Spectrum Crunch! We can literaly run out of wi-fi room!?

Technology and Gaming
#1

I suppose this would go in the Technology and Gaming section.

https://extra-credits.net/episodes/spectrum-crunch/

Watch that video. As it turns out, we can literaly run out of room on the wavelengths that we are playing online games, having phone calls, watching TV, doing every wireless thing you do on your smartphone, etc. (Note that short-range stuf is not affected much.)

This crisis is going to hit in between 2013 and 2015.

Just watch the video as it would do a much better job explaining this problem than I can. (It actualy will be kinda obvious if you did not watch the video and don’t truly know the problem.)

EDIT: This link has a solution, but I don’t have time to read it as how late it is: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/120803-vortex-radio-waves-could-boost-wireless-capacity-infinitely

#2

I don’t know that much about the problem but it sounds like a lot of bullshit to me.

It’s not like every new wireless device needs a new unused wavelength to function with.
The spectrum is not used up like IP addresses. Wireless technologies utilize certain certified wavelengths and that’s it. If you want to access to the data in the air you simply set your frequency to the same and it works.

The only problem I see is in the number of wireless transmission areas. LTE, 3G, radio etc. all use slightly different frequencies on every transmitter so they don’t cause interference and cancel themself out in some area. If you were have to have a dense area with a lot of transmitters the amount of spectrum would maybe not be enough to avoid interference.

I am still not so sure about it but the video just sounds and represents so badly I can’t believe it.

#3

theoretically, we could, but we’re still allowing people to use shitty cordless hard line phones and badly shielded microwave ovens that are jamming 2.4ghz and we are broadcasting 720p and 480p tv channels over the air 24/7, along with every cell phone user out there, that could theoretically backfire if every 4g lte subscriber suddenly decides to download a huge file, everyone is gonna be downloading at dial up speeds for a while until 5g comes along and signals are compressed even further.

Oh and if you say “you can’t optimize forever” remember that a few years ago there was no way processors could be made on a 22nm scale, and today they are in mass production.

#4

There is a way to send wireless data from a light bulb.

#5

Both the problem and the technology to fix it is real. Just like we ran out of IPv4 adress space we can run out of bandwidth on wireless signals. We continually want to become faster (either through increased bandwidth or more complex modulation) and more company’s develop new things that need bandwidth so it’s happening and it’s happening fast.
As for the technology: the article actually explains it very well how this is possible. I just hope the technology doesn’t take 20 years to become available to the public :stuck_out_tongue:

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