hfield

Actual WiFi performance is highly dependent on the environment in which you are connecting. These three case studies performed by hField Technologies demonstrate the Wi-Fire’s performance as compared with a state-of-the-art internal laptop adapter in different situations you may encounter: Single Family Home/Home Office, Commercial/Industrial and Off-Campus/City.

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A1: 200 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Reception displayed by Windows XP was one bar, and the connection was indicated to be at 1Mb/s. But normal browsing was prohibitively long and downloading video painful and nearly impossible.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Wi-Fire connected at speeds varying from 24 to 36 Mb/s showing a signal strength at this location of -74 to–77dB. Both browsing and video were very similar to a wired broadband connection experience.

A2: 490 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Could not connect. Signal strength showing at -93dB, but access point could be detected only intermittently.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at -77dB and 24Mb/s. Browsing was a normal high-speed experience, and video streamed in like a wired connection.

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B1: 130 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Connected at -92dB and 2Mb/s. Browsing was slow but okay. Video varied from slow to unbearably long to download.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at -81dB and 54Mb/s. Quite normal experience including streaming video.

B2: 130 feet from Access Point

Note: This is the same point as B1 but with the Wi-Fire pointing at 90 degrees counterclockwise from the line of sight. This is a simple exercise to demonstrate the value of wireless signal reflections in almost any situation where you may have many obstructions.

With Internal Adapter
Same as B1. (Connected at -92dB and 2Mb/s. Browsing was slow. Video varied from slow to unbearably long to download.)

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at -90dB and 11Mb/s. Browsing was normal. Video took slightly longer to download, but playback was seamless. One would obviously not choose this direction over B1, but it does demonstrate the incidence of strong reflections in a WiFi environment.

B3: 360 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Could not detect access point.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Wi-Fire connected at 2Mb/s, displaying a signal strength of -92 to -93dB. Browsing was still normal. Video was slower in loading but downloaded continuously and started playing seamlessly.

B4: 130 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Spurious detection, displaying -95dB. Could not connect.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at 18Mb/s showing -82dB. Browsing and video experience was normal.

B5: 130 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Could not detect access point.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at 2Mb/s showing -94dB, often a minimum for satisfactory performance for those used to a broadband connection. Browsing was normal, but video loaded very slowly, with buffering slow enough to cause playback to pause occasionally.

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C1: 420 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Connected at 18Mb/s and -80dB. Experience was normal.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at -75dB and 36Mb/s. Experience was normal.

C2: 880 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Connected at 5.5Mb/s and -93dB. Browsing was possible but very slow.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Connected at -82dB and varied from 36 to 48Mb/s. Browsing and video was normal, video streamed in seamlessly.

C3: 630 feet from Access Point

With Internal Adapter
Could not detect access point. Windows XP detected two access points in the area but not the target.

WITH THE WI-FIRE
Wi-Fire displayed -84dB for the target access point. Wi-Fire detected 36 access points in the area.