The wifi router's transmitter power

Speaking of the default value, the number you are likely to see is -70 dBm, the threshold at which the signal strength is still about 60%.

Explaining Wi-Fi signal strength: RSSI and dBm values for the wireless network

You walk around the house and occasionally see the Wi-Fi signal strength bars on your device move up or down. If you've ever wondered what changes when you lose or gain a "bar," this post is for you.

You will learn how dBm is used to indicate power level and to measure the strength of a Wi-Fi signal. Most of the time it is just for your information. There is little you can do with signals other than move your device or broadcast Wi-Fi network.

However, in some cases, knowing how to tune satellites based on dBm in a mesh system can help optimize signal transmission. All of this can be a bit confusing until you are done with this post.

dBm – Wi-Fi signal strength as a function of power

In Wi-Fi networks, dBm is used to refer to two things: The power level of the broadcaster и signal strength at the receiving end..

But, what is dBm? This is where things get interesting (or boring, depending on how deep you want to go into the subject) – first we need to understand what dB is

A little warning.: the next part may be a bit technical.

What is dB

dB is short for decibelwhich is one tenth white (V) and is the unit of measurement commonly used to estimate

  • Loudness of sound. Shows the ratio between the current sound and the lowest sound level perceivable by the human ear, which is 0 dB. As for loudness, 60-70 dB is normal conversation, and 125 dB is when you start to feel pain in your ears.
  • The difference (or ratio) between the two levels of electrical power.
  • The increase or decrease in signal power.

dB is useful because it allows you to calculate signal (power) gain and loss, which can include large scales, by adding or subtracting whole numbers instead of decimals or a complicated formula for recording.

dB – is also a form of scientific notation of power and signal levels of electronic devices. It allows very large numbers to be transmitted in a few characters.

Example of a logarithmic scale

Generally, 1,000,000 can be converted to 60 dB, and similarly 0.000001 equals -60 dB. This is because in logarithmic terms, 6 is the logarithm 1,000,000, which can be written as 10 6 .

What is most important to remember about dB is that it is not linear, but logarithmic. A higher value in dB always means "more," but that value does not grow evenly. In other words, "gain" from 1 dB to 2 dB is different than growing from 5 dB to 6 dB.

Receiver Sensitivity

The receiver sensitivity shows how accurate the receiver is in picking up low, high amplitude signals. The ability to decipher data depends on it.

Important! The characteristic Rx Power demonstrates not the signal amplitude, but the distance from the receiver. There are many factors that affect wave attenuation.

 Receiver sensitivity

MCS

Modulation and Coding Scheme stands for "Modulation and Coding Scheme". Many people have heard of the IEEE 802.11n WiFi standard, but are not familiar with MCS technology. Modulation is responsible for the carrier signal. It is what allows information to be transmitted.

The router emits high-frequency vibrations. Each model has an individual signal spectrum. The function can be configured to receive, transmit data. The frequencies must not interfere with each other. The change in the signal is called a harmonic. It can be straight or wavy. To calculate it, the initial MCS value and the offset are taken into account.

Modulation can be analog, digital, or pulse. It is easy to represent the digital type graph as the relationship of linear and nonlinear frequencies.

 Signal modulation

Explaining Wi-Fi signal strength: RSSI and dBm values for a wireless network

You walk around the house and occasionally see the Wi-Fi signal strength bars on your device move up or down. If you've ever wondered what changes when you lose or gain a "bar," this post is for you.

You will learn how dBm is used to indicate power level and to measure the strength of a Wi-Fi signal. Most of the time it's just for your information. There is little you can do about signals other than move your device or broadcast Wi-Fi network.

However, in some cases, knowing how to tune satellites based on dBm in a mesh system can help with signal optimization. All of this can be a bit confusing until you're done with this post.

dBm – Wi-Fi signal strength as a function of power

In Wi-Fi networks, dBm is used to refer to two things: The power level of the broadcaster и signal strength at the receiving end..

But, what is dBm? This is where things get interesting (or boring, depending on how deep you want to go into the subject) – first we need to understand what dB is

A little warning.: the next part may be a bit technical.

What is dB

dB is short for decibelwhich is one tenth white (V) and is the unit of measurement commonly used to estimate

  • Loudness of sound. Shows the ratio between the current sound and the lowest sound level perceivable by the human ear, which is 0 dB. As for loudness, 60-70 dB is normal conversation, and 125 dB is when you start to feel pain in your ears.
  • The difference (or ratio) between the two levels of electrical power.
  • The increase or decrease in signal power.

Methods of increasing transmitter power

System of accepted notation

In general, as you know, the unit of power is one watt, and power should be referred to as watts. In radio engineering, it is common to use another scale, in what is called "dBm" (decibels per milliwatt).
Zero dBm is one milliwatt. Three dBm is 2 mW. And so on. You can remember the reference values: 20 dBm equals 100 mW (or, 0.1 W) and 23 dBm is 0.2 watts.
The manufacturer quotes the power value of the transmitters exactly in "dBm" (which can easily be converted to watts if required).

Increasing the power of Wi-Fi transmitters

First, you need to know how to increase the power of the router "programmatically". In the settings, it is usually not set to its maximum value.

You need to set the maximum power

  1. You need to set the maximum value of power in the router
  2. Then, you must try to "programmatically" increase the power in subscribers' devices
  3. If these measures will not be enough, instead of an external passive antenna connect Wi-Fi booster with an external antenna (or, active antenna)

Amplifier or active antenna – you can connect to the router, and to subscriber devices. This "equipment" looks something like this:

Antenna appearance

The output power of amplifiers is usually units of watts (2 watts or 4 watts). As we have already said, the use of such solutions – violates the requirements of the law.
Additionally, note the following. The use of transmitters with more than 20 dBm (or more than 24 dBm for the base unit) is against health regulations. In other words, it is not healthy.

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