3 ms·

>and to do that, the current WIFI connection is temporarily put on a back burner, resulting in a brief delay in traffic. I can't believe they ever thought that

>and to do that, the current WIFI connection is temporarily put on a back burner, resulting in a brief delay in traffic. I can't believe they ever thought that'd be a good idea.

cenamus 2y ago
Probably have to sweep across the frequency bands, so it's physically the only way to do it. Still stupid to do it more than once every 15 minutes
- wbl 2y ago
  Fast switching on a background schedule while packets continue to flow but at slightly reduced rate should be possible. Might be very export controlled though given obvious application.
  - gtirloni 2y ago
    You mean the RF circuitry has to continue working in the frequency of the current network and switch frequencies to scan for other networks in all bands simultabeously? I don't think consumer hardware is capable of that. It usually will send probes or listen passively for some time in a band before moving to the next one sequentially. It's an expensive operation.
    - wbl 2y ago
      I'm not an expert but I think depending on design this is sacrificing one MIMO channel when active and adding another PLL.
    - sitkack 2y ago
      It is more insidious to scan all the SSIDs within the RF sightline of a device than it is to install a GNSS receiver in the laptop. It means that not only do they get all the SSIDs but that they have also triangulated some of those SSIDs. You are also giving up the location privacy of everything you can see.
- gizmo686 2y ago
  That's not the only way if you are the one designing the hardware. Even if you can't make a radio that can listen on multiple bands, you can add a second radio.
- crest 2y ago
  Oh there is an obviously correct way to do it: have two radios able to switch channels with without impacting traffic, but that costs more money as well as space and power. No lets just retrofit this crap into existing drivers and hope nobody expects their computer to work reliably.

>and to do that, the current WIFI connection is temporarily put on a back burner, resulting in a brief delay in traffic. I can't believe they ever thought that'd be a good idea.

cenamus 2y ago

Probably have to sweep across the frequency bands, so it's physically the only way to do it. Still stupid to do it more than once every 15 minutes

wbl 2y ago
Fast switching on a background schedule while packets continue to flow but at slightly reduced rate should be possible. Might be very export controlled though given obvious application.
- gtirloni 2y ago
  You mean the RF circuitry has to continue working in the frequency of the current network and switch frequencies to scan for other networks in all bands simultabeously? I don't think consumer hardware is capable of that. It usually will send probes or listen passively for some time in a band before moving to the next one sequentially. It's an expensive operation.
  - wbl 2y ago
    I'm not an expert but I think depending on design this is sacrificing one MIMO channel when active and adding another PLL.
  - sitkack 2y ago
    It is more insidious to scan all the SSIDs within the RF sightline of a device than it is to install a GNSS receiver in the laptop. It means that not only do they get all the SSIDs but that they have also triangulated some of those SSIDs. You are also giving up the location privacy of everything you can see.
gizmo686 2y ago
That's not the only way if you are the one designing the hardware. Even if you can't make a radio that can listen on multiple bands, you can add a second radio.
crest 2y ago
Oh there is an obviously correct way to do it: have two radios able to switch channels with without impacting traffic, but that costs more money as well as space and power. No lets just retrofit this crap into existing drivers and hope nobody expects their computer to work reliably.