Abstract
The 802.11 networks (wireless fidelity (WiFi) networks) have been the main wireless internet access infrastructure within houses and buildings. Besides access point placement, building architectures contribute to the WiFi signal spreading. Even dough WiFi installation in buildings becomes prevalent; the building architectures still do not take WiFi-friendliness into considerations. Current research on building and WiFi are on access point location, location based service and home automation. In fact, the more friendly the building to WiFi signal, the more efficient the 802.11 based wireless infrastructure. This paper introduces the term of WiFi-friendly building by considering signal propagations, the obstacle impact, as well as proposing an ornament-attaced reflector and a hole-in-the-wall structure to improve WiFi signal distribution. Experiment results show that obstacle materials made of concrete reducing WiFi signal the most, followed by metal and wood. Reflecting materials are able to improve the received signal level, for instance, the implemented ornament-attached reflector is able improving the received signal up to 6.56 dBm. Further, the hole-in-the-wall structure is successfully increasing WiFi signal up to 2.3 dBm.
Highlights
Internet access has been available in houses and offices as the access network technologies advanced
This paper introduces the term of Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)-friendly building by reminding that the building structure is the major challenge on indoor signal propagation, mainly about signal losses caused by the obstacles
This paper introduces that the properties within the buildings may assist signal spreadings so that building is friendlier to WiFi signal
Summary
Internet access has been available in houses and offices as the access network technologies advanced. The 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) or Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) is the common technologies providing wireless internet access within buildings. This is due to its sufficient mobility and the connection speed compared to the existing cable and mobile networks. Location based services that are talking about how to find a terminal by analyzing the received access point signals This is often referred to as indoor localization [7,8,9,10]. Materials used in buildings mostly absorb WiFi signal that make the access point placement inefficient as the transmitted signal blocked, absorbed, dispersed or reflected back by the wall and building structures. At the end of this paper, a simple though-hole application on the wall is examined to increase WiFi signal in other wall side
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