Wi-Fi achieved at 10,000 times lower power

[Aster]

Wi-Fi achieved at 10,000 times lower power

Computer scientists and electrical engineers have generated Wi-Fi transmissions using 10,000 times less power than conventional methods. With ‘Passive Wi-Fi,’ signals can be transmitted at rates up to 11 megabits per second – rates that are lower than maximum Wi-Fi speeds but are 11 times faster than Bluetooth – and decoded on any of the billions of devices with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Can be useful for mesh networks.

[Onaka]

I don’t know if this is very useful for mesh networks, IoT very much so, but the technique relies on bouncing waves generated at generators that are plugged into an outlet. If you go away from these generators, you’re not going to be able to use this technique. They’re saying the range would be around 30.5 meters, which doesn’t really sound like that large a radius especially considering it’s not mobile.

[janitor]

@Onaka

They’re saying the range would be around 30.5 meters, which doesn’t really sound like that large a radius especially considering it’s not mobile.

I love it when people post about IoT stuff and say how that would (finally) enable mesh networks.
Last year someone here posted how an IoT device with absolutely pathetic bandwidth would be great for SAFE. But… but… it runs Linux.

[Aster]

@Onaka, thanks for pointing this out.

[neverending_manga]

To be fair, you don’t need the internet to be fast to be useful. For instance, the amazon delivery drones of the future don’t need to send my future smart home 8K youtube vids, they only need to send it a private key that takes up less than 10kbs so the home knows the drone is one of the good guys. Of course, none of this is to say that you’d use safenet for close range IOT, as that’s clearly a terrible idea.

[asdf]

What would happen if you used this technique with those cylindrical antennas, and dishes, for creating relays? Would it’s range still be very limited?

[Onaka]

@asdf

What would happen if you used this technique with those cylindrical antennas, and dishes, for creating relays? Would it’s range still be very limited?

It wouldn’t really work, by that point you’re better off just using traditional long range wi-fi. Since you’ll be spending the energy to generate the “carrier” signal for this technique, you might as well put that power towards a traditional wi-fi transmitter. The best you could do is place the “carrier” signal generating device far away and direct its output to a directional antenna that would give a device using this technique the ability to work further away from the generator. But it would not be able to communicate with devices that are at the generator, as the range around the device would still be limited to the 30 meters. Only now the device’s location would be even more limited than before.
In short: You wouldn’t gain any advantages by doing what you suggest.