RangeBoost for Far-Reaching and Reliable Wi-Fi

RangeBoost is a feature of TP-Link routers (e.g. Archer AX6000, Archer C5400X, and Archer C4000). It focuses on signal processing to amplify the router's ability to detect/receive Wi-Fi signals from devices that are farther away, ensuring higher overall throughput and reducing dead spots.

Have you ever encountered a strange problem with your Wi-Fi connection where the SSID is clearly correct and you’ve confirmed the password over and over? Everything should be okay, yet the phone still can’t connect to a wireless network despite showing full-bars.  Well, maybe this explanation will help you make sense of it.

Wireless connection is literally a two-way communication between a router and a client. When a client intends to join a Wi-Fi network, it sends out a radio signal to send data to notify the router. The client is now a transmitter and the router is a receiver, or vice versa. But sometimes, both can get lost in communication.

In a real-life scenario, when data is sent from a transmitter to a receiver, the signal inevitably attenuates, or loses intensity, causing it to zigzag due to long-distance propagation and other physical obstructions. Interference (like radar, microwave, and Bluetooth signals) can exacerbate the problem. As distance increases, the signal becomes weaker, leading to slower wireless data rates.

It’s hard for the router to discover and communicate with devices that have lower transmission strength or are at a distance. In that situation, the wireless transmission distance is limited by the power of the transmitter (client) and the sensitivity of the receiver (router).

At first blush, it might seem like vendors can solve the problem by simply increasing the devices’ transmission power. However, this method is not a very efficient way of increasing transmission power as it generally requires a greater supply of power and increased hardware costs. The increase in range is quickly outpaced by the increase in price and isn’t a worthwhile trade-off for most users.

Therefore, improving a router’s receiver sensitivity is a better approach to boosting available Wi-Fi coverage.

Receiver sensitivity is a given characteristic of all 802.11 devices, which includes most of the devices you use on a daily basis like routers, phones, laptops. Receiver sensitivity values are normally measured in dBm (decibel-milliwatts). It is a measure of how well the device performs as a receiver and determines the weakest power level at which the device can clearly detect and receive the data being transmitted. More specifically, receiver sensitivity of the wireless device is regarded as one of the most important parameters due to its great impact on the overall performance of a network system, improving the wireless communication distance and reliability.

With improved receiver sensitivity, the router can detect more clients and further expand its Wi-Fi coverage.

But unfortunately, increasing receiver sensitivity also generates an interference vulnerability. In order to compensate for this, RangeBoost uses a proprietary channel smoothing algorithm to process interfering signals, eliminating the loss in receiver sensitivity.

RangeBoost is a must-have for high-end routers due to the great improvements it makes to Wi-Fi signal reception. Improvements which eliminate signal dead spots allow Wi-Fi clients to connect from further away and enjoy higher speed connections.