Drywall barely hurts a civic office AP, but a foil-backed insulation wall nearly kills coverage through that wall. Which RF behavior best explains the energy loss in the foil-backed material?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Some walls are polite; foil-backed ones are hungry. Absorption is the wall eating RF energy so less makes it out the other side. Distance in open air is a different loss story — this one is the material taking a bite.
Full Explanation
Absorption occurs when materials extract energy from the RF wave, attenuating the signal that continues beyond the obstacle. Foil-backed insulation is a strong attenuator relative to ordinary drywall. Free space path loss is the distance-spreading effect without requiring that material interaction. Phase is not an AP punch-through setting, and foil does not invent SSIDs or define channel utilization.