How Come?

Why won’t my WiFi/WiMAX work?

James L Bradley
June – 2007

I will make a grand attempt at keeping this piece as non-technical as I can,

and in my world of technical jargon and seventeen letter words, that end up
being highlighted as three-letter abbreviations, I could drift from time to time,
but hang in there I eventually make my way back into a realm of understanding.
In the world of data-communications we have gone from slow dial-up
exchanges of information, that in its infancy was the cats meow – where today if
you don’t have a connection that is faster than the Lone Ranger chasing bandits
across the savannah we’re all lost and complain as if we were hung with an old
rope.
We now find ourselves with a multitude of services pounding on our door,
each using a different technology in their attempt to drag you away from the
ancient, but familiar device that used to weigh in the neighborhood of ten
pounds or more, hang on the wall of take up enough room on an end table that
you had no place for your cup of juice.
We find ourselves with the typical wireline Digital Service Line (DSL) that can
be configured to over a kilobyte or two of data-transfer, depending on your
distance from the central office and the local CATV provider where you can
achieve speeds up to 5 mega-bytes-per-second and over. Now on both of these
technologies you can order up services that allow you to make long-distance
calls for prices that almost too good to believe for a set price per month or on a
per minute basis, within the USA and a small charge in the International arena.
Granted the service had its drawbacks over the traditional phone service
that most of us matured with, and from time to time we read articles where the
traditional providers for their service drag these up-start providers in front of
some judge sitting at his walnut paneled dais who could care less how his
communications are provided, and if you told him, he wouldn’t understand a
word you said in the first place.
About 15/20 or so years ago cellular telephone came marching down the
expressway, where customers took sales orders, orders for bread on the way

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home and women found another thing to do in their car beside set their rollers.
We all were slowly on our way to becoming a “connected” society, really
connected.
The age of mass media communications was moving into our life, regardless
of whether we wanted it there or not – it was coming. When you really look at
the entire picture in reality we had come full circle – if I remember correctly
wireless communications has been around for some time, and it actually
became a way of long-distance communicating when Samuel Morse and his
partner Alfred Vail started interrupting the B+ voltage in 1844 over 163 years
ago.
Now if we had remained with the breaking of the B+, which generated a
signal at a very low frequency that with a proper antenna could be picked up
through our atmosphere for thousands of miles – bouncing between the
ionosphere and the earths surface at speed of 300,000 meters per second. But
being who we are, we didn’t. From that simple form of radio frequency
communications we now find ourselves in a world where we expect to talk to
another device and transfer thousands if not millions of bytes of B+ signals, all
transmitted at a frequency that has a difficult time making it past a mile or two,
and with a mandated power output that is less than a miniature Christmas light,
Now we arrive at the problem, why can’t you talk to the local providers WiFi
access point (“AP”), and sometimes experience problems such as being able to
download data, but your upload data is so slow you can enjoy a cup of tea and
make some cucumber sandwiches waiting for a response. That my friend is RF,
which can be compared to a small child, where you never know where they are
going and in what condition or if they will be carrying anything when they
arrive.
If for some strange reason this condition affects your connection it can be
one of the following:
1. The path between where your modem/laptop is located and the primary
access point (AP) at the base, doesn’t have a clear line-of-sight (visual), with
either structures put in place by nature – trees, mountains, hills and maybe
even a freeway or two
2. Where you have your modem (the modem is the device provided by the
company selling you the service) is sitting next to your computer on the floor

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and is surrounded by a computer, trash basket, and trying to establish a
connection through a wall (filled with sheetrock and nails), a window with a
heavy drapes, two panes of sand filled glass, and even maybe a metal screen to
keep the bugs out – believe me they all count in either absorbing the frequency
or reflecting it.
3. And then you have the air that you breathe, the greatest absorption
element (free space loss) between you and that great big antenna 1-mile from
your box.
At a distance of one mile at 2.4 GHz (network frequency) the loss (how we
designate the RF signal absorption = Free Space Loss (“FSL”) is 104.2 dB (dB
stands for a decibel ratio), this is if you have a clear shot between the two
antennas’, now your box is more than likely has an output of approximately 15
dBm to 18 dBm of signal power – or about 31.63 milli-watts to 63.1 milli-watts of
RF Power to the antenna – with maybe a 3 dBi gain omni antenna – or at max a
total of 21 dB or 125 milli-watts.
Okay, let’s go with the higher figure of 21 dB
Your output to the AP is: 21.0 dB
Free Space Loss: -104.2 dB
Total Power arriving at Base Station Ant: -83.2 dB
Base Station Antenna Gain: 19.0 dBi
Input to the cable: -64.2 dB
Cable Loss Ant to input AP: -4.0 dB
Input to AP: -68.3 dB
Normal AP sensitivity -71.0 dB
Margin is: 2.8 dB
Desired Margin in WiFi is 10 to 20 dB

The receiver sensitivity reference is the least allowable value of signal that
will permit the AP to function – another thing you’ll notice is I haven’t included
any “loss” values for the “Fresnel zone”, nature, rain, and any kind of
structures. Whereas a normal sheetrock wall will gobble up anywhere from 2-4
dB, and a wall with plenty of metal will reflect the signal – your signal might
arrive (signifying that you do have a connection) but this indication is only
telling you, “hey you see me!” The hard part is that the modem may see the
AP, but everything you send to it may appear as a abstract of the Tlingit1
language – the packets are scrambled and arrive in bits and pieces, and

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlingit (Which I am – 50%, hence the Raven in the bookmark)

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consequently they have to make the trip over and over again until finally the
session at the base times out, and your connection drops – see ya later.
But how come you can receive data? The biggest reason is they (base
station) are more than likely using a directional antenna - and they have
positioned it at such a height to eliminate the interference or absorption of a
nearby object – in doing so they have designed their system in consideration of
the ‘Fresnel Zone”, by doing so they have attempted to have a clear distance
between their antenna and yours tucked away by your feet. The other thing
they have is the high-gain antenna transmitting (remember 19 dBi), and more
than likely they have a 400 milli-watt output Access Point – like so:
Output of AP: 26.0 dBm
Loss of cable: -4.0 dB
Antenna Gain: 19.0 dBi
Free Space Loss: -104.2 dB
Antenna Gain on Modem: 3.0 dB
Modem Sensitivity: -71.0 dBm
Signal Arrives at Modem: -60.2 dB
Margin is: 10.2 dB
Desired Margin in WiFi is: 10 – 20 dB

The above two examples are “typical”, you’ll notice that the only different
factor is the output of the Access Point, and unit that usually costs around
$3,500 to $4,500 a piece – it might even have a 600 milli-watt output (27.8
dBm) – you can see when your signal arrives the margin is less than 3 dB,
whereas when the signal arrives at your modem the margin is 10 dB – these 7
dB make a big difference.
How do you correct? The most obvious solution is the installation of a
directional antenna (19 dBi gain), can be purchased for around 40 to 60 bucks,
some cable and a modem that has provisions for an external antenna (cable)
connection. The antennas are fairly small, but it important to get it as high as
you can without offending the neighbors – usually 2-3 feet off the peak of the
roof, and make sure the cable your purchase is compatible with a 50 ohm
impedance system. And mount the modem as close to the antenna as you
possibility can – this is important.
Ethernet cable can be installed up to 1,000 feet before it becomes a problem
in itself, options include installing your modem either in the attic or installing an

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exterior modem with the operating voltage supplied through the connecting
cable.
For your information, Free Space Loss (hi-number remember) doesn’t change
that much between 1-mile (-104.2 dB) and ½ mile (-98.18 dB), ¼ mile (-92.6
dB). Now all these changes still will NOT guarantee it will fix it, but yet you
don’t need a super-duper RF engineer to design a path for you, Normally the
company selling you the service will do most anything in their power to make
your system work, and will not leave your premises is it doesn’t. WiFi (WiMAX)
technicians/engineers will either get the setup to function, or pack their gear
and the WiFi / WiMAX unit and go home.
As for a mobile device (your laptop with the internal antenna) it is further
limited to the allowable distance from the Network Operating Center (“NOC”)
whereas the buried (behind a desk) modem, the 2.4HGz dipole might be
installed behind the screen element or just about anywhere else in the laptop.
Besides the laptop antenna (wherever it might be), the RF power output in
normally 15 dBm to 17/18 dBm and the unit is moving!
Like the software/hardware in the cellular system; the NOC tracking the
overhead is following the incoming signal from the remote location across the
antenna array, talks to the unit moving across the region - you’re connected.

As you can see there are a multitude of reasons why your WiFi will not work,
some have a solution and some not, as I mentioned RF has been around a bit
and unlike a solid wire (fiber/copper) the medium it uses is full. Technology
(digital processing) has expanded it in a manner (allowing more and faster
transit through the air), but unlike the solid media we simply can’t lay or install
another wire to accommodate more.

How Come – Page 5