Freshtel's WiMAX network, which appeared recently, is already attracting interest from those who want to get high-speed mobile and unlimited Internet. The network operates in the 4 GHz frequency range, which makes reception possible only in direct line of sight or in the presence of a strong reflected signal. As a result, the user has a good connection on the street, but indoors is forced to place his devices as close as possible to the window. Sometimes, even if you're lucky and your windows face the base station, it's not enough to get a reliable connection, that is, to get a high data transfer rate. In this case, the use of directional antennas can significantly improve the situation. We conducted testing, the results of which we present to your attention.
- WiMAX/Wi-Fi router ZTE IX380
- Indoor WiMAX antenna KATHREIN (Germany)
- External directional WiMAX antenna MARS (Israel)
We deliberately do not compare the achieved data transfer speeds, as they strongly depend not only on the received quality of the radio channel, but also on the load of the WiMAX network. But it is safe to say that the better the conditions of radio communication, the higher the speed of data transmission.
Quantitative comparison was carried out according to three parameters:
RSSI is the received signal level
TX power – the required transmitter power of the subscriber terminal
CINR is the ratio of the signal level to the level of noise + interference
| RSSI (more is better) |
TX power (less is better) |
CINR (more is better) |
|
|
Standard antennas of the router are 1.5 m from the window in the room
|
-60 dBm
|
4 dBm
|
29
|
|
Standard router antennas on the window
|
-56 dBm
|
-2 dBm
|
30
|
|
Indoor antenna 7 dBi
|
-49 dBm
|
-12 dBm
|
33
|
|
External antenna 19 dBi with 3 m cable
|
-40 dBm
|
-25 dBm
|
32
|
The use of directional antennas allows you to significantly improve the quality of radio communication. In some cases, communication without directional antennas is not possible at all. A radical improvement is to use an external directional antenna with a high gain, but this requires external mounting and solving the problem of passing the cable through a wall (roof, window frame, etc.). A simple solution is a directional indoor antenna placed near the window (for example, glued to the glass).
