wireless protocols

[gusl]

Why don't the protocols between laptops and the access points adapt to their distance?

The weaker the signal gets, the more redundant the protocol should become, promoting the optimal level of error-correction.

Comments

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

It might be cheaper to just broadcast a stronger signal.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

If they were designed properly, this would be very cheap at reasonable distances. I would like to see graphs or formulas of bit-reliability vs distance, and (since I can't be bothered to figure it out again) bit-reliability vs amount of redundancy necessary to achieve a given word reliability (e.g. 99.9%).

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

802.11 is probably designed by a consortium of telecoms, so what can you expect, miracles?

[smandal.livejournal.com]

They do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11#802.11b)