The networking of industrial routers needs to be completed through the 4G network, but the coverage needs the support of WIFI wireless network. The theoretical coverage range of industrial routers is 100-300 meters, but it is difficult to achieve the ideal value in actual environment applications. Because water, high-voltage lines, metal objects, etc. may interfere with signal strength in the actual application environment, what should you pay attention to if you want to cover a large area through an industrial wireless router?
Double NAT network
When you use the WIFI relay method to connect one industrial router to another, it is double NAT (Network Address Translation). For example, after connecting the G806 industrial router to the router provided by the Internet service provider. While this method allows you to connect to the Internet, you’re technically creating an entirely new network rather than extending an existing one.
You may also encounter problems when using a private network to transfer data, connecting to a VPN, opening certain ports, or other advanced network configurations. Even if you broadcast the same network name and password on two industrial routers, you will still be broadcasting two separate networks and will not be able to communicate with other devices connected to the same network. This approach is not an effective way to cover a large area with WiFi.
Mesh WiFi Network
Mesh networking is a method of deploying multiple access points in a single network without running Ethernet networking on each access point. Data is essentially relayed wirelessly from one access point to another. This type of solution is becoming increasingly popular in corporate indoor applications. In some cases, it may be the ideal solution depending on the coverage area required and how WiFi is used within that area. The main disadvantage of deploying a mesh WiFi network is the reduced speed. Sometimes, the speed loss for each hop in a mesh network can be as high as 50%. In environments where speed is not critical, this does not affect usage, but if you need to support applications that require high-speed network access, such as online surveillance video, then you may not get the network performance you need.
Wireless extender/repeater
A wireless extender or repeater is essentially a combination of the two networking methods above. Taking dual natural and mesh WiFi networks and combining them into novel solutions. Similar to a two-node network, an industrial router acts as a WiFi extender or repeater, essentially using your existing wireless network to create an entirely new network rather than actually extending your existing wireless network. But in this way, wireless extenders are even worse than mesh WiFi networks, because mesh WiFi networks can relay the signal from each access point connected to the mesh network, whereas wireless extenders rely on a central antenna.