HaLow Wi-Fi tested at 9.9 miles: New Wi-Fi world record is a near 5X increase | Hacker News Reader

HaLow Wi-Fi tested at 9.9 miles: New Wi-Fi world record is a near 5X increase

tomshardware.com

20 pointsteleforce6 comments

Interesting. I've been watching various Wi-Fi HaLow modules for a couple years now. They are interesting alternatives to LoRa and Zigbee which seem to have low data rates (from a quick Google Search) of best casees 50kbit/s and 250kbit/s respectively vs. Halow's best case 15Mbit/s. Obviously, this all depends on a lot of factors (coding scheme, range, noise, etc.).

It's unfortunate that the modules cost so much (single unit costs):

Alfa Network ($20): https://asiarf.com/product/wi-fi-halow-sub-ghz-wireless-modu...

Morse Micro ($30): https://www.mouser.com/c/?marcom=191003943

Silex ($33): https://www.mouser.com/c/?marcom=191003943

As with all these types of unpopular modules, the SDKs and software documentation are not that freely available, except for these $70 SparkFun Pi HATs: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/19956

Those all have FCC certs, but if you get modules from China, without certifications, it can be a lot cheaper ($5): https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-Generation-900MHz... But who knows how they actually perform or what documentation they actually have.

I would enjoy making a long-range Wi-Fi camera with these (assuming you can buy a base station Wi-Fi adapter for your computer, with drivers). If this random Google Image is anything to go by, https://www.macxdvd.com/mac-dvd-video-converter-how-to/artic..., depending on if you encode video into H264 or H265, you might be able to fit a 60fps 1080p into a stream at a decent range.

I'm using HaLow WiFi to connect two houses in a mountainous region. I'm only using it for a link about 800m distant, but it's done what PtP links couldn't do reliably. I only get 13-14Mbps but it's enough for the light use we make of it.

I started testing the modules but then discovered that there are companies on AliExpress selling the same thing as "Wireless CCTV IP bridge", but they can be used for any kind of data if you accept the losses.

I've more recently seen old Ubiquiti 900MHz kit turning up on AliExpress, I'm tempted to try it instead but I am also concerned about counterfeiting and/or if the firmware has been tampered with.

So what is so ground breaking around this WiFi connection? We have done WiFi links that spans 20+ km for years using off the shelf ubiquiti and mikrotik equipment. Are they saying they can do the 9.9 miles without directional antennas, just blasting the signal using a unidirectional antenna?

That's pretty much exactly what they're saying in the video.

They show their off-the-shelf dev kit which features a generic omni-directional rubber-duck antenna with quoted 1dB of gain (essentially nothing) and 21dBm of transmit power.

Isn't subghz a whole other ball game?

Yep. HaLow is omnidirectional and tolerates barriers in line of sight (walls, trees, etc).

It runs on the 900MHz band which is the same band that walkie talkies and LoRaWAN use but the real breakthrough is the higher data rates achieved while maintaining these longer distances.

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