Hi,
I used to (wrongly) believe that Beamforming technology was a clever way to get around the EIRP limits imposed by the regulators, in which a perfectly controlled synchronization of the phases of the radio waves emitted from two antennas results in higher wave amplitudes of the radiated signal in a certain direction.
Now I've come across this webpage https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/EU_Compliance_Information which states that for equipment that employs Beamforming technology an expected gain of 3 dB has to be put into the equation for calculating the EIRP. 3 dB is basically equal to a doubling of the transmit power, therefore I think 3 dB must be the maximum that can be gained from adding up the waves emitted from two antennas.
However, wouldn't that mean if the Beamforming tech of a certain device was working less than optimal (i.e. steering of the "beam" towards the client device not 100% precise), then the signal range should be inferior to that of a Wi-Fi router without Beamforming technology that just radiates the permitted signal level all round equally?
Apparently there are manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers that give the user the option to turn Beamforming on or off, but I have one from TP-Link and they don't seem to offer control over the Beamforming feature on the routers that utilize it. So I am unable test myself if either Beamforming on or off would result in better coverage.
Does anyone here have experience with Beamforming technology in Wi-Fi routers? Does it actually improve Wi-Fi connectivity in general?
My personal experience is that my previous older AC router (also TP-Link) that didn't support things like Beamforming, OFDMA, MU-MIMO used to have better coverage in the 2.4 GHz band (the 5 GHz I've never really investigated) and I am wondering why this might be?
I used to (wrongly) believe that Beamforming technology was a clever way to get around the EIRP limits imposed by the regulators, in which a perfectly controlled synchronization of the phases of the radio waves emitted from two antennas results in higher wave amplitudes of the radiated signal in a certain direction.
Now I've come across this webpage https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/EU_Compliance_Information which states that for equipment that employs Beamforming technology an expected gain of 3 dB has to be put into the equation for calculating the EIRP. 3 dB is basically equal to a doubling of the transmit power, therefore I think 3 dB must be the maximum that can be gained from adding up the waves emitted from two antennas.
However, wouldn't that mean if the Beamforming tech of a certain device was working less than optimal (i.e. steering of the "beam" towards the client device not 100% precise), then the signal range should be inferior to that of a Wi-Fi router without Beamforming technology that just radiates the permitted signal level all round equally?
Apparently there are manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers that give the user the option to turn Beamforming on or off, but I have one from TP-Link and they don't seem to offer control over the Beamforming feature on the routers that utilize it. So I am unable test myself if either Beamforming on or off would result in better coverage.
Does anyone here have experience with Beamforming technology in Wi-Fi routers? Does it actually improve Wi-Fi connectivity in general?
My personal experience is that my previous older AC router (also TP-Link) that didn't support things like Beamforming, OFDMA, MU-MIMO used to have better coverage in the 2.4 GHz band (the 5 GHz I've never really investigated) and I am wondering why this might be?
