ePMP Software Release 5.8.0 is now available

Products ePMP
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Supported Platforms

  • ePMP AC Platforms
  • ePMP AX Platforms

Download the firmware and documentation from:

In the 5.8 firmware release, the ePMP4500C currently supports 8x8 sector antennas when configured with the Sector Downlink Antenna option. ePMP4500C with a 8x8 Sector Antenna connected can leverage the benefits of Beamforming and increase SMs Downlink RSSI up to 6 dB compared to previous firmware versions.
Additionally, four 2x2 sector antennas or horn antennas are supported in scenarios with non-overlapping coverage when the Omni/Split Sector option is selected in the configuration. No Beamforrming gain is expected in this case.

Features Description

The following new features were introduced in Release 5.8.0-RC27:

Problems Corrected

Tracking ID Products Description
AXG-9445 All Improvements in the usability and representation of AFC functionality.
AXG-9937 All Proxy authentication for AFC has been implemented.
AXG-928 All Multiple stability improvements for TDD mode have been implemented.
AXG-8965 All The issue of the missing Separate Wireless Management Interface after configuring Data VLAN and IPv6 has been fixed.
AXG-8962 All The issue of the Separate Wireless Management Interface missing after switching WAN IP mode between Static and DHCP when Data VLAN is configured has been fixed.
AXG-8946 All The issue where Separate Management Interfaces may not come up after configuration has been fixed.
AXG-8613 All Multiple stability improvements for TDD mode have been implemented.
AXG-8552 All Multiple stability improvements for TDD mode have been implemented.
AXG-8375 All Multiple stability improvements for TDD mode have been implemented.
AXG-7963 All Multiple stability improvements for TDD mode have been implemented.

Known Issues or Limitations

  • Flexible Licensing is disabled in firmware and is not supported.
4 Likes
2

7 posts were split to a new topic: AFC error message: “AP isn’t AFC capable but SM is”

8

I really can’t understand why 5.8.0 was released out of BETA already.

There are two known issues (not mentioned in the Known Issues section above), SO BEWARE:

  • AP randomly drops all subs. A reboot of the AP brings the subs online
  • TCP performance is significantly worse than UDP (e.g. what the AP/SMs will report in the Wireless Link Test)

These issues were known before the release of 5.8.0 to the public, so I think it’s bad practice to at least not give customers a heads-up on their presence.

9

We’ve been using 5.8.0 RC’s for quite some time and just recently upgraded to 5.8.0 and have not experienced this. Have you started a ticket and provided any TSF’s to Cambium support?

Is this any worse then 5.7.2? Is this for PtMP or PtP and in which modes? We have had no customer complaints on any of our TDD PtMP AP’s, and the ePtP’s we have in place are showing the same amount of TCP bandwidth when we use a Mikrotik bw test.

10

Yes, Cambium has been provided the support file that we generated after the crash.

Unsure if worse than 5.7.2, but surely you’d want people to be aware that their TCP isn’t loosely matching up with the wireless link test results when that has been the historic behaviour with ePMP.

11

Hi Jesse,

From the engineering perspective:

  1. You have sent the TSF to me 1 minute before posting this on the community, 5 days after 5.8 was released. I appreciate that you observe the issue and reported it to us. I’ll analyse logs and get back to you shortly. I cannot confirm that it is the known issue at that stage.
  2. There are multiple objective reasons for seeing low TCP throughput compared to UDP throughput in the wireless environment. As you know, we(R&D team) are working directly with you on the issue debugging. I have confirmed that we can see the issue on your setup that manifest itself as low OOKLA Speed Test Throughput. We are not certain yet on the root cause of the issue and will keep you posted accordingly. This issue is not seen for many customers and may be specific for your environment.
  3. 5.8 firmware brings incremental improvement to 99.999% of customers and performs better than previous 5.7.2, 5.7.1, etc releases since delivers such a major features like Beamforming, MIR, Primary AP reconnect and many other bug fixes and optimizations.

From the human perspective it’s sad to see that the very basic rules like the privacy of the communication between two gentlemen does not remain a rule of a good form.

Thanks.

3 Likes
12

Hi Fedor,

  1. The AP dropping the subs issue was reported to Cambium before 5.8 was released publicly.
  2. I have heard from a number of other WISPs seeing the low TCP throughput issues we’ve experienced, let me know if you’d like them to be in touch

I’ll discuss the communication privacy issue with you directly.

14

Another problem I have found is that sometimes the F4600 reboots randomly

15

I’ve had an 4500 AP drop its wireless connection to clients twice the past few days soon after upgrading to 5.8. A reboot is required to restore service. I pulled the TSF before this last reboot. Where should I send the file off to for analysis?

16

Please send it to me at fedor.trutsko(at)cambiumnetworks(dot)com
What Driver mode and Bandwidth did you use?

Thank you in advance.

17

We have not experienced any random reboots under 5.8.0 beta or production… We are using 4500L APs in TDD PTMP but they are not heavily loaded. Both the APs and the 4525 and 400C SMs have been solid for us.

2 Likes
18

Yes, the AP dropping its subs is a known issue, theres been several reports about it via the WISP forum. Also, the TCP issue is a well known one as well. However each time its reported the response is the same as what you just received “we arent aware of this issue and it could be isolated to your environment” despite the literal 10-15 operators that have reported the exact same ordeal. If they continue to ignore it they can progress on and release mu-mimo and claim that the product line is fully matured hoping to get a boost in sales. Maybe by 9.x.x theyll believe the issue exists and fix it. Heck it only took them what 4 years to acknowledge that pmp doesnt scale properly and another 1-2 years to start to implement a fix. So tired of the “we dont know about that issue”. Heck theres literally 3 or 4 just on the forums here that have that same response!

19

Hi Riverrrat, do you use the 400C in PTMP mode? We’re wondering to buy these instead of the 3000L as low number sectors

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You’ll need to buy the 4500L if you need PtMP.

21

Yes we did some testing and noticed while you can go into TDD mode, you’re limited to 1 client. Bloody license limits. Clearly a revenue protector.

22

We are only using them in PTP and as an SM in PTMP. Haven’t tried them as an AP yet. I’d be curious how they work where GPS is not needed.

23

Hi @Colby_Baxter,

Thank you for your feedback.
Have you personally encountered the issue of an AP dropping SMs?
I had previously requested additional data on the TCP issue, but I haven’t received a response from you yet.

Thank you.

24

Email sent with tech file.

I’m currently running TDD with 40mhz wide channel. After the second crash, I did find that a couple clients radios did not upgrade to 5.8 when scheduled. After manually upgrading their firmware, I have not seen a crash since.

2 Likes
25

Ya the 400c SM is very much a money grab. Same feature set as the F4625, minus the antenna, but its almost double the price. I had thought certainly this must double as a 2x2 PtMP AP but nope. It should at most be the same cost as the F4625 given it has no real cost saving advantages over F4625.

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Hello @Pierre_Jeptha,

I guess you meant F4525. As F4625 is a 6GHz radio.

F400 and F4525 have a different hardware. F400 is much more powerful and it will have much better performance/stability with the same feature set enabled.

It will be the same between F4600C and F4625.