#4068 NORM Never A: Range of communication between 2 XOs is limited only to 20 meters

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#4068: Range of communication between 2 XOs is limited only to 20 meters
------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  arjs              |       Owner:  marcelo       
     Type:  defect            |      Status:  new           
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  Never Assigned
Component:  wireless          |     Version:                
 Keywords:  wireless , range  |    Verified:  0             
------------------------------+---------------------------------------------
 Testing at pilot site at Khairat.


 Conditions - A remote village, low density of trees, no other wireless
 network present there. Testing was done line-of-sight. Hardware version
 B4-6, Build 601.


 The line of sight range of communication between 2 XOs is about 20 meters.
 This was done in an open field where both the XOs were outside the school
 server range. We did this by pinging from one XO to the other (after
 manually determining the ip address of each XO). This test was repeated
 many times to verify the results.


 I have attached copy of iwconfig at the end of this email - taken when the
 2 XOs have just lost contact (a few meters farther than about 20m). I
 observed iwconfig gives some information about transmitted power, received
 power, noise etc. in dBm hence am attaching it in case that might help
 pinpoint the reason for the limited range.



 ====================================
 iwconfig log
 ====================================

 msh0      IEEE 802.11b/g  Nickname:"Mesh"
           Mode:Repeater  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-
 Power=18 dBm
           Retry limit:8   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
           Encryption key:off
           Power Management:off
           Link Quality=3/100  Signal level=-92 dBm  Noise level=-93 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:54774
           Tx excessive retries:763  Invalid misc:2661   Missed beacon:0

 eth0      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"olpc-mesh"  Nickname:"MRVL-USB8388"
           Mode:Ad-Hoc  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Cell: 63:2D:6D:65:73:68
           Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=18 dBm
           Retry limit:8   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B
           Encryption key:off
           Power Management:off
           Link Quality=3/100  Signal level=-92 dBm  Noise level=-93 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:54779
           Tx excessive retries:763  Invalid misc:2661   Missed beacon:0

 ====================================

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Ticket URL: <https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/4068>
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