the low-down on DECT and 802.11

[Ant <ant@xxxxxxx>]

I keep seeing a lot of queries about this. It's a personal bugbear of mine,
since at my last company I was responsible for developing a combined DECT
base station and 802.11 AP.

Allow me to refer you all to the Letters page of PCW June '03, where one
Ant
Skelton most eloquently writes:

"I read with interest your feature DIY Wireless Networking (PCW May
'03), but
wish to address the issues raised concerning congestion in the 2.4GHz band
used by 802.11 WLANs.

Several types of equipment are commonly cited as culprits for congestion,
among them cordless phones. Your article states that a congestion test was
performed with a DECT cordless phone and an 802.11b network, with no
degradation found.

This is an entirely predictable result, as within Europe DECT equipment
operates in a reserved band at 1.9GHz, and does not approach the 2.4GHz
unlicensed band used by 802.11.

Furthermore, old-style analogue cordless telephones (CT1/CT1a, and CT2
phones)
are licensed only for 31-77MHz and 864-868MHz respectively, and are thus
also
unlikely to interfere with 802.11.

The confusion arises because in the US and certain other territories, many
cordless telephone systems, both proprietary and DECT-derived, operate in
the
2.4 GHz band. Such systems are well known 802.11 killers.

Europeans considering 802.11 have fewer source of radio interference to
worry
about than their US cousins. Small comfort perhaps, given the plethora of
other devices using the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band, but most of these are
currently far less common than the ubiquitous cordless phone."

What a guy ;)

ant
--
/\/\
www.ant.org  ('')  www.ant.org
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Megawatt Winged Avenger


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