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Google’s self-designed office swallows Wi-Fi “like the Bermuda Triangle”

⁨164⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨canpolat@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/googles-self-designed-office-swallows-wi-fi-like-the-bermuda-triangle/

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  • veeesix@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    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 result is a wild tent-like structure with a striking roofline made up of swooping square sections.

    In other words, they erected themselves a circus tent. Ironic.

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    • Midnitte@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • God_Is_Love@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I kept reading it as Daniel Radcliffe and I was like why the HECK is he working there?

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  • Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Is this going to be the first build on KilledByGoogle.com?

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  • Rentlar@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “Why hasn’t anyone designed a building like this before?”

    “Oh.”

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  • anachronist@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “You know what would be totally sick? What if we made our building’s roof into a matrix of inverted metal parabolas?”

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  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sometimes it becomes clear a company is trying to do too much when these problems manifest.

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    • memfree@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        That is really really cool

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  • coffeejoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Sounds like bad WiFi design not building design.

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    • Ephera@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I could imagine that those concave metal roof sheets reflect the electromagnetic waves all over the place, causing tons of interference…

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      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • LostXOR@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Yeah I'm thinking that's most likely the problem.

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    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Bad building layout could cause multipath issues though.

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      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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

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      • coffeejoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This is what mimo uses to speed things up.

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    • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yeah, whoever designed radio waves wasn’t thinking about the potential for creative architecture!

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    • theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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

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  • kinttach@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • Zworf@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Which is also what you want really, if you have everything on WiFi. High density setups with really small cells.

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    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      That would be problematic on many levels.

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      • cooljacob204@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Not really. Radios can be tuned if you're talking about interference.

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      • Helix@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        why is that?

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      • DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        This is a very common approach, as a meshnet, of course.

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    • Moonrise2473@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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

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    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • watson387@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • towerful@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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

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  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why the hell is a professional tech business not relying almost-exclusively in ethernet, anyway?

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    • B0rax@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • jarfil@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • meteorswarm@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They mostly don’t even give out desktops to devs these days, everything is in the cloud.

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      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Do they not give out laptops with an Ethernet port? Or is the extra 2lbs too much?

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  • nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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    • skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
      [deleted]
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      • lud@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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      • nothacking@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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  • AlexisFR@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why didn’t they send an email to their facilities? How are we supposed to care?

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  • intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    All this tells me is that ancient Chinese evil spirits were made of wifi.

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  • autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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.

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  • eveninghere@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why is arstechnica so cynical about specifically big tech?

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    • drwho@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      There’s plenty in Big Tech to be cynical about, whether you work for them or not. Ars can get away with it.

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      • eveninghere@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I know, but arstechnica could also write other kinds of articles.

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