ePMP "Ask the Experts" April 08

Good morning,

So I've setup 3 backhaul links utilizing the Force 110's and have been very happy with the results.

I'm pushing between 60-80mb true throughput testing through connected devices.

They seem to be pretty particular getting them connected, but once connected they seem to be very solid.

Narrower beam maybe then I'm used to with UBNT products? 

Can you look at a couple config screens and see if you anything that stands out?

Like I said the throughput is great, just wondering if there is any more tweaking I can do.

Thanks,

Ryo

Hi Ryo, 

The first link is a little bit lower on the RSSI side. Have you tried using eAlign (Tools->eAlign) on the SM/Slave side to see if you have the best alignment possible?

The second link appears to be well aligned. Not much to tweak here. 

I would recommend running a specturm analysis on all links on both sides to make sure you are using absolutely the cleanest channel possible in that environment. 

Thanks,

Sriram

No I haven't, I haven't upgraded to firmware 2.4 yet I'm still on 2.3. 

I guess there was a new version that came out this week so I may try to upgrade to that later this week.

That is a nice new feature indeed, thanks for the feedback...

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Hi Ryo, 

Yes, please skip 2.4 and go straight to 2.4.1. It has some bug fixes for issues in 2.4 that was causing heartburn with users. If you haven't used eAlign yet, that is absolutely the first thing you should do with your links. 

Thanks,

Sriram

What are the key factors to look for when bringing up a PTP.

I'm guessing the downlink SNR is my signal strength, so lower the better and once it hits the target of 60 it will adjust the antenna power accordingly?

What about the downlink SNR?

Is there anywhere in the config that shows my horizontal / vertical chains, noise floor, or projected throughput?

Details on ePMP Release 2.4.1 can be found HERE

Hi Ryo, 

The SNR is Signal-to-Noise-Ratio. It is an indicator but not the most important one. Downlink and Uplink RSSI are the key indicators. You have to get them as high as possible. Another key parameter is C/I or CINR. This is your Signal (RSSI) to Inteference ratio. Unfortunately there is not a readily available indicator for this on the UI. The way to determine CINR is to run the on-board Spectrum Analyzer individually on both ends and find out the interference level on your channel. You should try to get your CINR as high as possible for best performance. 

eAlign helps you get the highest RSSI possible. It also provides you RSSI per chain so that will help. 

For throughput, I would rely on Tools->Wireless Link Test to determine the best possible throughput that can be achieved as you configure and align your link. 

Thanks,

Sriram

That's perfect, I'll give that a try.

Thanks again...

if ePMP STA and WiFi AP can be integrated into one device, they just work at the same time or works alone?

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To add more throughput to cluster, can I put more than 6 sectors of 60°? I mean 2 sectors oriented to the same direction to duplicate the bandwidth capacity?

Hi.  This isn't really a technology question exactly, but I'm wondering if you can use the Quote function more in the Ask the Expers forums?  Sometimes I'm reading a reply in here, and the reply is something like ''You should try the 2.4.1 firmware'' and it's difficult to tell who's question that is in reply to. It would be nice  to have quotes with that reply, so that we know what answer belongs to what question.  :)
- Thanks.

2 Likes

Thanks for the suggestion - we will do that. I am sure that will make it easier to follow when there are multiple conversations.


@ninedd wrote:

Hi.  This isn't really a technology question exactly, but I'm wondering if you can use the Quote function more in the Ask the Expers forums?  Sometimes I'm reading a reply in here, and the reply is something like ''You should try the 2.4.1 firmware'' and it's difficult to tell who's question that is in reply to. It would be nice  to have quotes with that reply, so that we know what answer belongs to what question.  :)
- Thanks.


Thanks for the feedback ninedd. Will do :)

Hi.  Our network consists of about 110 Access Points, and about 2,000 clients.  We use some Canopy 900Mhz gear, and we use some Ubiquiti AirFiber on the backbone - but the non-Cambium AP & CPE equipment we use on our network right now is mostly StarOS.   StarOS is an older Linux based system, similar to MikroTik in many ways.  From a driver/technology standpoint, it's not as functional as the newer Ubiquiti or Cambium ePMP gear is, BUT it does have some nice management features that we like.

In particular, with StarOS's Access Points  - we can see a real time update of the throughput at a glance.

So, with the attached screen shot, this is the GUI (well....  SSH/Text User Interface) of the Access Point.  It shows all the numbers - Quality%, Signal, RX & TX Rates, and KByte-RX & TX throughputs - and these rates are updated for all clients once per second.  It gives a real-time snapshot of the whole Sector, at a glance.

Probably about 1/2 our calls these days are people who have 5 to 10 internet connected devices in their homes, and so many things have 'Cloud Storage' or automated updates that happen in the background, or Torrent Programs that are streaming data out (upload) all the time, or DropBox, or iCloud doing it's syncronization....   and so people have a whole bunch of traffic going accross their connection when they are unaware of it.  So - about 1/2 of all the support calls we get right now say "My internet is slow, come fix it" and right now, with StarOS, we can look at their connection 'at a glance' and see if they really have a speed problem, or it it's simply occupied without them being aware.  As I say - about 1/2 the calls, their internet is 100% fine, it's just streaming a constant 100% stream up and down all the time, and since we can see the whole sector in real time, it's easy for us to see that.  With our Cambium/Canopy 900 Mhz gear, we really have no ability to see that in the same way - other than trying to graph it via SNMP and seeing longer term usage trends.  But, with StarOS they can walk aroudn their house and shut off devices, and we can see instantly in real-time if that helps issolate which device(s) are streaming.

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Another thing we really like about StarOS's management, is the ability to throughput test to any other StarOS device on our network.  So, we can test from a CPE to the AP - but we can also test from a customer CPE ''through'' our network to any other StarOS device on the network.

Sometimes, when a client is having a speed issue, it might be their link, but it might also be something on the network somewhere - and being able to test from their CPE to their AP is good, but then also being able to step hop by hop through the network and find where the problem is is great.

We often can issolate where the broken cable, the Ethernet switch that needs power cycling, or the new source of interference is in a couple moments, and it really helps being able to do a throughput test from that StarOS CPE to any other StarOS device on the network.


Can we do something like that with the ePMP Subscriber Modules, or is the Throughput Test limited to just testing the wireless to the AP it's connected to?


@Sakid Ahmed wrote:

I think what we should do is hold a public webinar and talk through our roadmap.


YES - I think this is an excellent idea.  Much of what you mentioned here are questions I've wondered about.  We have some Canopy PMP100 gear now, so co-location with that is important.  Most importantly - interference mitigation and robustness technology is the single most important thing to us.  So, having a webinar about the road map would be excellent.  :)

Hi ninedd ,

Take a look at Cambium Network Services Server:

http://www.cambiumnetworks.com/products/management-tools/cns-server

In fact, I have a few questions related to CNS, if someone from Cambium could please help me out:

- Is it compatible with PTP250?

- I have installed it and I am able to detect ePMP1000 devices, not yet connect to them, or else. I only see the message "Failed" after the discovery process. Could this be related to login/password info?

- What version of SNMP does the ePMP1000 supports? and PTP250?

Thanks!

Ana


@ninedd wrote:

Another thing we really like about StarOS's management, is the ability to throughput test to any other StarOS device on our network.  So, we can test from a CPE to the AP - but we can also test from a customer CPE ''through'' our network to any other StarOS device on the network.

Sometimes, when a client is having a speed issue, it might be their link, but it might also be something on the network somewhere - and being able to test from their CPE to their AP is good, but then also being able to step hop by hop through the network and find where the problem is is great.

We often can issolate where the broken cable, the Ethernet switch that needs power cycling, or the new source of interference is in a couple moments, and it really helps being able to do a throughput test from that StarOS CPE to any other StarOS device on the network.


Can we do something like that with the ePMP Subscriber Modules, or is the Throughput Test limited to just testing the wireless to the AP it's connected to?


Any plans to release ePMP in the 4.9 GHz Public Safety band?

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