Considerations for W-Fi Router Installation on Wind Turbine at Sea

As sea-based wind farm gains importance around the world, the communication between wind turbine is also becoming important. Among current available communication protocols, Wi-Fi seems to be suitable technique for Ad-hoc means for video and other communications. In this article we simulate the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi signal from a router installed on the pillar of a wind turbine using multi-level fast multipole method (MLFMM) and Ray Tracing algorithms. Two router positions are considered, one at 2 meter above sea surface, and one at 80 meter on the pillar. The radiation pattern and nearfield intensities of two types of router antennas are presented, as well as the Wi-Fi signal intensity over distance in these two router position cases. Results show that a router with two horizontal antenna has lower gain, but the radiation pattern is more suitable for communication between wind turbines. If the router is placed near the bottom, the pillar acts as an antenna, and the sea surface act as a large reflector for the Wi-Fi signals. If the router is placed at high position, then the pillar also acts as an antenna such that the power level at the bottom is also strong. For the power level at a distant, the propagation loss dominates the Wi-Fi signal strength. The Wi-Fi signal propagation is simulated using ray-tracing based dominant path technique and power distribution at short distance is presented.