Large area wi-fi demonstrated in Sydney

The Connectivity Innovation Network (CIN) has given its large-area wi-fi development work a public showcase at Fire and Rescue NSW.

LAWiFi antenna
NSW Telco Authority

The late-August presentation demonstrated the CIN’s rapidly deployable large-area wi-fi (LAWiFi) system, developed by researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, with support from Pivotel, NBN Co, Real Time Access Communications, and the NSW Telco Authority.

The project was announced in November 2022, sharing $500,000 funding from the NSW government with a data research project.

Ultimately, LAWiFi’s aim is to support 100 users in a 2km x 2km area.

To achieve this, LAWiFi has to overcome timing limitations in the wi-fi protocol that limit its reach (around 25m for 802.11ac signals in the 2.4GHz frequency bands).

The August 31 demonstration showed that at the halfway mark, the project team achieved 10Mbps in a 300 x 300m range, according to a LinkedIn post from the NSW Telco Authority.

The LAWiFi protocol stack has also been tested at up to 1km x 1km areas, the CIN said in a statement.

The research also developed “high-gain antennas with a narrow vertical beam and a wide horizontal beam, distinctly different from those currently on the market”, the group said.

The LAWiFi demonstration used satellite backhaul from Pivotel, designed to be compatible with NBN and OneWeb satellite services.

The CIN cites agriculture, remote education, mining and emergency services as some of the target markets for the technology.

It is working with the NSW Telco Authority to demonstrate both emergency services and regional community communications, to help provide quick communications, coordination and access to critical resources in natural disasters.

“We look forward to continuing to explore the potential of this technology to be used for a diverse range of applications, such as when critical telecommunications infrastructure is damaged during natural disasters," the authority said in its LinkedIn post.

Later this year, the CIN expects to present the system’s full capabilities.