Is your Wireless bridge slow? Tips on Fine-Tuning your WiFi System for Optimum Performance
RadioLabs, specializes in some of the Most Advanced, Cutting Edge Wireless, long range Point to Point wireless ( WiFi ) Bridge systems in the World! (For the money, we provide our customers, with the best hardware available including chipsets, our high power amplifiers and receive pre-amplifiers and maximimum performance possible in the wireless industry. This means, you can rest assured, if you purchased a bridge from us, you will not find any better performance or capabilities in the entire industry.
Historically, when we pre-configure a Wireless bridge, we do it the correct way. We obtain your main router’s IP Address, then configure our bridges into your own network, with all IPs properly set for YOUR own router.
Yes, this is all custom. Yes, we are very good at doing it, but once your bridge arrives, you WILL have to fine tune it for the exact area you are located. This is something we just simply cannot do here, or else we would.
RadioLabs’ has also done this for an amazingly Low-Price, for 1, to help our customers with a simple, completely bonded bridge system, but also to avoid sending out instructions, which most of our customers would not understand or would not do it right. So yes, we avoid our own headaches, by simply getting you a fully configured system if they customer wants us to program it.
(Any typical IT company, would charge 5 times more, we know this)
Our bridges are FAST, reliable and certain models, do the impossible, by penetrating through obstructions that nobody else in the industry can even attempt. However, all WiFi systems suffer due to multiple problems. Radio Interference, Channels in use, distance between bridges are all different, from one installation to the next. Every neighborhood has different WiFi channels in use, and neighbor’s who leave their Wifi Routers in “Auto Channel” mode, are constantly changing their WiFi channel on top of your bridge.
So, there are too many problems to cover, than just one simple topic, and every single stage of the tuning process needs to be taken into account, before
First, a lot of WiFi problems stem from a bad design to start with. Assuming you have a high performance Wireless bridge, using a good chipset with excellent RF (Radio) performance, many factors can be adjusted by the end-user to take a slow bridge signal and optimize it for peak performance. The
Fine tuning your wireless system – a how to guide
RadioLabs’ fully configured point to point bridge systems, as well as our Access Points and our WiFi building extension kits, are as finely tuned, and plug and play as can physically be done by any IT professional, giving you a full, plug and play bridge system.
However, there is only so much our technicians can do, from our Tech bench in North Carolina. Certain factors cannot be determined. Until your bridge is installed and connected to your broadband router, or internet source and are critical to fine tuning your bridge or Access Point’s optimum WiFi speed.
Factors that limit your bridge system are:
- WiFi Channel overlap and fine tuning: – The 2.4, and 5 GHz WiFi bands, are public bands, used by everyone. Home routers, other bridge systems, RV Park and Marina WiFi, etc. Every single area will have a certain level of WiFi traffic, that shows up, unless you’re in a very rural area and no other WiFi devices are transmitting within miles of our bridge system or outdoor Access Points.
- Distance between WiFi devices: – RadioLabs’ bridges, are very advanced, and if RadioLabs’ technicians configure your bridge or outdoor Access Point, or building connection system, we do have preset distances and Automatic Latency settings, depending on the unit, are based on average customer’s bridge or AP distance. But in all cases, for optimal performance of your bridge, fine-tuning can be accomplished by modifying this setting down to the 1/10th of a mile, or even to the exact meter, depending on the model of bridge or AP you’re using. With proper fine tuning, your speeds can increase anywhere from 2, to 10 times faster than what we preset the Latency meter to. This setting alone, can give you performance you never knew you could achieve. If you are going through trees, buildings, etc, using RadioLabs’ Non Line of Site bridges, this latency adjustment will vary, by the actual distance, plus approximately 2 to 10 percent. Some adjustment and trial is required to ensure optimal performance, without over optimizing it, causing the bandwidth and ping to drop.How does Latency affect a Wireless Bridge?: RadioLabs’ transmitters and receivers, are timed, based on the speed of light. The speed of light, just isn’t fast enough now to make up for the massive amount of packets and bits while in transit. For the best explanation of Latency, and how this affect can be described, we will use Satellite internet as a prime example.
This latency (Distance) adjustment, is similar to the echo you hear, or the delay you notice, while using Satellite based internet, or the old satellite based telephone calls.
Traffic is delayed, because of many factors, such as distance, the packet size sent, the other traffic (users or WiFi Traffic) and interference. When using a Satellite internet system, other users are also consuming bandwidth and waiting in line, for the signal to shoot out from your roof top, where the satellite transmitter is located, to the actual satellite itself, which is approximately 22,000 to 26,000 miles (36,000KM) out in space. If your signal has interference, the signal from your roof, may not even reach the satellite to begin with. Your satellite (or WiFi Bridge) must wait to hear a response back from the far end, called a “Packet Handshake”. This Handshake, is a returned acknowledgement from the other end of the bridge, telling the transmitting device that yes, it received the packet, and then tells the other side to please send the next packet, or data chunk, or tells it to stand-by, while a response is returned. Many times, depending on the traffic, this send/receive acknowledgement has to resend the same info, over and over and over, based on the amount of interference, or incorrect distance (latency) adjustment, or just a very long delay, as other packets are received by the satellite, or bridge.
This repeated acknowledgement, either sends back a correct “Yes, I got your 9000 bytes of data” (or whatever the packet size is) , it won’t respond, meaning it never received the packet in the first, place, or, it sends back an error, and a request to re-send the same info again.
These are the 3 conditions, and applies to all WiFi or Wireless digital data sent or received, regardless if it’s a wireless bridge, a simple home router to your cell phone, or a satellite internet connection. Latency, is the #1 factor, determining what types of speed and throughput you’re going to get.
In the case of Satellite Internet, it’s easier to describe than a wireless bridge, because the time delays can sometimes be a matter of seconds for this to occur. The satellite, then has to make a round trip, sending the Satellite signal back down to a large, ground based receiving station, where it’s connected to the internet backbone.. So, as an example, that same packet you sent from your roof top in, say, Washington State, then reaches the internet hub/receiving location, another 22,000 to 26,000 miles away, where it then has to make the same trip, fight the same traffic, where it finally reaches the ground based internet.. then, it has to fight the same traffic, the same return trip, fight the same traffic, wait in line, handle all the other customers, and then back down to your roof top in Washington State.
To overcome the huge delay, the packets and traffic is shaped to send much more data, in huge packets, vs small packets at smaller distances. But the amount of traffic sent, the return handshake required, all remains the same, as your short range, 500 ft to 20 mile bridge link through RadioLabs’ bridges or Access points. By the time the packets and acknowledgement requests are all sent, this handshake must happen, each and every packet, to not only send the larger data chunks, plus the return receipt, acknowledging that the correct amount of data had been sent on each end.
This brief explanation, sounds complex, and it is. But in all, the traffic to send just one chunk, of one piece of information, took a total round trip, with acknowledgement on all ends, of around 416,000 miles, just for one single packet cluster. In total, just that small cluster of data, took 2.23 seconds, to only send a portion of one webpage you’re trying to load.
That is why, even in a short range bridge of 5 miles, it is very important to optimize and adjust the distances and latency, because if the wrong size packet is being sent and the bridge distance is only 1 mile, instead of the 10 miles you set inside of RadioLabs’ bridge firmware, then the receiver or transmitter, will be turning on or off at the wrong time, and this returned receipt acknowledgement could be transmitted incorrect, or the transmitter and receivers fighting each other continuously thinking that it’s partner is much farther away, or much closer.
The speed of light, just isn’t fast enough for Wireless/WiFi technology. On RadioLabs’ bridges, we have had customers complain about slow speeds, only to find out that they had increased the distance out to 60 miles, instead of the short, 1 mile bridge distance. The result of improper distance adjustment, can radically affect your bridge’s speed and all other devices connected to the bridge. Optimally, based on signal strength, other channel interference, etc, this measurement should be set to Real Distance, plus 0.1 miles, allowing the transmitters and receivers, to completely finish sending the data, the last bit reaching the receiver, and then the receiver turning on at the exact right time, to receive the acknowledgement receipt.However, like all things, there are exceptions to the rules, like adjusting for optimized packet speed. - Adjusting bandwidth for optimal throughput: Our bridges, are shipped in the highest performance adjustments, for the best power level, to ensure your bridge is capable of linking to the remote (Secondary) unit. Afterall, it’s better to make sure you can get a working bridge first, then make adjustments later. In certain circumstances, if your bridge has been configured by RadioLabs’ Technicians, our latest technology bridge units use a very high performance, very desired firmware called “OpenWRT Luci” and is set to either HT20 or HT40 mode, or in some cases, HT80, MiMo. The best range however, is always based on Narrow Bandwidth, and high power, to get through obstructions.
RadioLabs’ IT Engineers, offer a Tier 2 and Tier 3 IT Support, where our technicians can remotely adjust your Wireless bridge, squeaking out every last bit of performance from your Wireless bridge, for optimal speed, absolute latency, optimal bandwidth, based on performance measurements, and help you unclutter your existing WiFi traffic, for each device on your network.