If you want broadband Internet access but can't get your telephone or cable company to provide it, a fairly new technology called non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless may be just what you're looking for. Since they don't require stringing up or burying any cables, wireless systems can be installed much more quickly than wired ones. And many of the new NLOS systems use simple indoor antennas that don't have to be aimed at a base station. That means they can be set up with no need for a house call by a service technician.
This last point--easy self-installation--is a big one. Previous attempts to provide wireless Internet access to the home using line-of-sight systems failed in large part because their installation costs were too high. Technicians had to mount an antenna on the roof of each customer's house and carefully aim it at a central tower. That was the only way they could get a signal strong enough to support truly high-speed data communication.
So how do NLOS systems deliver the necessary strong signals without a line-of-sight path? The answer is by using what are known as smart antennas. Thanks to modern digital signal processors, a smart antenna array can convert multipath distortion--caused when signals bounce off various objects, such as buildings and mountains, on their way from transmitter to receiver--into an asset.
RSS