WIFI in traffic tunnel

tiny · #1 (**permalink**) 01-08-2007, 10:14 AM

Hi!

I'm trying to cover a traffic tunnel with WIFI signal. Let me try to sketch
a physical setup.

Code:

                     ------------------------------------------------------------------
                       AP1            AP2          AP3           AP4                 tube1

                 -------------------------------------------------------------------
               -------------------------------------------------------------------

              AP5             AP6            AP7              AP8                 tube2
          ----------------------------------------------------------------------


AP0

                     Tunnel length approx 800 meters and it's curvy like ~

APs are linksys WAP54G ver 3.1 and they all operate in bridge mode.
Behind APs in tunnel are custom embedded computers.
AP0 is outside of a tunnel and it serves as a connection to wired world.

I've already tested the setup with 3 APs. AP0-AP1-AP2 setup and AP0-AP5-AP6.
AP1 was setup so it can only connect to neighboring APs (AP0, AP2).
I will also use the same method when connecting other APs. Sort of stitching.
AP6 will only "see" AP5 and AP7 and so on. I wasnt expecting much since
AP0 is almost paralel to the tunnel entrance but suprisingly I've managed
to get the traffic going. AP1 served as a ftp server and both AP0 and AP1 transfered
data at around 500KB/s. Some pings were lost doe to traffic interference.

Now ... what I'm interested in is what kind of problems if any I can expect
when connecting the rest of APs. I'm also thinkinh of puting directional
antenna to AP0 and better omnis to APs in the tunnel. This way I'm hoping to
improve on S/N ratio.

What do you think?