Is this going to be the first build on KilledByGoogle.com?
Google’s self-designed office swallows Wi-Fi “like the Bermuda Triangle”
Submitted 9 months ago by canpolat@programming.dev to technology@beehaw.org
Comments
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
Rentlar@beehaw.org 9 months ago
“Why hasn’t anyone designed a building like this before?”
“Oh.”
anachronist@midwest.social 9 months ago
“You know what would be totally sick? What if we made our building’s roof into a matrix of inverted metal parabolas?”
wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Sometimes it becomes clear a company is trying to do too much when these problems manifest.
memfree@beehaw.org 9 months ago
I appreciate that the “Gradient Canopy” roof is covered in solar cells and collects rainwater while also letting in natural light, so maybe the problem is they didn’t do enough by not adding in some shielding, too.
wise_pancake@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
That is really really cool
coffeejoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Sounds like bad WiFi design not building design.
Ephera@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
I could imagine that those concave metal roof sheets reflect the electromagnetic waves all over the place, causing tons of interference…
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 9 months ago
Are they not equipped to deal with that? You’d think large metal surfaces are pretty common, so it’d be a bigger issue if so.
LostXOR@fedia.io 9 months ago
Yeah I'm thinking that's most likely the problem.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
Bad building layout could cause multipath issues though.
Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Shit were I work the cell service is terrible inside the building but the moment you walk outside the building it’s perfect
Our building has a wavy metal roof and wavy metal siding
coffeejoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
This is what mimo uses to speed things up.
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Yeah, whoever designed radio waves wasn’t thinking about the potential for creative architecture!
theneverfox@pawb.social 9 months ago
To put it more descriptively, when you do industrial scale WiFi, you’re supposed to design out the network during the blueprint stage, then go through with a signal analyzer to map out the radio properties when it’s time to install the telecom
You can put an access point in every room or every 30 feet, and tune them to work seamlessly without interference. You can do the same with cell signals too. They even make cables that are also the antenna - they’re cut with gaps in the shielding, so you can get perfect coverage inside an iron maze if you wanted to
It’s all just a matter of cost… It’s not cheap, but a few million dollars is just a line item at that scale
kinttach@lemm.ee 9 months ago
This doesn’t sound like a serious problem for a company like Google. They can afford to solve it by brute force — just put a Wi-Fi hotspot in every single room.
Zworf@beehaw.org 9 months ago
Which is also what you want really, if you have everything on WiFi. High density setups with really small cells.
Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
That would be problematic on many levels.
cooljacob204@kbin.social 9 months ago
Not really. Radios can be tuned if you're talking about interference.
DdCno1@beehaw.org 9 months ago
This is a very common approach, as a meshnet, of course.
Moonrise2473@feddit.it 9 months ago
But if they spend millions on WiFi hotspots then how they can pay the dividends to the shareholders? If you listen to them the company is barely profitable and more cuts are needed
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 9 months ago
I’m not even sure that would be a bad solution for us. Can something like a Raspberry Pi work as a hotspot?
I wonder what exactly it is that’s messing with the signal.
watson387@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
My house was built in 1967. It’s a solid house. The walls are plaster and they have chicken wire in them. WiFi is a nightmare. I ended up running a few hard lines and using a mesh system.
towerful@programming.dev 9 months ago
Any computer with a network port and a wifi adapter can be turned into a wifi access point.
But there are cheaper and better alternatives than a raspberry pi
JakenVeina@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Why the hell is a professional tech business not relying almost-exclusively in ethernet, anyway?
B0rax@feddit.de 9 months ago
Because if you walk to a meeting room with your laptop, you don’t want to plug it in every time.
Also phones and tablets are a thing.
jarfil@beehaw.org 9 months ago
Because WiFi speeds have increased to the point where they rival wired connections, and most people use laptops which make wireless more convenient.
Wired nowadays only makes sense if you need to move massive amounts of data, want to use PoE, …or are in a high interference area. Kind of ironic they’d design a building that makes it the latter.
SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 9 months ago
Aggregate bandwidth now rivals or slightly exceeds gigabit wired connections.
Where that aggregate bandwidth is shared amongst large numbers of users, bandwidth per user can suffer dramatically.
Low density areas may be fine, but cube farms are an issue especially when staff are doing data intensive or latency sensitive tasks.
If you’re giving employees docking stations for their laptops, running ethernet to those docking stations is a no-brainer.
meteorswarm@beehaw.org 9 months ago
They mostly don’t even give out desktops to devs these days, everything is in the cloud.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Do they not give out laptops with an Ethernet port? Or is the extra 2lbs too much?
nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
I would think the metal parts of roof might be reflecting signals all around the building, which would cause interference between devices. (there is a limited number of WiFi channels), it might work better with a plastic roof, or one with RF absorbers.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 9 months ago
[deleted]lud@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Also, hundreds of mobile hotspots will impact the performance of all nearby wireless networks.
I wonder if Google actually has WiFi engineers. It’s not something you need to set up everyday. Still they have the money to hire a company that specialises in WiFi.
nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de 9 months ago
I don’t think the roof would be good at reflecting signals back at the device, it scatters them all throughout the building, rasing the noise floor. In a way, phone hotspots can cause less interference then a proper access point because they use a lower transmit power, and allow the other devices to reduce power.
AlexisFR@jlai.lu 9 months ago
Why didn’t they send an email to their facilities? How are we supposed to care?
intensely_human@lemm.ee 9 months ago
All this tells me is that ancient Chinese evil spirits were made of wifi.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 9 months ago
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Reuters reports that Google’s first self-designed office building has “been plagued for months by inoperable or, at best, spotty Wi-Fi, according to six people familiar with the matter.” At launch, Google’s VP of Real Estate & Workplace Services, David Radcliffe, said the site “marks the first time we developed one of our own major campuses, and the process gave us the chance to rethink the very idea of an office.” The roof is covered in solar cells and collects rainwater while also letting in natural light, and Google calls it the “Gradient Canopy.” All those peaks and parabolic ceiling sections apparently aren’t great for Wi-Fi propagation, with the Reuters report saying that the roof “swallows broadband like the Bermuda Triangle.” Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables, using phones as hotspots, or working outside, where the Wi-Fi is stronger. A Google spokesperson told Reuters the company has already made several improvements and hopes to have a fix in the coming weeks. — Saved 45% of original text.
eveninghere@beehaw.org 9 months ago
Why is arstechnica so cynical about specifically big tech?
drwho@beehaw.org 9 months ago
There’s plenty in Big Tech to be cynical about, whether you work for them or not. Ars can get away with it.
eveninghere@beehaw.org 9 months ago
I know, but arstechnica could also write other kinds of articles.
veeesix@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
In other words, they erected themselves a circus tent. Ironic.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 9 months ago
Hilarious in a way…
Of course Google would have problems with the very foundation of a technology needed for business when choosing to design the building themselves.
Like, they couldn’t consult with a professional.
Seems very… on brand for Google now.
God_Is_Love@reddthat.com 9 months ago
I kept reading it as Daniel Radcliffe and I was like why the HECK is he working there?