Chapter 4 - Wireless Performance
Range
Every environment is unique with different obstacles, barriers, materials, etc. and, therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact range that will be achieved without testing. However, some guidelines have been developed to estimate the range that users will see when the product is installed in their facility, but there are no hard and fast specifications.
Radio signals may reflect off some obstacles or be absorbed by others depending on their construction. For example, with two 802.11b radios, you may achieve up to 1000 feet in open space outdoors where two devices have a line of sight, meaning they see each other with no obstacles. However, the same two units may only achieve up to 300 feet of range when used indoors.
The IEEE 802.11b specification supports four data rates: 11 Mbps,
5.5Mbps, 2 Mbps, and 1 Mbps. Operation at 1 Mbps provides greater range than operation at 11 Mbps. The R100 Wireless Gateway will automatically adjust the data rate to maintain a usable radio connection.
Therefore, a client that is close to the gateway may operate at 11 Mbps while a client that is on the fringe of coverage may operate at 1 Mbps. As mentioned earlier, you can configure the data rates that the R100 Wireless Gateway will use. Note that if you limit the range of data rates available to the gateway, you may reduce the effective wireless range of the Diamond Digital Wireless products.
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