Actual measurement: What is the relationship between the router antenna direction and Wi-Fi signal?

Recently, I saw a discussion on the Tieba forum about the impact of internal/external WiFi antennas on network signals. On a whim, I also wanted to join the discussion, so I dug out three wireless routers from the company's cabinet and started my evaluation plan on the internal/external WiFi antennas and the number of antennas.

The three routers I found are: Tenda Dual-Band 1200M 11ac Wireless Router, Huawei Honor Router Pro and Tenda AC9 1200M 11AC Gigabit Wireless Enhanced Router. The three routers have in common that they all have a 1200M transmission speed, are not expensive and suitable for home use, and all feature wall penetration and similar configurations.

Which one is better, internal or external?

In testing the impact of built-in and external routers on signals, I chose the Tenda dual-band 1200M 11ac wireless router and the Huawei Honor Router Pro. The Tenda 1200M 11ac has "hair" and the Huawei Honor Router Pro is "bald". We will know which one has a stronger signal after a test.

The left side of the picture shows Huawei Honor Router Pro, and the right side shows Tenda dual-band 1200M 11ac wireless router

In terms of parameters, Tenda dual-band 1200M 11ac wireless router has 4 external antennas, a transmission rate of up to 1000M, supports the new generation 802.11ac network standard and MU-MIMO technology, and supports Beamforming+ signal directional enhancement technology; Huawei Honor Router Pro uses internal antenna settings, 1000M transmission rate, also supports 802.11ac network standard and MU-MIMO technology, dual-core 1G CPU and 256MB large memory to ensure the stability of device connection. Overall, these two products are not much different except for the antenna settings.

In terms of the test scene, the author chose the 8th floor office area of ​​​​Zhongguancun Online. Because it is a home router, the obstacle selected is a wall, and the distance is selected to be slightly closer. As shown in the figure below, the red dot is the WiFi placement position, and point D is the test position.

Schematic diagram of the 8th floor office area of ​​ZOL. The red dot is the WiFi access location, and point D is the test location.

In terms of frequency band selection, I always choose the best 5G network band. Why 5G? Because the 2.4G network band has been developed for a long time, and the technology is now mature, so it doesn't matter whether you test it or not. But 5G is different. The 5G era is coming, and everyone must upgrade to 5G to see which one is stronger. Let's take a look at the test results.

Tenda dual-band 1200M 11ac signal strength in 5G band

Signal strength of Huawei Honor Router Pro in 5G band

In the signal test, we can easily find that under the 5G network frequency band, the signal strength of both routers is stable at around -70, and the fluctuation is not too large. Therefore, the conclusion is that the built-in or external WiFi antenna will not have a fundamental impact on the signal. The external antenna was developed earlier and matured faster; the internal antenna was developed later and has better technology. There is no essential difference between the two.

Conclusion: When buying a router, you can choose according to your personal preferences.

Shake the antenna and the signal is particularly high?

Sometimes when you are playing with your phone at home, what should you do if the network suddenly slows down? There are two common ways to deal with it: the first is to log in to the backend to see if anyone is using the network; the second is to rearrange the antenna, maybe the network will be better. But will rearranging the antenna make the network better? We will find out with a hammer.

When testing the antenna placement, I chose the Tenda AC9 1200M Gigabit router. The reason is: the Tenda AC9 router has two "ears" that can be swung around for easy testing; and it uses the same 1200M Gigabit transmission rate as the above two products.

Tenda AC9 1200M Gigabit Router

In terms of parameters, the Tenda AC9 1200M Gigabit Router adopts the 802.11ac protocol, equipped with Beamforming+ technology to concentrate energy and transmit signals in a directional manner, and supports dual-band multi-channel Gigabit network settings. In terms of test scenarios and network frequency band selection, it is still the D point and 5G frequency band mentioned above. Without further ado, here is the picture.

The signal strength of the antenna towards point D

Signal strength at the center of the antenna

The signal strength of the antenna in the opposite direction of point D

The antennas were placed in the direction of point D, in the middle, and in the opposite direction of point D. After the test, I was shocked to see that the signal strength in all three directions was stable between -70 and -60. There was no essential difference between the placement direction and the signal strength under the 5G frequency band network selection. Therefore, in the future 5G scenario, the signal strength of WiFi will not have much to do with the direction of the antenna, that is, you can freely adjust the shape of the router.

*** Gotta say something

The results of an afternoon of testing showed that the quality of WiFi signal has nothing to do with whether there is "hair" or not, and has nothing to do with whether the "hair" is blown or not. The type of WiFi chosen depends on the consumer's preference. The improvement of WiFi performance and the speed are what are truly attractive to us.