@Lincs_Chel wrote:
Hi,
Anyone has experience and results with doing a three (3) sector 120°degree 2.4GHz? If so, what are some of your experiences to date? What type of RF environment is it in? Are you operating in a 'noisy' environment? Are you using the GPS sync? What are some of the distances for your SMs? Did you use LINKPlanner to plan the network before deploying? If so, were the results close to what LINKPlanner provided? Are you operating at 40,20,10 or 5MHz channel spacing? What type of environment (physical) is it deployed in?
I am a little familiar with the ePMP config tools such has Automatic Channel Scanning (ACS) and eDETECT. Are your channel spacing using channels 1,6 & 11? Or, did you just allow ACS to do the magic?
Regards.
we've used a mix of deployments, ABC GPS re-use (3 -120 degree sectors), ABAB (4 sectors per tower). our deployment goal is a no one left behind approach.
in tough to serve areas we've used ABC re-use from not so far away sites to keep access point count high, and channels consumed low. generally, we use 10mhz for 2.4 (sometimes 20 if we need more capacity and spectrum allows) we've deployed in both noisy and quite areas, the EPMP does very well with noise if you compare it head on with outher WIFI based equipment. channels 11 8 and 5, customer routers set to 1. remember to keep 5mhz gaurdband between your channels.
we use ABC when we plan to overlap coverage with other towers that are close together (for us thats less than 1.5 miles) or we will use ABAB for regular sized sites (we generally won't aim the antenna to reach more than 4 to 5 miles on them, or if we have anther site planned/installed in a direction, we tilt the antennas to end just short of the next tower.
speaking of the cambium 2.4 antenna, if they are deployed as 120 sectors, you've got -6 points on your edges, or 9db gain when your between the sectors. as deployed as 90 degrees, you've got 3db drop or, 12 db gain between sectors.
ABC setups are great for installing multiple towers in close proximity simply by rotating your pattern,
A
B C
C B
A B C A
cambium has a really good write up in detail about these types of deployments in the GPS reuse guide
we select our deployment method base on number of subs needing to be services, amount of APs we plan to put in an area and terrain to deal with, and distance. the 2.4 epmp for us is used for NLOS and nLOS conditions, we install 5ghz epmp with it for LOS links.
generally, ABABs end up with more capacity, and with less lose between sectors resulting in some customers with better RSSI downside is they need spaced further to been with only 2 channels. ABAB then CDCD can be used to keep self noise down and get the bonus of capacity while keeping tight. with 2.4, if you go with 4 channels, you'll have room down the road to move a channel if you need to inorder to dodge noise.
for us, the EPMP has done great dealing with noise. it handles trees pretty well too.
we use radio mobile to plan out coverage details for a map so we just need to check google earth and the map overlays for coverage. anything that looks like a possible fail, we use the link planner to determine if its worth going to check or if its hopeless. (the link planner does a great job with those forecasts)
the ACS is good in a lot of situations, but if your wanting to employ GPS, you won't be able to use ACS aside from helping you select a channel. ACS will also see a snyc'd AP as noise and try to avoid it. so it won't always be usful in that regard.
edetect is amazing. the only thing it won't do is identify overlapping channels, and different channel sized interferer. its great fr catching self interfering APs, SMs and competitor hardware that's on the same width and channel.