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why we had wireless problems at IETF

2002-07-17 19:10:32

A couple of general questions about 802.11 at IETF in Japan

1)      is there some aspect of the telecommunications/regulations here
        in Japan restricting the number of channels for RF use which affected
        the problem? Did it help or hinder? -This is a 'cannot fix' problem
        for IETF, but would be interesting to know, and to try and feed back
        into national regulatory process for RF management. After all, the
        density of endpoints and stations is probably close to a future world
        dream. 

2)      is there some aspect of the density of wireless stations, station names
        and SSID behaviour which contributed to the problem? I am hearing 
        gossip which suggests in some cases in RF space 'more is better' is
        a false model, and that 3 stations in rooms where 4 are, might be
        cleaner.

        A consideration here is that people choose to sit close to the
        middle of the room, and some rooms the aerials are in the corners
        so the area of maximum overlap of signal is ... the weighted centroid
        of the middle of the room! Or the ven diagram overlap or whatever.

        Maybe more 'randomy' placement of the stations, or all along one wall
        would be better? I don't know. Could that kind of thing be tested
        passively with an RF meter rather than with the massed laptops of IETF?
        (and the hosting BCP updated...)

And, the tricky third question

        ....or is this just yet another complexity which cannot be solved
        by single-point changes...

cheers and thanks to the NOC who are clearly working very very hard to deliver
the best 802.11 they can, in trying circumstances (Typhoons do not help with
external aerials, rogue SSID ad-hoc, and who knows what else)

-George

--
George Michaelson       |  APNIC
Email: ggm(_at_)apnic(_dot_)net    |  PO Box 2131 Milton QLD 4064
Phone: +61 7 3858 3100  |  Australia
  Fax: +61 7 3858 3199  |  http://www.apnic.net