Attenuation
One of the natural laws of RF energy is that the further away you are from the source, the weaker the strength of the signal. You may have noticed that the further away you are from an AP, the more likely you are to drop down into a slower data rate. Another way to understand this concept is to think about a flashlight; visible light and RF energy have similar properties because they are both waves, but with different wavelengths.
In Figure A.5, you will notice that the light from a bulb radiates equally in all directions. The closer you are to the light source, the more light waves you will receive.
Figure A.5. A light bulb radiates in all directions equally.
In Figure A.6, the light of the flashlight beam is focused in a specific ...
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