How Active Antennas Improve Wifi Performance; Position The Active Antennas - NETGEAR D8500 User Manual

How Active Antennas Improve WiFi Performance

The growing number of WiFi devices in the home combined with the increasing demand for high-speed
WiFi connectivity places extraordinary demands on the WiFi infrastructure.To meet this demand, many
WiFi routers now use external antennas and high-power amplifiers to maximize signal power and extend
WiFi coverage throughout your home.
Increased signal power on the modem router is important, but effective WiFi connectivity requires two-way
communication between the modem router and clients such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.The client
must acknowledge every WiFi data packet sent by the modem router. Otherwise, the modem router resends
the data packet. A strong signal from the modem router without a corresponding boost in signal from the
client to the modem router does not provide you with the full benefit.
Mobile devices continue to get smaller, while adding more features and reducing power consumption to
extend battery life. Since mobile device WiFi signal power and performance are not improving, modem
router technology is evolving to find ways to compensate and improve the client-to-modem router WiFi
signal. One passive approach to addressing this problem is to add low noise amplifiers (LNA) on the modem
router to amplify the received signal.The modem router's external antennas transmit the received WiFi
signal to the modem router.The issues with this approach are twofold.Transmitting the signal from the
external antenna to the modem router reduces the signal strength and quality. In addition, the modem
router injects noise from other components.The received signal deteriorates and noise is injected, which
reduces the efficacy of the received transmission.
Active antennas solve these problems. Active antennas move the powered amplification component (the
LNA) to the antenna itself instead of using the modem router.This eliminates signal loss during transmission
since the active antenna directly amplifies the received signal. In addition, since no noise from the modem
router components is present in the antenna, the amplified signal is cleaner.
The modem router receives a much cleaner and less noisy signal for amplification, significantly improving
the received signal and providing a clean, powerful signal that extends WiFi coverage and performance.
Active antennas help reduce the mismatch between the sent and the received signals by compensating for
the relatively poor WiFi on the client side.This WiFi improvement is seen across all devices–new and old–
but helps mobile devices the most.

Position the Active Antennas

The modem router's four active antennas include a built-in receiver low noise amplifier (LNA), for high-
speed WiFi connections and excellent range. Both the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz low band (WiFi Channels
36–48 and 52–64) use the active antennas.The 5 GHz high band (WiFi Channels 100–140 and 149–165)
uses the passive antenna.
The best position for the active antennas depends on the layout for your home or office.We recommend
the following antenna positions:
•
For a large single-story home (about 2,500 to 4,000 square feet in size), position all four antennas
vertically and place the router on a table.
AC5300 WiFi VDSL/ADSL Modem Router Model D8500
Install and Access the Modem Router and Its Network
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