Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the next step would to build higher powered repeaters that can be placed on top of tall buildings. Nice sentiment, but technically counterproductive for mesh networks. Wide coverage nodes create/suffer the “hidden transmitter problem”. Mesh performance degrades overall. Smaller footprint repeaters, and more of them, are a better solution.
> > the next step would to build higher powered repeaters that can be placed on top of tall buildings. > Nice sentiment, but technically counterproductive for mesh networks. Wide coverage nodes create/suffer the “hidden transmitter problem”. Mesh performance degrades overall. Smaller footprint repeaters, and more of them, are a better solution. Could you go into more detail on this/share any readings? As a ham radio…
Basically, you probably already know this, but for others reading along: The RF networking channel differs from a wired net in that not all stations can hear each other. So for stations of relatively equal performance, the stations on the edges do not hear each other and must relay through a station in the middle. It follows that those stations perceive channel busy/clear differently.
With a high level station, first off it hears many more stations so can not transmit into a clear channel as often. Then, when it does transmit, it has a large footprint and prevents channel re-use by several lower-level stations that would otherwise have different locally-clear channels.