
Electronic Noise Is Drowning Out the Internet of Things - rayiner
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/electronic-noise-is-drowning-out-the-internet-of-things
======
cozzyd
My lab is moving to a new building that was to have wireless flat panel
displays on the wall for all professors, each occupying a different band. As
we work on RF detectors, this was not ideal, so we (and some other groups)
complained and now everyone will have wired displays instead. Small
victories...

~~~
quietplatypus
Wireless flat panels? Thats quite excessive. I bet you cant even get good
bandwidth out of them. Wonder if in the near future complex configurations of
directed wireless equipment will become a fire hazard lol

------
tdaltonc
How does the ethos of "I can do what I want with my tech" interact with this
problem?

I guess it's analogous to saying "it's your stereo. Play what you like, but
keep it down after 10PM or your neighbors will report you."

~~~
userbinator
This article also reminds me of the recent discussion on a proposal to make
router firmware modifications illegal.

(
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10139679](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10139679)
,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9959088](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9959088)
,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10137470](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10137470)
)

------
cperciva
Another example: Wireless phone chargers.

Now, the fact that wireless chargers emit RF energy is hardly surprising --
that's how they work -- but I was still surprised when I found that my new
charger completely obliterates the AM radio band within a 3' radius.

~~~
frgewut
It's probably caused by induction in the radio's circuits, not by charger
emitting radio waves.

~~~
cperciva
Perhaps, but wouldn't that affect FM reception too? I only get interference
when tuned to the AM band.

~~~
ahh
FM capture, perhaps? FM reception is naturally much more resilient to
interference so long as the absolute magnitude of the interfering signal is
lower.

------
superkuh
You can do this kind of thing yourself with a $10 rtlsdr dvbt dongle, NMEA
GPS, laptop and various software. The most commonly used is Eartoearoak's
rtlsdr-scanner: [http://eartoearoak.com/software/rtlsdr-
scanner](http://eartoearoak.com/software/rtlsdr-scanner)

NW0W has also done a lot of work on mapping powerline interference with rtlsdr
dongles in multiple blog posts. An older represenative example is at:
[http://blog.dxers.info/2015/01/driveby-system-live-on-
road.h...](http://blog.dxers.info/2015/01/driveby-system-live-on-road.html)

tautology2 showed his visualization implementation + code over at:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/2hbjyt/gsm_heatmap_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/2hbjyt/gsm_heatmap_using_rtlsdr/)

------
trhway
omnidirectionality is a luxury. Beam forming and directional scanning
listening will become a new norm.

~~~
Animats
Outdoors on cell towers, yes. Not that helpful indoors. Reflections dominate.
Diversity antennas are more useful indoors, because it's rare that both are in
a reflection null.

~~~
trhway
more than 10 years ago some company was doing adaptive beam forming WiFi
routers/switches, and what i remember reading about them is that actual
direction of the beam for a given connection wasn't necessarily the
geographical straight to the other end of the connection, instead it was
whatever direction was adaptively found, and that frequently meant very non-
straightforward mulitply reflected path. The beauty was that beam power at the
"total multi-segmented reflected/bounced" length of the path could still be
much higher than onmidirectionally transmitted power even at the lesser
distance.

------
Animats
Don't worry about it. The "internet of things" is mostly stuff you don't need
anyway. If your toaster has connectivity problems and can't reach the "cloud",
and refuses to toast, you probably didn't need it anyway.

~~~
pravda
How am I supposed to know if my toast is ready? Go over and look? What year is
it ... 1934?

I will overlook the conspicuous absence of flying cars, but the year is 2015
and __I want an email when my toast is done __!

~~~
PakG1
Email? What is this, 1995? Send a notification to my smartphone's app!

~~~
ddddddddq
It only needs access to: Calendar, Internet, SMS, Profile, Start on Boot,
Location, Microphone, Call Log, etc...

------
Qantourisc
In Europe we have EMI emission norms, and commercial products have to be
tested for this. Either the US is using different products, or the norms are
not strong enough ?

~~~
PinguTS
As I am involved in defining such standards for industrial applications as an
expert at the German national committee, I can tell you, the US has the same
standards. Because those standards are harmonized within the IEC.

------
hjgjhgg8tt7
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_radio)

~~~
tdaltonc
Even with these sorts of optimizations, bandwidth is finite.

