The researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that the optimal height of installation depends on transmission frequency and antenna design.
Attaching equipment at lower heights of around 4m is better for traditional wireless systems with omnidirectional antennas, the team said, whereas higher locations 6-9m up are better for the latest systems such as 5G using higher, millimetre-wave frequencies and narrow-beam antennas.
An international group, the Telecom Infra Project, is promoting the idea of making Wi-Fi available over the unlicensed 60GHz frequency band by installing access points on lampposts.
A technical challenge, however, is that signals in this band, which are higher than traditional cellphone frequencies, are sparse and tend to scatter off rough surfaces. And until now, measurements of 60GHz urban channels have produced limited data.
To tackle this, the team at NIST has developed a channel model for tracking...