Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tech Could Wreck Wi-Fi

Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by mirimir on Monday December 07, 2015 @02:08PM (#10691817)

If your WiFi were getting stomped by LTE-U, would it help to get a high-power AP from Ubiquiti etc? If so, maybe prices of such APs would drop as volume increased. Also, maybe WiFi AP software could be tweaked to compete better with LTE-U.

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by kllrnohj on Monday December 07, 2015 @04:38PM (#10692908)

No, because wifi is a nice protocol. It waits for the channel to be clear before transmitting. It's not a matter of transmit power, it's a matter of collision & airtime.

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by oasisbob on Monday December 07, 2015 @02:50PM (#10692141)

Higher powered APs don't help transmissions from the client which face the same interference.

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by mirimir on Monday December 07, 2015 @03:28PM (#10692437)

Doh. Thanks.

So software tweaks, then. Yes?

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by simoncion on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @01:51AM (#10695167)

I gather that the only currently feasible software tweak you could add to WiFi [0] would be to make it a substantially ruder radio neighbor by failing to wait to transmit until its transmission channel is clear.

In that world, noone wins.

[0] Other, cooler schemes require that WiFi radio manufacturers put more smarts into their radios. There are several 802.11 standards that would make WiFi devices more performant in the face of interference, -probably- remove the hassle of AP channel selection, and distribute relevant metadata about an AP to clients before they connect to aid the human in selection of the proper network and the machines in determining if the client possesses -say- credentials of some kind from a partner network that this WiFi network will honor. The benefit of adding stuff like this is pretty obvious to techies. However, because most computer users are largely non-technical, it's (apparently) impossible to make the business case to increase the unit cost of one's WiFi products by $20 or so to cover the R&D costs. :(

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by kevingadd on Monday December 07, 2015 @02:19PM (#10691902)

Yeah, but now you and your neighbors have trouble using your phones because of the AP. It's a bad trade.

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Re:Google, Microsoft, Comcast Say Verizon’s New Cellular Tec... by mirimir on Monday December 07, 2015 @02:51PM (#10692152)

OK, but maybe AP software could be tweaked to play nice with phones. Or maybe phones will stay away from WiFi bands.

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