Introduction
Wireless networks have gained a lot of popularity in the world. With the development of many devices that make use of the wireless network, it is becoming evident that there are many organisaitons which have adopted the use of wireless networks and platforms in order to have effective communication media in their company infrastructure. This paper will focus on the use of antennas for wireless networks for companies and the way in which these wireless media have been used effectively in the companies to have effective communication.
An omnidirectional antenna is an antenna, either transmitting or receiving, which intercepts electromagnetic fields of radio frequency (RF) in equal horizontal measure on a two-dimensional geometric plane. It is a type of antenna which is commonly used in most wireless devices. The wireless devices include cellular telephones, and routers which are used for wireless connectivity (Zhou et al., 92).
In theory, it has been found out that conductors which are oriented in a vertical manner, like the dipole antenna which have a measure of less than ½ wavelength from one end to another always have properties of omnidirectional antenna when they are put in horizontal planes. There is an exhibition of omnidirectional properties also for vertical dipoles which are multiple collinear (that are in-inline) when they are put in the azimuth (horizontal) plane. The latter are known to offer better performance when compared to single dipoles in some applications that may require complicated functionalities. On the other hand, if the axis of the conductor has not been placed to have vertical orientation, then there will be receiving and radiation of the antenna equally in all directions on the plane on which the conductor passes at the right angle. However, this scenario will only be possible in cases where there are no obstacles that will hinder the transmission process. The path should be clear. In short, there should be no other objects that are seen to be conducting. Some of the environments that will distort the transmission include a user who has a mobile phone or a computer which has been placed next to a wireless router. The reception pattern will be disrupted in the entire process.
In normal circumstances, it is not possible to have an antenna performing well in all directions in a 3-D plane. The performance will not be effective in all the directions. The devices which has these features does not exist in the real world but only exists in theory alone. They are referred to as isotropic antenna. They are also sometimes referred to as isotropic radiator.
Semi-directional antenna
They are different from Omni-directional antennas because they direct the signals to one direction. They are popularly used in short- to medium-distance communication. The long-distance communications are normally used for highly directional antennas. There are three types of semi-directional antennas which include Patch, Panel, and Yagi. Patch and panel antennas are better referred to as planar antennas. Patch is one of the ways in which the design of the radiating elements inside the panel. In such a way that they will be optimized in the end. It has been common trend to have the panel and patch used interchangeably in the world. They are different aspects of the antennas and there are different ways in which the panels have been designed.
The semi-directional antenna can be used to have point-to-point communication that have a distance of about a mile. They are preferably used in communications where the structure and the setup is point-to-multipoint. It is a common practice to have patch and panel antennas to be connected to access points so that they are able to provide coverage for a building. Planar panels are known to be effective in libraries, warehouses, and retail stores which have long aisles of shelves. It is because of the long shelves that the use of omnidirectional antennas is not effective and is not preferred in such kinds of structures and media. It is because of the long shelves that they will not be able to provide RF frequency that will cover the long shelves. The frequency has to be directed to specific locations. The planar antennas can be located on top of the wall and directed at the rows of the shelves so that they are able to give the coverage that is desired in the shelves and in the building that is targeted.
The antennas can be alternated in between the rows so that they are able to provide the needed frequency in the entire building. The antennas can be placed at the alternate ends of the rows for maximum connections in the building. The horizontal beam width of the antennas can be placed at 180 degrees. With this setup, there will be a minimum amount of radiation that will be directed to the outside world and the utilization of the radiation will be maximized. With the placement of the antennas at alternate pattern from the opposite directions, it will be possible to have the radiation of the RF down the rows and will make the radio frequency to be felt at all the directions in the building. Planar antennas can also be placed in a hallway so that it will be possible to provide coverage down a corridor. One single planar antenna can be able to provide coverage for buildings above a corridor or for longer distances in a corridor.
The intensity of the transmission will depend on three things. These are the power of the transmitter, the beam width and the gain for both horizontal and vertical of the antenna, and the building attenuation features and characteristics. There are some advantages that will be obtained if semi directional antennas are used inside a building (Zhao et al., 83). One popular advantage is that there will be the minimization of the corruption of data that will be achieved. It is because of the fact that there will be minimal reflections of the radio frequencies within the building. There will be minimal multipath directions and those will lead to minimal corruption of the data within the building.
Highly directional antenna
The highly directional antennas are limited to be used in point-to-point communication where there is connection between two buildings in a network. There is a need to have a way in which the connections and connectivity is achieved in the entire network of the interconnectivity. The connection and the beam is highly focused than any antenna present. There are two types of highly directional antennas (Clerckx, and Oestges 83). These are the parabolic dish and grid antennas. The parabolic antenna have the same appearance to the small digital TV satellite dishes which is commonly seen on the roofs of many houses.
With the directional antennas the energy of the RF signals can be diverted to a given direction. With this diversion, it is possible to have maximum energy of the antennas and therefore, be able to have maximum distances that can be traversed by the antennas. It is possible to have longer distances that a signal can be transmitted. As the distance increases, the strength of the signal will decrease.
One of the common disadvantages of the highly directional antennas is that there is high likelihood of having interference in the network. It is possible to have obstacles which will interfere with the transmission and makes the signal to be weak in the end. Microwave ovens, cordless phones, and signals from radars are the possible obstacles which will likely to cause the antenna to lose the strength of their signals (Han et al., 281). It is important to have the strengths of the signals to be guarded as much as possible in order to have the transmission process achieved. There will be interference if there are devices which makes use of the same signals like Bluetooth.
With the use of the parabolic antennas the discs are able to direct all the energy on one direction which makes them high in energy. They have high degrees of directivity. They have very narrow beam width which makes them transmit radio frequencies which can go to one direction.
The building that be used in this case study is that of the Aruba Networks Organisaitons which is found in the UAE.
Aruba Company overview
Aruba network is a multinational networking vendor providing high speed mobility of the wireless LAN and Edge Networks within UAE. The company embraces the portfolio accessibility management through enhancing networking infrastructure as well as mobility access that enhance all vertical and horizontal market segment. Aruba Networks heightens on offering wireless access as well as the network controllers which conceptualize on the simplification of integration within UAE ICT market structure. The Aruba network enhance mobility access switches enabling the secure based system and high performance for the UAE entities. Aruba Network unifies access approach to the UAE IT system to promote secure address and BYOD measures which enhances productivity as well as reducing operating cost.
In the case study that has been chosen, the two buildings will be connected together using PtP case study as it will make it simple to have a way in which the building will have a coverage that will be useful in the entire management of the case. It will save money because there will be no need to have connectivity of the two buildings using fiber optic for the two buildings and it will be possible to have a case where the two will be useful and successful in the entire working.
The motivation for the connectivity will be that the two buildings will have to be connected together for LAN features and connectivity within the shortest time as much as possible. The network that will be connected will be rated as production-grade and should have the ability to handle minimum transfer of data as much as possible. The speeds that are desired will be a minimum of 100Mbps. This is the equivalent speeds of Fast Ethernet. The use of the network will be for backhaul and the clients will not necessary have access to the network. There is a clear Line of Sight that is available for the two buildings which will make it possible to have the connectivity of the buildings and have a way in which the buildings will have PtP connectivity. The connectivity is desired because of the second building is new and has a laboratory which have to be connected for easy assessment and data management between the two buildings.
Source (Kang, Wu, and Tarng 87)
One rationale for the choice of the point to Point is that there are only two buildings that need to be connected. Also, it is because of the use of highly directional antennas that has made it possible to have the PtP because they are optimized to have the connectivity. Also, the reasoning is that if there will be the need to have another point of connection in the near future when there is another building in the company, this will be achieved by having a point-to-multiple points connectivity where the new building will have a semi-directional antenna which will be used to be the main connecting components in the company. The choice that has been chosen will make it possible to have better and enhanced connectivity in the two buildings. The strengths of the connections will be achieved and will be enhanced with the two buildings.
Works Cited
Clerckx, Bruno, and Claude Oestges. MIMO wireless networks: Channels, techniques and standards for multi-antenna, multi-user and multi-cell systems. Academic Press, 2013.
Han, Congzheng, Tim Harrold, Simon Armour, Ioannis Krikidis, Stefan Videv, Peter M. Grant, Harald Haas. "Green radio: radio techniques to enable energy-efficient wireless networks." Communications Magazine, IEEE 49.6 (2011): 46-54.
Kang, Cheng-Hung, Sung-Jung Wu, and Jenn-Hwan Tarng. "A novel folded UWB antenna for wireless body area network." Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on 60.2 (2012): 1139-1142.
Zhao, Nan, F. Richard Yu, Hongjian Sun, Arumugam Nallanathan, and Hongxi Yin. "A novel interference alignment scheme based on sequential antenna switching in wireless networks." Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on 12.10 (2013): 5008-5021.
Zhou, Xiangyun, Radha Krishna Ganti, and Jeffrey G. Andrews. "Secure wireless network connectivity with multi-antenna transmission." Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on 10.2 (2011): 425-430.
