Future Development Idea

[ninedd]

Hi. I understand that the plate is full right now with priority things, which is fine, great, grand and wonderful. :) There is this forum sitting here called 'What would you like in the next generation' and I thought I'd add one of my thoughts to it, but 'future' is 'future' so this isn't a panic at all. :)

What I'd like to see is somethink a bit like the GPS Sync idea. That trick basically allows the reuse of frequencies without self interference, because you can be careful not to transmit at the exact same instant. Of course, the tradeoff is extra processing and lowered throughput. Of course the other downside is the extra GPS gear on each AP.

A hardware GPS solution like that would be idea, but my 'poor mans gps idea' for Tony to put on his back burner is this - would it be possible to internally sync the cards so that all the AP cards could be forbidden from broadcasting at the same instant? Perhaps a good old fashined polling scheme would be better, but I was thinking that simply (and I use that term with respect) forbidding multiple AP cards in the same WAR board from transmitting at the same instant might be a 'simple' trick to allow frequency reuse. Maybe it's a whacked ideal altogether, but my thought would be that a WAR4 could then have 4 AP radios, all on the same channel, all with thier own high-gain / low-interference sectors, and with no self-interference.

[lonnie]

Thanks, it is a good idea.

[jeff]

Unfortunately the way it is described will not work. You don't want to not transmit at the same time you always want to transmit at the same time. It is the listening that is the problem. If they never transmit at the same time it is pretty much guaranteed that one of them will transmit while the other is receiving and kill the inbound packet. For frequency re-use you must transmit at the same time and then pause to allow reception while no local radio is transmitting.

[skyclimber]

Also what about WMM (QoS) over that timming ?

[ninedd]

I have no idea. I'm just saying that there are other (Non-WiFi) products out there that eliminate their own self interference by syncronyzing via GPS, and they have great success with that. AFAIK, their ping times average <20ms instead of <2ms, but I don't really know. This is ''dumb guy engineering'', but it just occured to me that possibly latching the RTS/CTS together across a number of radios, or making the drivers single-threaded (or something along those lines) might accomplish much of the same, where the radios took their turns and didn't self interfere. It might be totally off the wall and undoable, but perhaps it's just a simple trick too. :)

[David L. Vrablic]

In order to clean up many V2 to V3 conversions it would be a tremendous help to be able to load V2 configs into a V3 unit.
:) It would make things easier when a V2 fails and you want to replace it with a V3 box.
I back up every config every night but the file is useless when this happens.
We all know how customers have a habit of accumulating special port forwarding and cbp configs that just don't get documented.

Also some AP's have complicated routes etc.

I am just putting out the request. I am sure I am not alone.

[lonnie]

We'll add this to the list. Thanks Dave.

[rafamous]

Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please Please

allow backup in text form.

[David L. Vrablic]

Lonnie has explained this at least a Gazillion times and it just ain't gonna happen. They would have to write a decoder thingy for every type of config script. With all the demands on coding the new good stuff there just isn't any way to make it happen. I am also sure mem space is getting to be at a premium right about now also.
I just want to save you the beating your gonna get if Lonnie answers this request again:)
Get ready to duck!

[rafamous]

I know I know.....

[ninedd]

...there are other (Non-WiFi) products out there that eliminate their own self interference by syncronyzing via GPS, and they have great success with that...Hey - it looks like there are low cost GPS modules available now that could do GPS Syncing like those big boys are doing? http://shop.gateworks.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=44 (maybe??)

[lonnie]

That is a low price? Why are we trying to cut a few $$ here and there to reduce the price when that sort of add-on price is considered low cost?

Do you really know what is happening with GPS sync? Would you be happy with the 3 to 5 mbps it would deliver? Based on the standard we seem to be held to, I think not. Guys are wondering if there is a problem because their tests changed from 12,000 to 8,500 with the new Threshold code. Wait until it changes to 500 kbps.

[ninedd]

Hi. It was just an idea for an extra feature. :) I didn't mean to upset anyone.

As far as your question goes, yes I understand what is going on in GPS Sync, and yes, I do understand that it greatly reduces potential throughput. Canopy only get's about 2.2Mbit in real world cases. However, they can reuse the channels over and over again, so particuarly in 900 Mhz, that's a fine tradeoff for many people.

As far as the price goes, $100 extra on just an AP for this feature - not on each CPE. I think the big guy's are $1000ish for their GPS Sync module, so price is great.

So, not a big deal. I'm not desperate to get this feature or anything - it was just a 'FYI' kinda thing. I just saw this hardware and thought it might open up the idea of being able to add a feature that is a big selling feature of the big guys. :)