The majority of people in the world with access to the Internet use either mobile data, or a Wi-Fi connection. Even though a hard-wired connection will increase speeds significantly, things have been evolving in the right direction. Most wireless connections are well capable of doing the tasks we need. But what if we could speed up wifi by as much as 1,000%?
Improving Wi-fi Speeds Is Always A Good Thing
Finding a wireless network in the Western world is not even a challenge anymore, albeit most of them are password-protected. But even when one can connect said network, the download and upload speeds are not always the greatest This applies in particular when staying a hotel or public venue.
Researchers at the MIT Computer Science and AI Laboratory have come up with a solution. Or at last, they think they do, as it is still a bit early to tell for sure. But their new research paper is showing signs of promise and potential for better Wi-Fi speeds; that much is certain.
Granted, this concept would still require the venue to have multiple routers or access points installed to provide proper internet coverage. However, there is a way to manage networks a lot better, which also improves router collaboration. Through specially developed algorithms, various routers can send information on the same wireless spectrum.
Right now, using this strategy without these algorithms causes network interference and loss of connectivity. Even in one’s own home, too many channels on the same wireless band nearby will cause issues. The paper by MIT shows this can be achieved without causing interference and even achieve much faster data transfer rates.
Depending on how a local router setup looks, achieving speeds that are ten times faster than now is not impossible. However, this concept will need to be thoroughly tested in larger venues where tons of users try to connect to these networks at the same time. A new startup, called MegaMIMO, has been created by the MIT team to commercialise this technology.
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