This will be a long one but I did my first field tests with a 4600 AP and 4625 SM at both 80mhz and 40mhz and the performance on 80mhz is lacking. In all my tests 80mhz was around 50-60% of what the Cambium Capacity Planner tool says I should get on this product. 40mhz tests were better at around 90-92% of the Capacity Planner.
My setup:
AP - 4600 AP connected to Cambium 90deg AP. Mounted on a 125’ grain elevator. AP set to both 40mhz and 80mhz on a channel that allow the full 36 EIRP.
SM - Mounted to the roof of my van around 12ft high. Distance to AP was around .9 miles. Signal was -49db SM and -53db AP. Was getting 100% on Quality/Capacity with DS 11 modulation rates. Sometimes UL was DS 10.
First tests were with AP at 75/25 long GI. I did 3 test and all were around 498-500 down and 192 up. Capacity planner says I should get 866 down and 266 up.
I then dropped to 40mhz on same channel and did the test again. Got 381 down and 115 up. Capacity planner says it should be 414 down 127 up. So that was pretty close.
I then went back to stayed at 70/30 and did and internet speed test to compare to the internal Link Test results and got pretty close. I got 443 down and 232 up
So I my opinion something is wrong at 80mhz where you cannot get much above 500Mbps. It is almost like MCS 11 is performing more like MCS 6 and 7 which according to the Cambium Capacity planner would be around 516 down and 156 up at MCS 7.
Beyond that latency numbers were good and internet browsing and downloads ran fine without any issues outside of the lower than expected bandwidth.
I will mention that I have another test site with a 4500L (2x2) AP connected to a 4525 SM and at 80mhz it gets much better results. Cambium Capacity Planner says I should get 860/259 and I get 804/256
Wait until you put customers on it then you will see it decrease in performance dramatically at the moment…
I would not put any more than 20 customers on it.
Do you mean in raw bandwidth or also a decrease in the quality of the connections? Right now I am testing this as a way to offload clients from loaded AirmaxAC APs while also increasing speeds. I am only planning on the top package being 100Mbps for now.
What he means is scaling is absolutely horrible right now! Put 12-15 customers on the AP and you’ll be lucky to get 50% of what you just posted in total throughput.
I think this is Cambium’s #1 goal for the firmware currently – PtMP TDD has relatively recently been added to the AX firmware, so it’s not optimized quite yet. As far as I know, that’s pretty much their top priority, and I’m confident they’ll have it screaming along soon.
If your current goal is to offload an overly loaded Airmax AP, you could probably take your top 10% - 20% of clients over to the 4600 now and see the improvement you’re looking for… with much more to come.
Im not sure where your info is coming from, but thats simply not true. TDD has been available for quite some time now, they’ve simply been struggling with getting it working. Its been available for every bit of 8 months (honestly probably longer).
20mhz seems to work ok and you get really close to what the AX chart suggests you will per modulation level. 40mhz best case scenario, you end up getting around 60% of what the chart suggests and 80mhz is closer to the 50% mark.
For instance, the picture below is for a 4500, which is slightly worse off than the 4600. Its all about the same ballpark though. The picture is a 40mhz carrier.
Your sentiment regarding taking the top users of Airmax and putting them on the 4600, i would agree with. As long as you keep your client counts really low, then you should be fine. For instance the picture below is of a 4500L and a 4500 with less clients but the exact same modulation levels.
