Wireless Coverage Area Clarification

[jbird023]

Hey all, I am just looking to have two things clarified.
When you buy a Wireless router or AP what does Coverage Area exactly mean? I believe is refering to all distance covered within a sphere shape.
I am looking to cover a 200 ft distance in length.
So if the U7 Pro Outdoor says it covers (5,000 ft²) how would I go about telling how far it covers?

Thank you

[Eigenvektor]

41 minutes ago, jbird023 said:

how would I go about telling how far it covers?

By using basic math  ft² is an area, not a volume. Volume would be ft³. So this should be a circular area, not a spherical volume.

 

The area of a circle is A = Pi × radius². Since you have the area, reverse it: radius = sqrt(A / Pi). That's sqrt(5000 ft² / Pi) = 39.89 ft. That's the radius around the router, so total distance you have from edge to edge of coverage should be roughly twice that.

 

~edit: if 200 ft is the diameter you want to cover, you'd need something that does (100 ft)² × Pi = 31,415 ft². You're generally better of buying multiple units to do a mesh network instead.

[jbird023]

28 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

By using basic math  ft² is an area, not a volume. Volume would be ft³. So this should be a circular area, not a spherical volume.

 

The area of a circle is A = Pi × radius². Since you have the area, reverse it: radius = sqrt(A / Pi). That's sqrt(5000 ft² / Pi) = 39.89 ft. That's the radius around the router, so total distance you have from edge to edge of coverage should be roughly twice that.

Thank you, So about 80ft then just to confirm I understood you correctly.

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, jbird023 said:

Thank you, So about 80ft then just to confirm I understood you correctly.

~80 ft going from one edge of the circle to the other. So the router would have to sit in the center of whatever area you want to cover.

 

As I just added in my edit, you should look into mesh networks to cover a large area. That's basically multiple routers spread around, working together to cover all of it.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, jbird023 said:

Hey all, I am just looking to have two things clarified.
When you buy a Wireless router or AP what does Coverage Area exactly mean? I believe is refering to all distance covered within a sphere shape.
I am looking to cover a 200 ft distance in length.
So if the U7 Pro Outdoor says it covers (5,000 ft²) how would I go about telling how far it covers?

Thank you

One thing to note is that wifi doesn't propogate in a sphere. It is more of a donut shape.

 

https://www.cannondigi.com/wifi-antenna-beam-pattern/

 

This shows some good representations of it.

[jbird023]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

~80 ft going from one edge of the circle to the other. So the router would have to sit in the center of whatever area you want to cover.

 

As I just added in my edit, you should look into mesh networks to cover a large area. That's basically multiple routers spread around, working together to cover all of it.

Thank you. There is just a shed that is out 200 feet and we are looking to attach it wirelessly if possible without running a cable in the ground. Looking for solutions. Might just have to end up running that Cat 6A cable anyway.

[Blue4130]

15 minutes ago, jbird023 said:

Thank you. There is just a shed that is out 200 feet and we are looking to attach it wirelessly if possible without running a cable in the ground. Looking for solutions. Might just have to end up running that Cat 6A cable anyway.

This is where directional point to point wireless is amazing.

 

Not endorsing this one, but it gives you a starting point.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-EAP215-Bridge-KIT-Wireless-Integrated/dp/B0CX7X1WT2

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, jbird023 said:

Thank you. There is just a shed that is out 200 feet and we are looking to attach it wirelessly if possible without running a cable in the ground. Looking for solutions. Might just have to end up running that Cat 6A cable anyway.

If you only need to cover distance, rather than area, look into directional antennas, as suggested above.

 

This way you could do point to point between house and shed, the shed could then have an access point to cover some area around itself.