Is there still an advantage of IEEE802.11b over newer technologies
Actually, the purpose of IEEE 802.11 WLAN was not to provide connectivity in a very large area. One may form a Wireless LAN (WLAN) for an institute, organization, or a company (indoor) or may deploy a WLAN in a small area (outdoor). Therefore, most of the IEEE 802.11 versions provide a range in hundreds of meters such as 250m indoor and outdoor application. If one wishes to form a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) one may go for other standards such as WiMAX, LTE, etc
Yes its true all WLAN Technologies were developed for mostly indoor applications, however they are sometimes used for parks, airports, and other outdoor environments and it may be necessary to know which one provides the largest range.
As M. Abbas said, 802.11 WLANs were not designed for large coverage areas. Users associated with an 802.11 Access Point (AP) experience an important performance degradation when they are far from their AP. This is due to the contention-based access method of 802.11 devices. For that reason, APs are deployed densely to cover large areas such as airports, stadiums and others.
I agree with both Ikponmwosa Oghogho and Imad Jamil. I think the following links may give an idea about the version of IEEE 802.11 with the largest range.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11
2. http://standards.ieee.org/about/get/802/802.11.html
3. http://www.ieee802.org/11/
The range depends on the EIRP power of the transmitter. However, even if you have a high downlink power by the Access Point, the uplink performance might be heavily deteriorated due to a low uplink EIRP. Taking into consideration that the maximum allowed EIRP depends on the regional spectrum regulation.
Another factor affecting the range, is related to the propagation nature of higher frequencies that tends to cover less distance, in this case 802.11a (5.8 GHz)will cover less distance than 802.11b (2.4GHz) (if you use the same EIRP, and have the same interference).
Having said all that, and in order to judge WLAN technologies fairly we have to compare them assuming the same TX power and same interference level. According 802.11n will be the winner, since it utilizes MIMO diversity to enhance the SINR, eventually leading to wider coverage area.
Thanks for your responses. Ash Abbas I will check out your links, Akram thanks for your discussion on the effect of uplink performance even if the downlink is strong. However I want you to consider the range of 802.11 WLANs in a normal environment without much interference for the same EIRP. High interference is an extreme condition which may not be the case in several locations.
Just to add that you can get the largest coverage forcing it to work in the lowest bit rate, as the broadcast as normally transmitted.
The performance comparison of Wireless LAN products on the market published by Khanduri and Rattan (2013). Although IEEE802.11g/n allow higher data rates, the presence of an IEEE802.11b device in the network forces them to function at lower rates. According to Khanduri and Rattan, (2013) IEEE802.11b WLAN system still maintains its place as the most widely deployed technology that provides the largest range even though it is an old technology. In applications where range rather than high data speed or bandwidth is more important and where there is the possibility of introducing an IEEE802.11b device into the network, IEEE802.11b is preferred above other newer technologies. The reference is below:
Khanduri R., Rattan, S. S., (2013) Performance Comparison Analysis Between IEEE802.11a/b/g/n Standards. International Journal of Computer Applications. Vol 78 (1) 13-20.
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