The shape of a Wifi router's broadcast

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I'm curious as to the shape of WiFi broadcast. Does it go up, out, and then fall, like an umbrella shape? Or is it imperfectly spherical in shape? I know antenna can shape the signal to a certain extent (like gain), but the waves themselves don't actually bend in midair to accomplish the umbrella effect, do they? Someone keeps telling me that that is how the waves travel, but it doesn't seem right to me. Anyone have a diagram or image of what the broadcast would look like if we could see it? Thanks!

Jak

Posted 2017-03-26T17:26:31.803

Reputation: 21

Listen to your friend. It travels as waves. They go in all directions and bounce off to anything it hits and partially goes through. – LPChip – 2017-03-26T17:38:57.480

So they do travel up, out, then down in an umbrella shape, like my friend said? – Jak – 2017-03-26T17:54:05.050

No. They travel in one direction, but as wave. Starting small expanding like a ripple effect. Remember what the wifi logo looks like? That's how their waves travel. – LPChip – 2017-03-26T17:56:06.370

Oh, okay. So they aren't bending in midair to make an umbrella shape! Thanks! I was trying to figure out how a router could make EMW bend in midair! lol – Jak – 2017-03-26T18:02:38.120

Answers

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Your friend is probably thinking of diagrams like this and not understanding that they are signal strength - the radio waves go every direction (straight seen as a line or ray, or if you prefer the total picture, as spherical shells, until they hit something and reflect or are bent), but due to antenna construction they are stronger in certain directions, weaker in others. These pretty pictures are from Cisco; And they assume nothing for the radio waves to hit (not common in practice.)

3 db dipole 5.8dB dipole Sector

Ecnerwal

Posted 2017-03-26T17:26:31.803

Reputation: 5 046

Asked: 2017-03-26T17:26:31.803

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Active: 2017-03-27T14:49:22.577