If you are anything like me, I drove really slowly the first time I got out on the road. The speed at which I drove held up other vehicles on the road. Pushing the lever down into third gear, I nervously watched my mirrors as the cars behind me began to overtake on the one-lane road. The drivers behind me probably wished they had their own roads to travel on, so that they could get around faster to their destinations.
It's drivers like me who hold up traffic and frustrate other road users. I've seen people raise their firsts angrily at me as they drive past my snail-paced ride. But, it's a public road, we all have to use it. But if you drive like me, you tend to cause traffic jams and nobody likes to get caught in that!
So, you're a slow driver. Big deal
Well, the reason why I used this story is to explain the way shared bandwidth links and dedicated bandwidth links operate. This is a very important concept for wireless data networks.
How important is this?
Wireless networks transmit various frequencies, called bands. Every wireless technology has their respective band, the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) generally transmit and receive at 900MHz, Digital Television (i.e. ClickTV, HiTRON or Digicel Play) transmit at a range of 470 MHz to 806 MHz, and satellites transmit and receive at around about 4 GHz to 8 GHz. Home WiFi and other wireless gear operated in the 2.4GHz and the 5 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) bands.
If you were to plot all these frequencies out on a chart, they would tend to look like lanes on a road. Each band (especially bands that carry data), like a lane on a road, has its own traffic passing through it.
When lots of people use the same band, different signals from different equipment tend to interfere with each other. It's like when a slow driver like me, holds up the other drivers behind me or someone cuts in front of me, you get the picture. A like on the public roads, a lot of traffic can lead to interference and congestion.
You can tell when your network is experiencing one or the other or even both congestion or interference when the internet gets slow or emails fail to be sent or delivered.
Okay, so how can I avoid this?
If you're like me, you can avoid traffic when the roads aren't busy. Which works fine for drivers but doesn't work for wireless networks. Wireless equipment manufacturers build their equipment with interference rejection techniques, which we won't get into detail now.
The simplest way to avoid the problems of interference and congestion is to use a frequency that isn't used by anyone else. This will ensure that only your traffic is carried over the air. This is like having your own lane on the highway (which would be really cool!).
But having your own frequency isn't cheap here in PNG and most ISP tend to use the ISM band which is prone to both congestion and interference. The experience will be smooth sometimes and then non-existent at the next.
What about Kinect?
At Kinect, we've seen the struggles that most business have with this have decided to use Telrad's industry leading 4G LTE technology. Not only does it operate on it's own frequecy, it's able to get through rain, trees and even around buildings. This way you get the internet delivered to your home or office smoothly.
We can get you connect via our best-effort or business-grade dedicated links.
Let us know by contacting us at enquiries@kinect.com.pg
