(3301) Point Of Parabola: A Cheap Solution To Improve Wireless Connections
Tom Lin , Cam Dwyer
Adam Scott CVI



Abstract


title:

point of a parabola-a cheap solution to improve wireless connections.

intro:

Parabolic reflectors are used in many applications, including: flashlights, optical telescopes, radio telescopes, solar ovens, and even for picking up on-field sounds from the sidelines at football games. We first came to think of this because of the delimma we had on our hands. we needed to give a park my mom has, access to internet, the area is about 3-5 acres and is ina shape of a rectangle. we thought of how a flash light made a straight beam to one direction, but none at the other, and we reasearched it. The science is called parabola. we hoped that this solution would help give internet access to the whole park and no were else, because no one likes to lose bandwith!

Experiment:

The way we collected our data was that we set the router by itself(no reflector) and powered it on. we then walked to the maximum distance we wanted to access the ap(40m in our case). we then set up the computer with a external usb reciever because the power each kind of reciever varies, and we wanted a fair experiment(in our case, a rt73 chipset), then started a program to ping the router, note that the ip will varie to routers (our's was 192.168.2.1), then we tested with borth antennas, then pinged it again(note that we only transmitted 50 packets).

hypothesis:

6 inch=12 db gain, so 1 inch=2.54 cm 1inch=2db, reciever=18cm(18/2.54=7.086cm) discussion: well, in the end, we found that we would get 66dbm instead of the 40 db with out antennas(100mw=20db, 2x100mw=40db). so in a fraction, the 26 db we get is 42 or under % gain.

materials:

silver cookwear dish, rt73 chipset usb adapter, 2.4ghz router, usb extender, wood block and lego for base, glue, nails, computer, area to test.

conclusion:

before the antennas, we hade 72% successful packets, and a average of 11ms, then witht he antennas, we ahda atotal of 98% succesful packets and a average of1.57ms per packet.so it was a 26% gain, still in the margin of our hypothesis. so we concluded that parabola can be a cheap way to improve wireless signals. You can geta better signal by using a larger dish, which basically means, a larger target area. the larger the dish, then better the gain.