A structure could help improve the propagation rate of Wi-Fi through walls, according to new research. Explanations
This is via a new article published in the magazine Nature that we can hear the news. So we’re discovering that a tailored structure could make Wi-Fi signals more passable through walls.
Wi-Fi and the Wall Challenge
Currently, if you want to boost your broadband router’s WiFi signal, it usually requires a combination of different techniques, such as extenders.
As you probably know, walls are the sworn enemy of any wireless network, especially if your walls are very thick like in old buildings or castles for the lucky ones. This is also the case if your walls have metal elements (like in a bunker, but we’re not judging your life choices). The signal can get through, but it will be much weaker once it reaches the other side, assuming it can get there at all.
The complexity of a signal
An electromagnetic wave hitting a wall surface sees part of its signal pass through (refraction) while another part is reflected. In other words, the walls of your home are a bit of a maze for a WiFi signal, and that causes connectivity issues in most cases.
And for scientists at the Technical University of Vienna and the University of Rennes in Austria, the solution to this challenge is to effectively make the wall translucent to all incoming light waves by placing a suitable complementary medium in front of it, the famous structure we were at the beginning of the article speak.
The idea is to add a second additional obstacle to the first, to allow these signals to achieve near-perfect transmission as they pass through the wall. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? And yet… Put simply, we help the waves to navigate their way through the labyrinth of the wall.
Matthieu Davy, Lecturer in Electronics at the University of Rennes, explains:
This additional barrier helps guide the waves through the initial maze to follow fully transmitted paths, eliminating any reflections regardless of the direction of illumination.
The team has therefore developed an additional obstacle calculation tool that enables fast results regardless of the complexity of the obstacle. It is then sufficient to scan the reflection of the waves on its surface. This result is valid for all types of waves and for a whole range of frequencies.
If at first it seems very complex to set it up in an individual’s house (how do you install another additional barrier?), this discovery offers many prospects in the field of telecommunications.
