Wi-fi Over Coax
Wi-Fi Over Coax
Linear Wi-Fi: A Comprehensive Solution for Complex Environments
Vernetzen’s Linear Wi-Fi solution, utilising Wi-Fi Over Coax (WoC) technology, is designed to address the unique challenges of industrial environments such as underground mines, tunnels, warehouses, and even aircraft.
Traditional Wi-Fi access points with standard antennas struggle to maintain reliable and seamless connectivity in these environments due to their inherent limitations in signal propagation, interference, and handoff management.
Vernetzen’s WoC system, based on leaky feeder coaxial cables, offers an advanced, highly adaptable solution that meets stringent network requirements for coverage, performance, and reliability where traditional wireless solutions fall short.
Challenges
The challenge with conventional Wi-Fi solutions
In environments with complex layouts, significant physical obstructions, and varying elevations—such as tunnels or large industrial facilities—traditional Wi-Fi systems based on access points with dipole or directional antennas encounter several significant limitations:
Limited Range and Coverage Gaps
Traditional access points use signals that weaken quickly in tunnels, warehouses with heavy equipment, or areas with sharp turns and obstacles. Dipole antennas often struggle in these conditions, leading to gaps in coverage.
Handovers and Dropouts
Keeping a stable Wi-Fi connection in moving applications, like vehicles or people using Wi-Fi devices, can be challenging. Traditional Wi-Fi networks often disconnect when switching between APs, leading to delays and inefficiencies.
Infrastructure Complexity
Traditional Wi-Fi networks need many access points to cover large, complex spaces, making setup and maintenance costly and complicated. Even with this, coverage might still be unreliable.
Benefits
The Benefits of Vernetzen’s Wi-Fi Over Coax (WoC)
Wi-Fi Over Coax (WoC), combined with leaky feeder coaxial cables, offers a superior alternative that directly addresses these challenges. The Vernetzen WoC system enables reliable Wi-Fi coverage over long distances, even in harsh and complex environments, without requiring the excessive infrastructure or handover mechanisms of traditional systems.
Extended Coverage with Minimal Infrastructure
By using leaky feeder cables as distributed antennas, the Vernetzen WoC system can cover significantly larger areas with fewer access points. This reduces the overall infrastructure required, lowering both capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX).
Seamless Handover Performance
Unlike traditional systems that require frequent handovers between distinct access points, the WoC solution provides continuous coverage along the length of the leaky feeder cable. This minimises the risk of signal dropouts and ensures smooth transitions as users move through the network—particularly important for moving vehicles or remote-controlled equipment in tunnels or industrial settings.
Optimised for 2.4 GHz Applications
Vernetzen’s leaky feeder cables are optimised for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, a frequency band known for better signal penetration through walls and other obstructions compared to higher frequency bands like 5 GHz. This ensures more reliable connections, especially in dense environments like underground mines or large warehouses.
Reduced Interference and Higher Reliability
Leaky feeder cables allow for better control of the radiation pattern, reducing the risk of interference and ensuring that the Wi-Fi signals are concentrated where they are needed. This is especially valuable in electromagnetically noisy environments like mines or factories, where traditional antennas struggle to maintain stable connections due to signal reflections and interference.
Simplified Network Design and Maintenance for Underground Mines
The Veto Planning Tool provided by Vernetzen helps engineers plan the layout of the WoC and leaky feeder cables with precision, ensuring optimal coverage while minimising guesswork. With fewer access points and cables to install and maintain, the overall system becomes easier to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot.
Applications
Applications Across Different Environments
Underground Mines and Tunnels
In underground mining, the Vernetzen WoC system is essential for delivering reliable, blanket Wi-Fi coverage across long, complex networks of tunnels. Mines, which frequently involve deep shafts, changing elevations, and sharp turns, pose severe challenges for conventional Wi-Fi systems. Leaky feeder cables can be run along tunnel walls, radiating consistent coverage even around sharp bends or elevation changes.
The result is seamless handovers as vehicles or personnel move through different zones, ensuring continuous communication for critical systems such as teleremoting, real-time data transfer, and autonomous vehicle control.
Warehouses and Industrial Facilities
For large industrial facilities and warehouses where Wi-Fi coverage is needed across vast areas with heavy obstructions like machinery or racking systems, leaky feeder cables provide reliable coverage without the need for multiple access points.
The distributed antenna system reduces the complexity of the network, providing a cost-effective solution with fewer devices to manage. This is particularly useful in applications where seamless, uninterrupted connectivity is required for operations such as inventory management, robotic automation, and real-time tracking systems.
Airplanes and Shipping
In confined spaces like the cabins of aircraft, or hallways on ships where traditional access points may struggle to provide uniform coverage, leaky feeder cables can be installed along the cabin structure to provide consistent Wi-Fi coverage throughout.
This solution provides linear coverage, which is essential to ensure uninterrupted connectivity along the entire length of a vehicle.
Download the Vernetzen WoC System Performance Tables
The Vernetzen WoC solution supports both Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) clients. Below you can download the performance metrics of the Vernetzen WoC1000 and WoC2002 using both 1/2″ and 7/8″ leaky feeder cables across these standards.
These tests were conducted in real-world conditions to measure throughput and coverage across different tunnel environments.
Network Topologies
Understanding Network Topologies: SI-SO vs MI-MO
SI-SO (Single Input-Single Output) Topology
In the SI-SO topology, two leaky feeder cables are run in opposite directions along the tunnel walls. This approach is common in simpler network designs where cost and ease of installation are priorities. The SI-SO configuration is most appropriate in scenarios where high throughput is not critical or where limited infrastructure is desired.
Benefits
- Lower Infrastructure Costs: Since only a single cable is required, installation is more straightforward and less expensive than MI-MO setups.
- Simplified Deployment: Easier to install and maintain with fewer components.
- Effective for Lower Bandwidth Applications: Works well in environments where the primary focus is on low-latency communication rather than high data throughput.
MI-MO (Multiple Input-Multiple Output) Topology
Benefits
- Higher Data Throughput: MI-MO can support Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 features like MU-MIMO, which increases the overall network capacity and ensures better performance for bandwidth-intensive applications such as CCTV, autonomous vehicle control, and teleremoting.
- Greater Resiliency: The use of multiple signal paths makes the system more resilient to interference and multipath fading, providing more reliable connectivity in harsh or cluttered environments.
- Ideal for High-Performance Applications: MI-MO configurations are optimised for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications, making them ideal for environments where continuous data flow is critical.
Contact Us
Stay connected like never before
Contact us today at 1300 781 218 to discover how using our Wi-Fi Over Coax (WoC) technology can help you address connection challenges in your industrial environment.