We have a cluster of 4 ePMP 2000 APs. We are experiencing near 100% frame utilization with 80 customers on two of our sectors, with no room to spare for an additional one or two APs. Will migrating to ePMP 3000 make a noticeable improvement in this regard?
1 Like
If a significant number of the 80 customers ( 4 sectors so 90° sectors ?) are AC radios then it can have a huge effect assuming they are also spread out enough for MU-MIMO.
If they are all N radios then any improvement will be negligible since N can not do MU.
If they are all or almost all N then I think you might want to consider using something like KPP’s dual 5Ghz sector (two 65° sectors covering 120° inside a single antenna) you can mount 2 x 2000 APs or if you plan to move over to AC on your clients in the future then 2x 3000L. We have used the dual / split sectors a lot on towers where we need to split a sector but can not increase the number of sectors due to room or contracts.
or for 3000
Keep in mind using the split sectors assumes your customers are spread out enough. That is, if you currently have a 90° sector and there are 40 customers on it but they are all over to one side of the coverage then splitting it down the middle won’t be helpful.
2 Likes
Thanks Brubble, that’s a great suggestion. Concerning the KPP for 2000 sectors: ordering two of these would necessitate an additional two frequency bands, moving us from ABAB frequency reuse to ABCABC, correct?
1 Like
You might want to reach out to KPP (use to you could just call them but you might need to email them) they are usually really good to let you know what will / won’t work with their sectors. For example if I remember correctly you need to separate the 2 channels used by the sector more than usual (I could be remembering wrong). We use both the 5.1 and 5.8 channels so I use a 5.1 and a 5.8 in those dual sectors just to make sure I have all the separation possible.
I’ve always found the KPP guys to be super knowledgeable and super helpful.
1 Like
Anyone used one of those Alpha antennas yet? How did the MU-MIMO compare to the regular cambium antenna?
if you have two sectors now running AB, then adding two KPP duals would require AB-AB. If you got three then AB-CA-BC, but if you got four then AB-AB-AB-AB (each pair of letters separated by a hyphen denotes a separate physical antenna and the frequency planning for that antenna).
Be aware that the duals are marketed as 120 degrees total but is best used as a 90 degree total with a bit of overlap. KPP has done a great job on these but there is a limit due to physics.