Core drilling is tricky. Getting a 6 GHz signal through concrete is now easier.
One issue in getting office buildings networked that you don't typically face at home is concrete—and lots of it. Concrete walls are an average of 8 inches thick inside most commercial real estate.
Keeping a network running through them is not merely a matter of running cord. Not everybody has the knowledge or tools to punch through that kind of wall. Even if they do, you can't just put a hole in something that might be load-bearing or part of a fire control system without imaging, permits, and contractors. The bandwidths that can work through these walls, like 3G, are being phased out, and the bandwidths that provide enough throughput for modern systems, like 5G, can't make it through.
That's what WaveCore, from Airvine Scientific, aims to fix, and I can't help but find it fascinating after originally seeing it on The Register. The company had previously taken on lesser solid obstructions, like plaster and thick glass, with its WaveTunnel. Two WaveCore units on either side of a wall (or on different floors) can push through a stated 12 inches of concrete. In their in-house testing, Airvine reports pushing just under 4Gbps through 12 inches of garage concrete, and it can bend around corners, even 90 degrees. Your particular cement and aggregate combinations may vary, of course.
The spec sheet shows that a 6 GHz radio is the part that, through "beam steering," blasts through concrete, with a 2.4 GHz radio for control functions. There's PoE or barrel connector power, and RJ45 ethernet in the 1, 2.5, 5, and 10Gbps sizes.
6 GHz concrete fidelity (Con-Fi? Crete-Fi?) is just one of the slightly uncommon connections that may or may not be making their way into office spaces soon. LiFi, standardized as 802.11bb, is seeking to provide an intentionally limited scope to connectivity, whether for security restrictions or radio frequency safety. And Wi-Fi 7, certified earlier this year, aims to multiply data rates by bonding connections over the various bands already in place.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Wednesday September 11, @02:38AM (1 child)
How about the reinforcing steel bars? Or does that not show up in those kinds of concrete installations?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 12, @02:45PM
Thats the problem with importing "high tech stuff" from China, they assume everyone else leaves the rebar out of their construction to save money, just like they do.
I'm sure this merger of ground penetrating radar and wifi will go right thru a "reinforced" Chinese condo complex whereas an old USA building would actually have the rebar it was designed to include.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday September 11, @03:16AM (3 children)
All the office spaces I've ever worked at were either built with ethernet cabling already in place or with fairly accessible conduits running things like telephone lines and electricity in which ethernet could be routed. So I'm not quite sure what problem this solves - apart from the "The IT guy is too lazy to set up networking properly" problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11, @03:34AM
Cable trays aren't overflowing with old cables?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday September 11, @12:03PM
In the US, trade unions. Friend of mine worked in a building with interior concrete walls that they couldn't get drilled for cable because of some demarcation dispute in the unionised labor (it was years ago, I can't remember the exact details). They ended up going in at night when no-one was on site and doing the drilling themselves over a period of several days, then patching over the holes so they weren't visible until needed.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday September 12, @02:49PM
Its marketed as for office spaces because its too expensive right now, but the eventual purpose is likely very low density environments like resorts, hotels, nursing homes, etc. Those are a big, although very price sensitive, market, so if they can just sell enough to factory and warehouse companies, the volume-based prices will drop and then rental real estate will buy it once its cheap enough.
Imagine the simplicity of a nursing home where the entire infrastructure is one high wattage box in the office instead of access points down all the halls. Plus the wattage requirements will be high enough they can keep their coffee warm on top of it, like a continuously operating microwave oven.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday September 11, @07:28AM (1 child)
This again.
It's ordinary wifi with a directional antenna.
There is nothing unusual or special about it whatsoever.
Beam-forming is already part of Wifi, 6GHz is already part of modern wifi, the speeds are in the range of modern Wifi, and you can do exactly this with a directional antenna on ordinary Wifi.
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday September 11, @12:29PM
Is that all it is?
Here I was wondering if they were using some special additional bandwidth to reduce the QAM resolution or something. It has that 2.4GHz control line too, I thought they might use that for something too.
If it’s just a directional antenna (assuming a dish) then there’s no need for beamforming as you already have one, provided by the antenna. Unless it’s a patch away with fixed phased array setup. With a directional antenna like a dish, all the transmitted or received energy is sent to the other end on the other side of the wall, so by virtue of the max transmitted power being directed, via a high gain antenna, that I suppose might be enough to overcome the attention provided by the concrete. As you say, nothing special here.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday September 11, @01:43PM (2 children)
Twenty years ago I had a Logitech cordless mouse/keyboard that used ultraviolet, like your TV remote. It always worked well.
I now have a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard, and sometimes radio interference is so bad they stop working. I use cabling when feasible, it solves a myriad of problems (my TV is my monitor and my couch is my computer chair, I'm across the room). Wi-Fi is for phones, tablets, and newer laptops. Using Wi-Fi for your TV or computer is just ignorant. The more of those frequencies of radiation is used, the more radio interference you have.
I miss my UV mouse/keyboard.
We not only don't have all the answers, we don't even have all of the questions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by vux984 on Wednesday September 11, @06:27PM (1 child)
"Twenty years ago I had a Logitech cordless mouse/keyboard that used ultraviolet, like your TV remote. It always worked well."
I'm guessing you mean infrared?
(Score: 3, Funny) by mcgrew on Friday September 13, @07:24PM
Yes, I hadn't had enough coffee when I wrote that.
We not only don't have all the answers, we don't even have all of the questions.