Why does my cellphone fail to connect to remote Outdoor Access Points?

You’ve probably tried before to connect your cellphone or laptop to the wireless network of an outdoor access point which is a few kilometers away, but failed. Why does it fail even though the Wi-Fi signal is strong?

In this article, we’ll help you figure that out.

Compared with mobile terminals, like cellphones and laptops, outdoor access points like TP-Link Pharos devices and Omada outdoor EAPs usually have a much higher transmission power and antenna gain. This means the wireless coverage range of the outdoor access points is much broader than that of mobile terminals.

Mobile terminals can connect to an access point only when they are in each other’s wireless coverage range. As the following figure shows, Cellphone_1 and Cellphone_2 are both within the coverage range of the access point, while the access point is in the coverage range of Cellphone_1 only. As you can guess, only Cellphone_1 can connect to the access point.

Cellphone_2 can receive the Wi-Fi signal of the access point. When it tries to connect to the access point, it will send a connection request to the access point, but the access point cannot receive the request because it is outside of Cellphone_2’s range. As a result, Cellphone_2 fails to connect to the access point even though it is receiving a signal.

Figure 1 Connecting to the Outdoor Access Point

In general, the greatest distance at which mobile terminals can connect to an outdoor access point depends on their own coverage range. Their coverage range varies according to transmission power, antenna gain, and the wireless environment. When deploying outdoor access points to provide Wi-Fi coverage for places like a plaza or farm, in addition to the coverage range of the access points, you should also consider the coverage range of the mobile terminals.