Forum

  • I am deploying stand-alone Cisco AP's in a highly reflective environment later next month. The enviornment is purely coverage (not a high user load). Due to installation restrictions the AP's will be in closets with a few feet of RF cable (probably LMR400) connecting the antennas.

    I plan on using external antennas (two per AP for diversity). Does anyone have any tips for deploying in a highly reflective environment? I would suspect that I would want to lower the power as low as possible and still cover the required area. More power equals more multipath and out of phase signals. Thoughts?

  • Have you conducted a survey already to see what kind of values you are getting in the area? The problem may not be as bad as you are imagining and you can adjust accordingly.

  • I'm performing the site survey in a few weeks. I am hoping that it is not as bad as I think. I'll let everyone know how it goes!

  • Make sure you have diversity antennas w/ the APs. i.e. If you're deploying dipole omnis or non-diversity patches, install two of them per AP. When doing your survey I'd recommend bringing a good antenna selection with you. (patch/panels of different gains, low gain yagi, ceiling omni and standard dipole omnis (nothing more than 5.5dBi))

    A favorite of mine for indoor deployments is the Cuschcraft S2406DSP (diversity).

    If you have control over the client cards, try different cards and definitely make sure they also support diversity.

    When doing your survey, try to get a range of fade margin for that environment at different test points (not going to be the same everywhere).

    Those would be my thoughts. Hope that helps!

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