Future Wi-Fi routers will ‘steer’ signals to penetrate the furthest reaches of your home

Once you have a good idea of where Wi-Fi signals begin to fall off in your home, the next logical task is dealing with it. Wi-Fi range extenders and repeaters are the obvious choice but wouldn’t it be great if your router could somehow manage to penetrate even the furthest reaches of your home without assistance?

If smart antenna maker Ethertronics has anything to say about it, you’ll be able to do just that in the not-too-distant future.

The company recently unveiled a new chip that’ll bring its active antenna technology to routers. Specifically, it uses a new steering algorithm that creates multiple radiation patterns around router antennas to determine which is ideal for a given situation.

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Testing has shown a 20 percent to 45 percent increase in throughput using the algorithm according to Ethertronics chief scientist Jeff Shamblin.

Ethertronics originally developed the technology for mobile devices that are constantly in motion while connected to a network. In routers, it’ll instead be used to navigate walls, hallways and ceilings in search of the best route to a Wi-Fi device.

You may not be familiar with the Ethertronics name but you’ve probably used their products. Their antenna technology can be found in more than a billion mobile devices although the steering algorithm hasn’t yet made it to consumer products (it’s still in trials with wireless carriers).

Between this technology and Eero (or best yet, a combination of the two), squashing those pesky in-home Wi-Fi dead spots could soon be a thing of the past.

By: Shawn Knight