The short blurb at Slashdot makes WiFox sound more impressive than the actual implementation will be, but for anyone who has attempted to connect to WiFi at a tech show would love to see this new software appear on wireless access points. Once a channel becomes crowded by multiple users, especially if they use devices which like to have a constant connection, the network will hit a point of saturation and the performance of every device on the network will suffer; not just the most recently connected devices. WiFox is a piece of software which can monitor channel saturation and when it is reached it will immediately assign all available bandwidth to the WAP and allow it to transmit all backlogged data before then allocating bandwidth back to the devices … clearing the tubes as it were. It sounds like this will be easily added to existing WAPs instead of only being available to the next generation of devices so while your WAN will not suddenly become 700 times faster, the WiFi at next conference you go to might just be usable for a change.
"Engineers at NC State University (NCSU) have discovered a way of boosting the throughput of busy WiFi networks by up to 700%. Perhaps most importantly, the breakthrough is purely software-based, meaning it could be rolled out to existing WiFi networks relatively easily — instantly improving the throughput and latency of the network. As wireless networking becomes ever more prevalent, you may have noticed that your home network is much faster than the WiFi network at the airport or a busy conference center. The primary reason for this is that a WiFi access point, along with every device connected to it, operates on the same wireless channel."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Texas Instruments sheds 1,700 staff in smartphone retreat @ The Register
- The Xeon Phi at work at TACC @ AnandTech
- Interview with Netgears Rob Wells @ Hardwareheave
- 3-D Tools: Amazing Programs for Product Design @ TechwareLabs
- Kinected Browser Lets You Flick Through Websites @ Slashdot
- 1000 HAWKEN Beta Key Give Away From TechwareLabs and Mushkin