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Unread 16-06-2008, 02:14
Nibbles Nibbles is offline
Interstellar Hitchhiker
AKA: Austin Wright
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Re: Wireless Networks at Competitions

Quote:
Originally Posted by EHaskins View Post
...
As I said before, if the new system can not handle other devices operating in the same band, then, no matter what rules they put in place, the system should not be used. Especially when the band they're using is so heavily occupied.
...
It seems like if it uses electricity, it interferes with the 2.4Ghz range (Alright, maybe not that bad).
You are exactly right, if it is any critical reason, they should be using something else.

This makes me wonder how robots will be controlled in the pits, obviously not with WiFi. The upshot of using IP is that the transport layer is irrelevant, be it Ethernet or WiFi (which borrows quite a bit from Ethernet, such as MAC addresses), IP doesn't care. How you connect to the robot will be interesting, there are two Ethernet ports on the robot controller, one it is very strongly hinted will be used for an Ethernet camera. The other then has to do to the communication mechanism, so maybe the Wi-Fi node or access point has a hub or switch inside it. I'll ponder this a little more.

Couldn't they just enclose all the robots in a Faraday cage and not worry? Actually, covering the field would be impractical, but surrounding the team pits, with two equal size foil walls on each side, connected together, that would work (kinda)... Then again, scouting isn't restricted to the pits, all of the scouting I directed was in the stands, except a total of one minute at the scores and results display. Luckily you don't need Wi-Fi for the stands, you are staying in one place. Or at least I didn't.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NickE View Post
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Also, there are very few wireless networks that use 802.11a. Therefore, FIRST would have practically no work to do when it comes to wireless network policing, as just about all teams with networks of their own would be using b or g on the 2.4ghz band.
N also supports 5Ghz according to the standard, but idk if it requires special configuration, or if devices even support the channel, some types of antennas have to be built differently for different frequencies.
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