Long-Distance, Low-Cost Wireless Data Transmission

Ermanno Pietrosemoli

2011

802.11 Wi-Fi technology is commonly used for creating wireless networks with a range of about one hundred meters. With careful planning, external antennas, and modifications to the medium access protocol, the same equipment can be used to make point-to-multipoint links of tens of kilometers, and point-to-point links in the range of hundred of kilometers. This paper presents some experiments at distances of up to 382 km that were performed in Venezuela from April 2006 to July 2007, as well as an affordable instrument setup for long-distance antenna alignment. These experiments paved the way for practical applications in a network to provide connectivity among five of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and in another network built to connect several hospitals to the College of Medicine at the University of Malawi.

Published in: International Union of Radio Science.  Bulletin Nº 339, pp 23 -31, December, 2011, Ghent. Belgium.

URL: https://www.ursi.org/files/RSBissues/RSB_339_2011_12.pdf

wireless data transmission
low distance
low cost