Frankly, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner.
Combining radios onto one antenna is common practice in Cellular, and Alvarion has been doing it for years with their FHSS equipment. I have built systems that combined three 802.11 AP’s and amps onto one omni antenna on channels 1, 6, and 11.
I have not tried this with Canopy myself, but I think anyone facing an overloaded AP should test it. The combiner is only 50 to 150 bucks depending on which one you use:
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/900mhz … s_2way.php
http://www.rflambda.com/product_list.jsp?catalog=4071
Common sync is required. Both AP’s will need to be configured with the same Max Distance, Control Slots, and DL%. One will need to be at 906, and the other at 924 to provide max separation. It may be possible to get three 900MHz AP’s on the same Omni but I think trying to squeeze a third in there at 915 may be asking too much (although it would certainly be worth it to find out).
Since the upgrade needs to happen and the AP needs to be bought, there is no risk in testing. Worst case is it does not work, and the Omni needs to come down in which case it needed to anyway. Best case is that you can scale from one, to two, to three AP’s without having to change the antenna.
Food for thought.