Estimate the radius and floor area one access point covers indoors, and how many you need for the whole home.
The link budget is the difference between transmit power and the weakest usable signal, less the loss from interior walls at roughly 5 dB each. Inverting an indoor log-distance path-loss model with an exponent of 2.5 converts that budget into a radius, which is then turned into a circular coverage area. Coverage estimated from marketing range figures is wildly optimistic indoors; a budget that accounts for walls is what predicts the dead spot in the back bedroom.
Home WiFi Coverage
Path loss budget = transmit power − target signal − wall loss; radius follows the indoor log-distance model
Path loss budget = transmit power − target signal − wall loss; radius follows the indoor log-distance model The link budget is the difference between transmit power and the weakest usable signal, less the loss from interior walls at roughly 5 dB each. Inverting an indoor log-distance path-loss model with an exponent of 2.5 converts that budget into a radius, which is then turned into a circular coverage area.
Coverage estimated from marketing range figures is wildly optimistic indoors; a budget that accounts for walls is what predicts the dead spot in the back bedroom.
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Access point transmit power, Minimum usable signal, Band, Interior walls the signal must cross, Total floor area to cover. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.