Impact of Household Construction Materials on Wi-Fi Signal

Different construction materials cause significant losses when subjected to wireless signals along propagation path. A change in the signal strength, losses and user experience occur as a result of the complex composition of the materials. This paper investigated Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) signal when subjected to an enclosure dimension (0.24mx0.20mx0.16m) made of three timber species namely: Chlorophoral excels (Iroko), Afzelia Africans (Apa) and Gosswei Lerodendrin balsamic ferum (Agba); a reflective glass and solid reinforced concrete. Received Signal Strength (RSS), Upload and Download speed (Mbps) and Jitter (ms) have been considered. The steps taken involve finding the penetration loss from the RSS with their respective data representation and drawing fact from the represented data. The results show that material C has 35.4% increase in indoor signal strength, material E has 8.8% decrease in indoor signal strength, material A, B and D has 63.7%, 46.3% and 71.2% decrease respectively in indoor received signal strength. The result from QoS parameter (Jitter) are compared for both outdoor and indoor. Relatively, it shows that Material A and Material E will provide improved experience to the user.