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About Throughput Speed
We are using radio communications to provide Internet assess. A special talent of these radios is their ability to communicate over great distances and at incredible speeds. Think of them as Walkie-Talkie's for computer networks. When deployed properly they can work very well. A problem arises when you try to connect with too little equipment or from great distances. Occasionally we have turn away clients that can connect, but only with poor radio signal strength (RSSI) simply because their equipment cannot connect well enough to ensure that other users on the network won't be effected by a single users poor connection. The following story attempts to define the problem of low RSSI (radio signal strength) and offer some obvious (and not so obvious) solutions to poor RSSI's. The point we hope you take home from this is that managing your signal strength will improve your Internet speeds. Here's what happens in a simple analogy that we hope will help you to understand how fast your connection will be and how your radio signal strength (RSSI) effects everyone on the network.
The Network That Jack Built
Jack's method of delivering his bandwidth is unusual, but easy to understand. Jack choose the newest most technically advanced method of Internet communications on the planet when he started his network. All he needed was a length of garden hose and a supply of water. In your "minds eye" let the garden hose represent a radio and the water is the bandwidth. Still with me? Jack, standing at his office, could see Jill's home just a short distance away. Certainly, if Jill had a way to catch the water, he'd be in business. Jack offered Jill a cup with which to catch the water and using his garden hose he began to spray water over to Jill's house. It worked great! Jill was amazed how quickly Jack could fill her cup. Jack said, "Well since you are near my office it is easy to fill your cup over and over again without spilling hardly a drop. You only need a small cup (that was very inexpensive) to catch you're fair share of bandwidth (er uh,... water), so please enjoy all you can drink." That made Jill happy. Jill was so pleased with the service, and there was so much more water then she could ever drink alone, she told her friend Jim about Jack's new Internet service. Jim called Jack and they decided to meet to discuss this new Internet communications technology with which Jack was delivering water to his friend Jill. During their meeting Jack noticed that Jim's factory did not have "line of sight" back to the office. He also noted that Jim's factory is five times farther than Jill's house was from Jack's office. Jack said,"Jim, I can't spray your factory from the office if I can't see it. In order for me to start hosing you too, I'll have to build a better garden hose with a stronger pump and erect a tower so I can see your factory. Jim agrees that it would cost a little more for Jack to spray water at his factory from the home office. Jim suggested that if Jack could pull it off, there would be more people at the factory that might also like to have Jack's Internet service. After some consideration, Jack decided to build a tower and place his radio (er uh,... garden hose) way up high and a few miles from his office. Jack got a bigger water tank and a bigger pipe to feed the growing thirst of people in his community. Jim's factory and now many other people could have Jack's Internet sprayed on them too. Jack handed Jim a cup like Jill's and started spraying water at the factory. Soon Jack noticed that even though he was spraying the same amount of water at Jim it took longer to fill Jim's cup. Jim's cup was still fine for Jim but much of the water Jack sprayed at the factory missed Jim's cup. While Jim & Jill were still getting lots of water, Jill's cup might not get filled as often because Jack had to point his hose at Jim's cup longer to fill it and much of the water that was sprayed, was spilled. Jim was actually using more than his fair share of the water even though he was collecting less of it them he was allowed. How could Jack avoid this network leakage? Everyone has enough water now, but if Jim's cup keeps spilling like this there will be less water for everyone and adding new drinker to the service would be impossible. Thinking about the problem, Jack realizes that there is a simple solution. Get Jim to use a bigger cup! Jack goes back to Jim and offers him a larger container. Sure enough it works! Now instead of a cup, Jim has a pail with which to better catch the water. Jim's cup fills faster (throughput speed improved) and Jack regained water he needs for Jill and his other customers. Word got around that Jim was very happy that his factory could save time with Jack's new Internet service. Jim's staff began talking about Jack's service around the water cooler. People realized that this technology could be a solution for water drinkers (Internet users) in remote locations. Jack was thrilled at the response and it was so much fun to hose people that his network grew. Eventually Jack couldn't spray everyone that called and this made Jack sad. Many Internet users (water drinkers) where just too far away to be hosed directly from Jack's office. No matter how big their bucket, some users could never catch enough water because their bucket was too far away from Jack's office. If the water could reach, much would be spilled and that is bad. So they would joint the Jack's forum and watch for 'expansion updates'.
A Wi-POP is born!
Note: "Wi-POP" stands for "Wireless Point of Presence" One day Janet called Jack's office to see if she could get Jack's spraying service. Jack went out to Janet's farm to see if he could spray her well enough to have her subscribe to the hosing network. To Jack's disappointment (and Janet's), Jack just couldn't hose that far without wasting a lot of water. Jack told Janet that unless she could catch at least 70% of the water he was spraying at her, he would not be able to hose her farm. Janet said,"How about if I get a bigger bucket?" Jack hung his head and said,"I'm sorry Janet. Even with the biggest bucket, you can only catch 10% of the water that I can spray at you from my office. Although the Wi-POP I built is closer to your farm then my office, you can still only catch 40% of the water from there. I'm afraid that you are just too far away. It would take too much water away from others and that would be bad." Janet thanked Jack for his time and sent him on his way. Jack felt bad for Janet and got to thinking about how his garden hose actually worked. He wondered if there were some way that he could spray Janet's farm so far away without losing the precious water that his other clients also need.
Introduction of the "Broadband Pipe"
Even in the worst of conditions Janet's little stream would allow her to connect at speeds faster than the old way she got hosed by the telephone company and her IPS. Her lower flow of water wouldn't cost much and Janet would be connected all the time. Eventually Janet got connected and again there was harmony on the Internet. At least for Janet. That was until John came to see Jack personally about an unusual request.
Evolution of "Roaming"
"Jack..." John said,"...can you help me out? Jack thought long & hard about the water that could be wasted on an idea like this and said, "Yes! Yes I can!" "John..." Jack said, "...if you agree to stay close to my hose so that I can spray water at you, I'll do it. I have hoses all over the place, you just need to be close enough to the water supply to catch 70% of it. Would that be agreeable?" John looked a little confused and said, "How would I know if I'm catching 70% of it? Besides, wouldn't that limit my range to less then half the distance you can spray the water?" "Oh yeah, I see what you mean." said Jack. "Well I can't just let you go around spilling water everywhere. What would people say? There must be something we can do to let you go anywhere on my network without worrying where you are and how much water you spill."
Roaming access was born
Jack went on to explane about the leaking bucket problems of the past and how Janet was able to connect with a leaky bucket despite her distance from the hose by limiting her maximum speed. John agreed that he didn't need a lot of speed for roaming and a similar arrangement as Janet's would be fine. Jack had another satisfied customer and that was good. Jack went on to other adventures including homeland security (Internet cameras), Internet dial-tone (telephone services) & VoIP (Voice over IP), as well as many other broadband (water) related services. More about that in another story. * Any similarities in story title, character names, other works, situations, people or places, either real or imaginary, are purely coincidental. From this analogy understand that final speed not only depends on where you are (distance from the hose), but "how big is your bucket and does it leak?" Final throughput speeds are range & signal strength dependant. Distant users can always obtain at least 1Mb/s, but we reserve the right to refuse service to customers that can not maintain 70% signal strength (RSSI). Because the "Broadband Pipe" (Economy service) is 64K up and down, we are willing to deploy this option to remote locations where signal strength falls below the minimum of 70% RSSI. The account would not be upgradable until an RSSI of greater than 70% can be maintained. |
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