Wi-Fi May Be Coming Soon to a Lamppost Near You
hubie writes:
Wi-Fi May Be Coming Soon to a Lamppost Near You:
As Wi-Fi is deployed more widely in cities, and perhaps at higher frequencies, it may depend on an abundant urban asset: streetlight poles.
To help ensure these networks work well, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed and verified a novel model that will help wireless communications providers analyze how high to attach Wi-Fi equipment to light poles.
In general, the NIST team found that the optimal height depends on transmission frequency and antenna design. Attaching equipment at lower heights of around 4 meters is better for traditional wireless systems with omnidirectional antennas, whereas higher locations 6 or 9 meters up are better for the latest systems such as 5G using higher, millimeter-wave frequencies and narrow-beam antennas.
An international group, the Telecom Infra Project, is promoting the idea of making Wi-Fi available over the unlicensed 60 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band by installing access points on light poles. A technical challenge is that signals in this band, which are higher than traditional cellphone frequencies, are sparse and tend to scatter off rough surfaces.
These systems are becoming more line-of-sight and point-to-point, which means a lot of these will need to be used for a given area. Will lampposts end up looking like the water towers do, all covered in transceivers from every vendor?
Journal Reference:
S. Y. Jun et al., Quasi-Deterministic Channel Propagation Model for 60 GHz Urban WiFi Access from Light Poles, in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2022.3171503
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