Research: Effect of Encrypted WiFi Datalink

[HunterSK]

Hi Everyone,

I recently took my Phantom 2 V+ with me on an overseas trip and the flying camera worked extremely well.

One of the things I was concerned about was the unsecured WiFi data link. As some of you know there is a security vulnerability with regards to the open WiFi network implemented on the Phantom 2 Vision/Vision+.

I decided to mitigate this potential risk of through the use of WiFi encryption; however there was a question as to what effect this may have on the range of FPV.

I’m publishing the following report which helps to answer this question. In this report we asked the question: what is the effect on range from the additional overheads of the WiFi encryption?

Thanks to Michael Kidd on his excellent Linux guides on implementing the WiFi security which was used as part of this investigation.

http://phantommods.info/effect-on-wifi- ... fpv-range/

I'm publishing my results for anyone else interested.

 

[ilovecoffee]

Great work. I figured this might be the case as there would be additional overhead with encryption and resultant packet loss at further distances.

 

[Morgon]

Nicely done. The use of additional antennas may mitigate (or at least make moot) this issue (except for folks specifically doing record attempts).

I'm actually a little surprised the loss is that great. I would have assumed the hit would have been more on battery life than actual signal range, but ilovecoffee may be right with the idea of excessive packet loss (retransmissions)