Wi fi antenna gains

WiFi Antennas Explained – Types of WiFi Antennas

Wireless communication was a revolutionary technology that changed the way we share information. Wireless communication means transfer of information from one object to another that are not physically connected to each other by means of an electrical conductor. In 1880, photophone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner which uses modulated light beams to send voice signals from one place to another. This event kick started a chain of events that lead to the discovery of current world wireless technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth etc. Before going further, lets see how wireless communication looks like.

Check out the below video if you are too lazy to read.

Get to Know More About WiFi Antennas – A Beginners Guide

In this model, the sound is captured and converted electrical signals using microphone, which is amplified and modulated using a transmitter circuit. This electrical signal is sent to antenna and these antennas convert these signals to EM waves and is radiated into the atmosphere. The receiving antenna captures these signals and is converted back to electrical signal. These modulated signals are demodulated using demodulation circuit, amplified and is fed to loudspeaker which will convert it to sound.

What is Antenna?

Simply speaking, Antenna is a device that converts electrical signals to EM waves or vice versa. In the case of a transmitting antenna, the electrical signal from the transmitting circuit is converted to EM waves and is radiated into the atmosphere. In the case of a receiving antenna, the EM waves in the atmosphere is captured and is converted back to electrical signals for further processing. The dimensions of various parts of the antenna depend upon the frequency of the EM waves that are being transmitted. The dimensions of components of the antennas will vary to match the frequency or wavelength of the signal to be transmitted.

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Making a PCB for your DIY project is not hard nowadays. PCB helps to get rid of all messy wires and stuff and gives your project an awesome look. And it’s cool to make your own PCB for your project right?

Designing a PCB for your Project – The Easy Way

I use Altium Designer to draw the circuit and design the PCB. It is a powerful tool that can be used to design and create your own PCBs for your project as well as complex and multiplayer PCBs for industrial use. Here is the link to the Altium trial version. So make sure you check it out.

Designing a PCB for your Project – The Easy Way

I use Altium Designer to draw the circuit and design the PCB. It is a powerful tool that can be used to design and create your own PCBs for your project as well as complex and multiplayer PCBs for industrial use. Here is the link to the Altium trial version. So make sure you check it out.

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I usually order our PCBs from PCBWay. PCBWay is a PCB manufacturer specializing in PCB prototyping, low-volume production, and neat and tidy PCB Assembly for a very low price. They have a very friendly customer support team and even perform a free PCB Design Review before payment and inform us if there is some issue with the design. Feel free to check out their website below.

Almost all of the wireless communication devices that are separated by a considerable distance requires antenna of some kind. Some times this antennas will be external and can be observed easily, like routers, while some are etched in the PCB of the module itself.

Frequency = Speed of Wave / Wavelength

Wavelength and Frequency are inversely related. The higher the wavelength, the shorter the frequency. Design of the antenna and its parts crucially depends up on the frequency and wavelength of the wave it will be transmitting or receiving.

WiFi generally uses a frequency of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz.

4. Antenna Polarization

Polarisation of an antenna is simply the orientation of the antenna with respect to the ground. Those antennas that emits RF waves that are parallel to the ground is known as Horizontally Polarised WiFi Antennas and those that emits RF waves perpendicular to the ground surface is said to be Vertically Polarised WiFi Antennas.

5. WiFi Antenna Power Gain

The signal range of an antenna is measured using a parameter called Power Gain which tells us about the effectiveness of an antenna when compared to that of any standard reference antenna. It is measured in decibels (dB).

Most of manufacturers use a value called dBi value for measuring the strength of an antenna. dBi is the gain of an antenna compared to that of an Isotropic radiator. The higher the dBi value, greater will be the area of coverage.

6. Best WiFi Antennas of 2019

Here is a list of World’s Best WiFi Antennas of the year 2019. Make sure you grab one of them for High speed, Long Range, and Stable Internet.

Radiation pattern of omni directional antenna is doughnut shaped. Omni directional antennas are commonly used for indoor purposes such as WiFi Routers and wifi chpsets of mobile phone, laptop, television etc.

8. Directional WiFi Antennas

Omni Directional Antennas are antennas that can radiate power only in one direction.

It is most commonly used in point to point communication. This focused beaming allows increased performance by reducing interference due to unwanted noises.

9. Most Commonly used WiFi Antennas

Dipole Antenna

Dipole WiFi Antennas are one of the most simplest type of antenna. It is also known as Half-Wave dipole antenna because its length is half the wavelength.

It consist of two identical metal rods which are separately fed using two different wires or feed lines.

These antennas are commonly used for indoor purposes such as WiFi Routers, USB WiFi adaptors, television etc.

Mini Panel

Mini panel antennas are directional antennas that are designed to transmit power in a particular direction. Which means you will have to point this antenna to the place where you want to receive this signal. These are generally long ranged, low profile antennas that are mostly designed for indoor purposes.

These mini panel antennas have a 60 degree spread angle and it can punch through normal walls and the radiations can reach hard to reach area.

Panel

Panel antennas are enhanced versions of mini panel antenna that can that can transmit power over a larger distance. They are very strong and sleak antennas that are specifically designed for outdoor uses. These antennas are very focussed and have a 32 degree spread which less when compared to that of a mini panel antenna but, it can travel a long distance with this angle of radiation.

You can connect this to a wifi router and point it out through your window, or fix it on a pole on the roof of your house, to a building where you want to receive this signal at a distance very far away from the source.

Cantenna

Cantenna is one of the most popular antenna among hobbyists and pentesters. They are also highly directional and compact antennas which can radiate power at an angle of around 36 degrees.

This one focussing its energy on a narrow beam making it highly directional but the radiations are so powerful that it can travel more than 3 miles line of sight under ideal conditions. We can connect USB adapters and WiFi Routers with removable antennas directly into this, Adding this antenna will significantly improve the range of transmission as well as reception.

Parabolic Grid

This one is the best long range antenna that can provide point to point link between the source and the receiver. These antennas have an ultra strong gain but a very thin beam width which makes it highly directional with a radiating angle between 3 degree and 12 degree.

These antennas are designed to withstand extreme weather conditions.

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Wi fi antenna gains

I don’t know much about antenna and antenna gain, but when comparing different SOHO wireless devices, the only parameter about wifi is the antenna gain:

RB951Ui-2HnD —> 2.5
wAP —> 2
hAP lite classic -> 1.5

There are a lot of advance and confusing stuff about antenna gain out there but I just want to know how these numbers affect WiFi performance in 3 terms:

1- WiFi Range
2- WiFi Speed
3- Number of WiFi client device can handle

I will be thankful if someone can tell me how these 3 device differ in these 3 areas.

Trainer

Re: How antenna gain affects WiFi performance?

Forget about antenna gain, look at Sensitivity at MCS7 as a reference (also Transmit Power, but to a lesser extent, there’s no point on stations being able to «hear» the AP if the AP cannot «hear them» to begin with).

wAP & Hap lite: Sensitivity: -71, Tx Power: 16 dbM
951Ui: Sensitivity: -78, Tx Power 23dBm

951 has a much better radio as AP, why?

— it has 7dB Sensitivity difference. Each 3dB means double, so it has more than quadruple better Sensitivity. So 951 will be able to «hear stations» 4x better than any of the other two.

— it has 7dBm Tx Power, quadruple of the wAP/hap lite classic.

Re: How antenna gain affects WiFi performance?

Forget about antenna gain, look at Sensitivity at MCS7 as a reference (also Transmit Power, but to a lesser extent, there’s no point on stations being able to «hear» the AP if the AP cannot «hear them» to begin with).

wAP & Hap lite: Sensitivity: -71, Tx Power: 16 dbM
951Ui: Sensitivity: -78, Tx Power 23dBm

951 has a much better radio as AP, why?

— it has 7dB Sensitivity difference. Each 3dB means double, so it has more than quadruple better Sensitivity. So 951 will be able to «hear stations» 4x better than any of the other two.

— it has 7dBm Tx Power, quadruple of the wAP/hAP lite classic.

Thank you so much for detailed explanation. I wonder what is sensitivity? higher sensitivity is better or lower?

I had a RB951Ui-2HnD and just bought a hAP Lite for testing. I cleared all the configs and set both of them to 2GHz-only-G, and connected using a WiFi USB dongle next room. hAP connects at 18Mb and didn’t pass 500KB/s and RB951Ui connects at 36Mb and didn’t pass 1.3MB/s. I think even RB951Ui performs so bad considering just one room distance, I expected higher values. Now I wonder each user get 500KB/s or this is shared bandwidth?

When I switched to 2GHz-only-N, hAP becomes a mess, as connection dropped to 6Mb/s and speed didn’t pass 200KB/s with so much interruption. RB951Ui performs much better. It connects at 65Mb and transfer at 4MB with 20MHz bandwidth although still less than expected values.

I tested 802.11b for hAP, it performs even better than G, with speed of 600KB/s.

I want to setup a HotSpot with more than 10 user, and each user is not allowed to get more than 250KB/s, now:
1- 802.11G is more suitable for crowded environment than 802.11N, am I right?
2- RB951Ui-2HnD or wAP is better for this scenario (In another thread you mentioned wAP is for crowded enviroment)? (I believe hAP is off the chart as it has 7MB free ram with not clients)

I just see this:
54MBit/s
RB951Ui-2HnD: tx=25 / rx=-80
wAP | hAP: tx=18 / rx=-74

As hAP and wAP are exactly the same, I wonder why their antenna gain is different?
BTW, what is rx value? are lower values better?

Trainer

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