What Exactly Is Line Of Sight?

Supercell

The term, would seem to indicate that you must literally be able to see by the naked eye/binoculars, the tower?

This seems a pretty restrictive thing to have in order to order a LOS product?

Practically does this mean you have an unobsructed view of the horizon in that direction for X amount of meters? And if obstructed , surely contrete , trees wooden fence type LOS blockers must have differing impact on suitability?

Sorry if this seems like a totaly daft question!!, have practically zero knowledge of how LOS broadband offerings work.

Thanks,

Longfield.

Poz3D

Line of sight means you must have a pretty much unobstructed view of the target you are pointing towards. Items that can get in the way include houses, walls and to an extent, trees. In the case of the 2.4Ghz technology used in wireless broadband offerings, it is very sensitive to LOS. I've had signal drop away significantly because of a clump of trees in the way. That is a limitation with this type of broadband provision.

Victor

Literally, "line of sight" means complete intervisibility (no, not invisibility). That is receiver must be visible from transmitter (or reflector). However, with many electromagnetic frequencies, they will reflect to some degree or other. In addition, what is opaque to the eye (e.g. leaves on a tree) is not necessarily opaque to other frequencies.

Strictly speaking, a GSM phone is line of sight. However, reflection means we can get at least some signal inside a building.

Range is another factor.

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If you are setting up a wireless network, on-site testing is advisable.

iano

When considering 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz microwave radio technologies, line-of-sight must also take into account Fresnel zone clearances.

For introduction-level discussions, see one of:
http://www.1stbroadband.com/technology/lineofsight/
or
http://www.fab-corp.com/lineofsight.htm

Hope this helps,
Ian.

aodh_rua

The 802.11 stuff using 2.4GHz is particularly sensitive to trees because of their water content (think how a microwave oven in that frequency range works!). I don't they're as good at handling echoes as GSM either - reflections tend to be seen as noise thus increasing the SNR.

Your best bet is to consider the aperature of the antennae in question and see if there is a visible line of site allowing the two to intersect.

Supercell

Thanks for clearing that up lads.