E700 Outdoor AP is a BEAST!

We recently got to do some hands on testing with the new e700 AP (MSRP $800) and we have to say... this thing is a BEAST in more ways then one. The build quality on this is very impressive and is every bit deserving of the 'enterprise' designation. The heat sink on the back and the general weight of it along with the heavy duty mounting bracket says that this radio means business.

 

T300 on left and e700 on right

Notice how the e700's heat sink and bracket are almost the same size as the entire T300 AP!

This of course also features the now pretty mature eXXX line of software with support for a slew of different enterprise features like coordinated roaming, dynamic VLAN's, auto channel everything, per client BW limiting, the list goes on and on... all that coupled with free cnMaestro cloud or on premis support... BUT you can run it stand alone if you want! No cnMaestro required. Also, all the firmware updates are free and easy to get, and they keep adding more and more features and optimizing performance, so the eXXX series just keeps getting better and better.

We also wanted to see how well it would compete against another enterprise radio in it's price range, so we found a Ruckus T300 (MSRP $1295) to test against. We do admit, it's not exactly a fair fight and the Ruckus R710 would have spec-wise been an apples to apples comparision with the e700, BUT we didn't have one in stock and the MSRP on the R710 is an eye watering $2995.

Test Setup

Distances to the AP are between 8 feet, 1 wall for the laptop test client, and 15 feet, 2+ walls for the desktop test client. The laptop has a Dell 1550 802.11ac card and the desktop has an ASUS PCE-AC6 adapter with an external separated antenna.

EL APARTMENT drawn.png

e700 TestsLaptop to e700 OTA data rateLaptop to e700 OTA data rate

Laptop to e700 Mikrotik download testLaptop to e700 Mikrotik download test

Laptop to e700 Mikrotik upload testLaptop to e700 Mikrotik upload test

Desktop to e700 OTA data rateDesktop to e700 OTA data rate

Desktop to e700 Mikrotik download testDesktop to e700 Mikrotik download test

Desktop to e700 Mikrotik upload testDesktop to e700 Mikrotik upload test

T300 Tests 

Laptop to T300 OTA data rateLaptop to T300 OTA data rate

Laptop to T300 Mikrotik download rateLaptop to T300 Mikrotik download rate

Laptop to T300 Mikrotik upload rateLaptop to T300 Mikrotik upload rate

Laptop to T300 OTA data rateLaptop to T300 OTA data rate

Laptop to T300 Mikrotik download rateLaptop to T300 Mikrotik download rate

Laptop to T300 Mikrotik upload rateLaptop to T300 Mikrotik upload rate

While there were some quirks with our Mikrotik BW test tool, perticularly on the uplink for some of these tests, we feel the clear winner overall is Cambium e700 when it comes to price, features, coverage and throughput. This would make an excellent AP where robust coverage and capacity is needed outdoors, like a concert or music venue, large RV park, shopping center, etc. Overall we were very impressed and have some plans in the works to really put this beast of an AP to work!

14 Likes

I have an e700 currently boxed up waiting until we move.  (hoping to buy 30 acres of woods with a house in the middle)  I unboxed it when it first arrived and set it up, tested it in place of my existing e410 in the garage.

I was impressed with the connection quality I managed during tests, and also pleased with the solid construction and mounting arrangements.  My intent is to cover the new house with the e410 and an e400, with another e400 in an out-building about 100 ft from the house, with the e700 on a utility pole about 300ft out the other direction from the house.  Unfortunately my current home (1/3 acre suburban-style neighborhood and 12-inch concrete walls {hurricane resistance}) isn't conducive to really testing the AP outdoors - I usually can see 12 separate wifi networks from the top of my driveway, plus my own on two channels each of 2.4 and 5.8 bands.  (Yeah, the e700 would carve right through the other signals based on proximity if nothing else, but I really don't want to tick off multiple neighbors by wiping out their wifi)

j

5 Likes

Can confirm, for the price the E700 is awesome.

3 Likes

This is a great post Eric, thanks for taking the time!

3 Likes

My client is an ISP.

They want to rent some APs for Outdoor event in parking lot

INFO:

-Parking lot area will be 1000 m2 (square meter)

the size is not fixed, depend on location

might be 20x50, 25x40

-maximum users are 1000 users

-maximum concurrent users are 500 users

REQUIREMENT:

-users can reach AP in any location within area

QUESTIONS:

1. I read e700 using Omni Antenna

Does it mean. I need to put it in every corner

or I need to put it in the center

If I put 4 APs in the center.

Do you think it will interference each other because nearby?

2. Should I use Automatic channel or Selective channel

If Selective channel then should I use  i.e channel 1 for AP1,  channel 4 for AP2 and so on

3. How many APs do I need and do you think e700 appropriate

4. Should I enable 802.11k 802.11r 802.11w

5. Should I use 1 SSID for all

6. for e700. How far (in meter) it will cover?

7. How long minimum distance between APs

8. How tall the APs will be located.

tq


@nbctcp wrote:

My client is an ISP.

They want to rent some APs for Outdoor event in parking lot

INFO:

-Parking lot area will be 1000 m2 (square meter)

the size is not fixed, depend on location

might be 20x50, 25x40

-maximum users are 1000 users

-maximum concurrent users are 500 users

REQUIREMENT:

-users can reach AP in any location within area

QUESTIONS:

1. I read e700 using Omni Antenna

Does it mean. I need to put it in every corner

or I need to put it in the center

If I put 4 APs in the center.

Do you think it will interference each other because nearby?

2. Should I use Automatic channel or Selective channel

If Selective channel then should I use  i.e channel 1 for AP1,  channel 4 for AP2 and so on

3. How many APs do I need and do you think e700 appropriate

4. Should I enable 802.11k 802.11r 802.11w

5. Should I use 1 SSID for all

6. for e700. How far (in meter) it will cover?

7. How long minimum distance between APs

8. How tall the APs will be located.

tq


 These are a lot of excellent questions. Do you have a Cambium Regional Sales Manager (RSM) or Cambium VAR you're working with? They'd be an excellent resource to help answer all these questions.

I tried that.

Ask the same questions to ASEAN regional sales and he relay me to local Indonesia Technical engineer.

After 2 emails then stops, never update my questions.

I don't want to ask local distributor support here because he never answer my phone or reply my message.

I ask disti here only for price.

I better ask technical questions to engineer preferably user who ever implement such scenario.

Because they usually telling the truth.

Almost 1 month I didn't get solid answer for those questions

So my last resort is asking this forum

Hi Nawir, 

       Please find my reply inline. 

 

QUESTIONS:

1. I read e700 using Omni Antenna

Does it mean. I need to put it in every corner

or I need to put it in the center

If I put 4 APs in the center.

Do you think it will interference each other because nearby?

 

As discussed, in the email earlier, please check with the local partner for the site survey of the location. This will give you a clear idea of how many AP's needs to deployed and where it needs to be deployed. 

 

2. Should I use Automatic channel or Selective channel

If Selective channel then should I use  i.e channel 1 for AP1,  channel 4 for AP2 and so on

 

Please use AUTO RF and use the latest image (3.10.3-r3) for the deployment  

3. How many APs do I need and do you think e700 appropriate

 

E-700 will be good for this deployment, for the number of AP's please do a site survey. 

 

4. Should I enable 802.11k 802.11r 802.11w

 

its good to use 802.11 k and 802.11 r which assists in roaming. 802.11 w will protect your management frames from forgery and attacks. 

5. Should I use 1 SSID for all

 

suggest to use 2 SSID for this deployment, one for 2.4 Ghz users and another for 5 Ghz users.

6. for e700. How far (in meter) it will cover?

 

Wi-Fi is two way communication, eventhough if AP can cover 500m ( in typical deployment scenario's) , the clients may not be able to communicate back.( since the client radio is not as powerful as AP). Suggest to measure the RSSI  and SNR value from client at the farthest point and deploy the AP's. ( use multiple clients to do this activity, since different clients behave differently) . Any RSSI value less than -75dBm is considered poor signal. SNR value depends on the application being used, SNR value of 20 dB or more is recommended for data networks where as an SNR value of 25 dB or more is recommended for networks that use voice applications.

 

7. How long minimum distance between APs

 

Suggest to talk to Partner/local RTM for this 

 

8. How tall the APs will be located.

 

Suggest to talk to Partner/local RTM for this 

 

 

Regards

Anand 

1 Like

Suggest to talk to Partner/local RTM for this

1. This is my problem, if I talk to local partner, I might need to buy from them.

But they might not be the cheapest one

Isn't nice asking from 1 partner but buying from different one

2. I think you should have excel that can calculate how many minimum APs I need.

As I said before the parking lot is loss. Maybe some tree only

I don't know exact shape of the location. Only future client know and that will always changing

Assume it square. You should have minimum APs needed based on AP Beam Width, Elevation, concurrent users etc


@nbctcp wrote:

Suggest to talk to Partner/local RTM for this

1. This is my problem, if I talk to local partner, I might need to buy from them.

But they might not be the cheapest one

Isn't nice asking from 1 partner but buying from different one

I personally think it's very worthwhile to cultivate good working relationships with RSM's and VAR's, even if it costs a little more initially, it will pay off in the long run, and later on, when you're doing well and commiting to more radios, you can always ask them for a discount... typically if you show loyality, and ask nicely, a deal can be made.

2. I think you should have excel that can calculate how many minimum APs I need.

As I said before the parking lot is loss. Maybe some tree only

I don't know exact shape of the location. Only future client know and that will always changing

Assume it square. You should have minimum APs needed based on AP Beam Width, Elevation, concurrent users etc

The forum is a good place to ask more direct questions, find new information, share ideas and bugs, etc... I think a lot of your questions can be answered with good old hard work on your part... doing more research, reading more posts, reading manuals, reading how-to guides, maybe buying a bit of equipment and doing some on site testing... and then... if you still have specific questions, you'll have a lot better luck getting direct answers.

Good luck!


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