Project Overview<\/p>\n
We set out to measure the strength of the wireless Internet signal across campus and create a heat map detailing the relative differences we found.\u00a0 Our hypothesis was that the Internet signal would be relatively uniform across most of campus and in the dorms\/academic buildings, increasing when we got particularly close to an airport.\u00a0 We expected lower readings at the edges of campus and around Sunset Lake, where we already knew that the wireless Internet does not.<\/p>\n
Technology and Procedure<\/p>\n
We used an RF meter to measure electric field strength in mV\/meter.\u00a0 We hoped to single out a wireless Internet signal, but the technology was unable to accomplish this.\u00a0 We walked around campus with the RF meter, measuring electric field strength in various predetermined locations.<\/p>\n
Findings<\/p>\n
Electric field strength outdoors was quite consistent, ranging from 4-7 mV\/meter.\u00a0 There was no noticeable difference in electric field strength between central campus and campus\u2019 outer edges\/Sunset Lake.\u00a0 Inside the buildings electric field strength generally ranged from 100-300 mV\/meter.\u00a0 Of the dorms we found that Jewett had the weakest electric field strength, of around 100 mV\/meter, while Joss had the greatest, of around 350 mV\/meter.\u00a0 We found the greatest electric field strength of all in the fitness room of Walker, it being about 500 mV\/meter. Here is a google map with all of our findings: <http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?ll=41.688617,-73.894944&spn=0.008156,0.01369&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=6&msa=0&msid=216952304120227955446.0004b2fc32482f27e766d<\/a>><\/p>\n Complications with the project<\/p>\n We encountered a few problems throughout our project.\u00a0 First, the RF meter was unable to single out the wireless internet signal, so any other electronics in the area affected our data.\u00a0 Second, the readings we took outside were all very consistent, even when we expected a difference in readings.\u00a0 For example, we know that the internet signal does not reach the area around Sunset Lake, but we got the same reading in that area as we got in the quad (where we know the internet signal does reach).\u00a0 This could be due to other signals (cell phone towers, radio, etc.) giving a consistent signal everywhere outside and drowning out the changes in wireless internet signals.<\/p>\n Conclusions<\/p>\n While we did not get accurate data for the strength of the wireless internet signal, we were able to compare the strength of electric fields in buildings around campus.\u00a0 The highest reading we found was in the Walker fitness center, where it reached 500 mV\/meter.\u00a0 This could be due to all the electric equipment in the gym, such as treadmills and TVs.\u00a0 The lowest readings were found mostly in dorms (Joss, Noyes, Jewett, etc.) and were all around 100-200 mV\/meter.\u00a0 All of these readings should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as they were very dependent on proximity to electric devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Project Overview We set out to measure the strength of the wireless Internet signal across campus and create a heat map detailing the relative differences we found.\u00a0 Our hypothesis was that the Internet signal would be relatively uniform across most of campus and in the dorms\/academic buildings, increasing when we got particularly close to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1765,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}