New Software Improves WiFi Range For Smart Home Products

Smart home technology is challenged by a number of factors - collaboration, user interface, cost, volume, software and integration among just a few of the most pressing development concerns. This article from TechXplore discusses how the radius of the range of WiFi can be improved with some software, reducing the impact of some of these barriers.

A group of researchers led by a BYU computer engineering professor has created a protocol that significantly extends the distance a Wi-Fi-enabled device can send and receive signals.

The engineering innovation requires no new hardware to enhance the signal range for "internet of things" devices, like a door sensor or motion detector, but can extend the distance these devices can be installed from a Wi-Fi access point by more than 60 meters, according to test results.

"That's the really cool thing about this technology: it's all done in software," said Phil Lundrigan, assistant professor of computer engineering at BYU. "In theory, we could install this on almost any Wi-Fi-enabled device with a simple software update."

The new protocol is called On-Off Noise Power Communication and is programmed right on top of the existing Wi-Fi protocol using the same hardware. While Wi-Fi requires speeds of at least one megabit per second (one Mbps) to maintain a signal, the "ONPC" protocol Lundrigan and his co-authors created can maintain a signal on as low as one bit per second—one millionth of the data speed required by Wi-Fi.

To do so, Lundrigan, Neal Patwari of Washington University (in St. Louis) and Sneha Kasera of the University of Utah adjusted the transmitter in a Wi-Fi-enabled device to send wireless noise in addition to data. They programmed into the Wi-Fi sensor a series of 1s and 0s, essentially turning the signal on and off in a specific pattern. The Wi-Fi router was able to distinguish this pattern from the surrounding wireless noise (from computers, televisions and cell phones) and therefore know that the sensor was still transmitting something, even if the data wasn't being received.