LAN Standard dictates half of the WLAN Standard, which is responsible for the communication systems responsible for sharing resources between independent devices within a moderately sized geographic area. This dictation extends to physical Ethernet networks, token-ring networks (uni-direction data flow, accessible by token), and wireless networks. The other half of the LAN Standard works in conjunction with the OSI Model, under the Data Link Layer. The Data Link Layer of the OSI model is responsible for controlling the hardware responsible for interaction for the wired, optical, or wireless transmission medium. This layer manages flow-control, a process for regulating data transmission speeds between nodes of different bandwidth capabilities, and multiplexing, where multiple analogue or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. An example of multiplexing (cool word, that) is the older type of DSL modems. DSL modems utilize a standard telephone cable for provider data ingress. In the heady times of dial-up modems, the only signal being carried at the time when a user was on the internet, was the signal dictating the internet. Any disruption of the signal would break the connection. Thus, multiplexing addresses that issue, by compressing multiple signal forms into a single signal, to then be translated out into separate signals at receive time.

#Demand and Supply

As the dependency on Wi-Fi enabled devices increased, and with some 3.05 billion Wi-Fi enabled devices shipping in 2019, improvements upon the 802.11 standard needed to be made to increase the capability of wireless infrastructure. While the following chart shows step iterations, there are a few instances, such as the difference between Wireless-G and Wireless-N, that make generational bounds forward. This banding and half-duplex system data management allows for a host of users to be connected to a point, rather than a single user for each point. Additionally, the increased bandwidth and additional frequency ranges allowed for greater distance to the access point, with a more reliable connection and more stable connection. 


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b5pcimx4w2xtr435eabw.JPG)

#Interference!

 So what causes interference for my wireless internet? What causes this dreaded spike? Well, the answer is closer than you may think...


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o9uu7o2lvjw15b7pftll.jpg)<figcaption>(YOU)<figcaption>

In my previous post ([shameless self-plug here](https://dev.to/carlbenjaminlyon/touch-screens-types-and-design-4oo0)), I mentioned how the human body was an electrically conductive source. While the human body isn't sucking away your internet because you're electrifying, it does as a physical element that digital signals must travel through.

As the frequency of the wireless signal you're on increases, so does the amount of power required to send the signal the same distance. However, even if the signal reaches the same distance, higher frequency bands will suffer interference to a greater degree, because the wave form of the signal must travel a greater distance through the interference. Okay, so just plant your desktop next to your router, right? Well, yes, that's a pretty decent idea, but take note that it isn't just physical elements that can interfere with your wi-fi. Because Bluetooth operates on the same 2.4Ghz band, it can cause interference with 2.4Ghz router bands. Additionally, some microwaves were known to cause issue with them too, especially the B/G/N standards for the same reason. 

So not only physical elements of the world will interfere, but electrical too! So, the best way to mitigate these issues, is to know what the actual sphere of influence looks like. Well, I say sphere, but really I mean egg. Rather I mean ellipsoid. 


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b29vophtufdewpx64uvc.png)<figcaption>See? Egg.<figcaption>

 The signal output from an omni-directional router will output in a roughly uniform circle area, in an ellipsoid form. This means, anything within the ellipsoid is valid to connect. However, this does not mean that if you can see the tower directly, that you'll get perfect signal. The electrical signal will path much in the same way that light travels and interacts with physical mediums, which you can read about [here, under ray-tracing](https://dev.to/carlbenjaminlyon/eyeball-graphics-ray-tracing-vs-rasterization-55mn), meaning that these signals can reflect, refract, diffuse, and get attenuated, all depending on the material they intersect with. All of these factors, including distance, can affect how strong the signal will be at the reception point. Ideally, you would want to place your router in a high, central area in your home, as in the same way that radio and cellular towers send signal downward to the ground, your router follows the same signal direction. 


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9ut958lj78a9no20c2xs.png)

 So! Place your router high, pray your ping be low, and keep that K/D strong! 

Sources:
[Wi-Fi, Versions and Generations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi#Versions_and_generations)
[Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11)
[Signal Propagation and Path Loss Models Lecture from Stanford](https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee359/pdfs/lecture2_handout.pdf)