Quote:
Originally Posted by Irwin772
I don't believe that is true, there are many times it is something with the team( not updating firmware and such), but as a scorekeeper I have seen what we called a "Christmas tree", where everyone starts to have issues randomly through matches. This issue was resolved by the next day for that regional, but there are still random issues that persist sometimes.
This is not to say that the system would be unable to handle 6 additional feeds, that is totally doable. Another way of doing this would be to bring back the non-human player of 2008 where they could control their robot through the IR sensor. Would be another way of accomplishing that goal.
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Yeah, the "Christmas Tree" is primarily why FIRST has updated the radio. The old D-Link radios failed to implement proper WiFi protocols, nor could they enforce bandwidth caps. Basically, WiFi protocol says that when packets are being dropped, the rate at which those packets are sent must be reduced, and the rate at which they are backed off must be random. The issue with the D-Link was that the rate at which they backed off was hard-coded as a set number. Therefore when the network got crowded and packets were dropped, all the radios on the field backed off and then tried to re-send packets at the same time. If you can imagine, that is exactly why the rate should be random, and thats why we saw the "Christmas Tree". Among other things, one of the major improvements with our new radio is that it does in fact back off at a random rate, following proper WiFi protocol. That said, the "Christmas Tree" is not impossible with the new radios, but it would be a very surprising. I personally don't know of a single occurrence it last year, and adding six feeds really
shouldn't have much effect on the likely hood of a "Christmas Tree" type of occurrence.
Had we not updated radios, I would totally agree with you. Six additional feeds with the D-Link would absolutely increase the occurrence of the "Christmas Tree" among other things.
If anyone has more questions about what the "Christmas Tree" is(symptoms, causes, fixes) or if you'd like to hear why the recent changes are fixing this issue, feel free to PM me or quote/reply. I'd be happy to answer your questions!