Hi guys, I am little bit confused from cambium 5ghz AC products…
can anybody explain me difference between:
epmp3000 4x4 + possible beam forming? ( is that beamforming antenna really needed? does it help really?)
epmp4500L which is MU-MIMO but only 2x2 …and support 1024Q
cause epmp4500L acces point is cheaper than 3000…I tought that 4500L is “newer”?
thanks!
The ePMP 3000 aka e3k is a 4x4 AP capable of beamforming, MU-MIMO, backwards compatibility with legacy N SM’s, and support for up to 256QAM when using AC clients. You can attach an optional beam steering antenna aka BSA to help improve uplink performance. You do not need the BSA in order for the AP to provide MU-MIMO and beamforming. You should probably only buy the BSA after first deploying the e3k AP and seeing if you’re having issues with uplink modulation performance.
The ePMP 4500L is a 2x2 AP. It does not support beamforming or MU-MIMO, it does not support a BSA. It does support up to 1024QAM with AX clients. It will eventually support legacy SM’s.
The e3k 4x4 AP was considered the flagship 3rd generation ePMP radio and thus its price is higher (although if you work with your Cambium RSM or disti you can often find this radio on discount through promos).
The 4500L is considered an entry level 4th generation ePMP radio and so its price is lower.
thanks much!
so…epmp3000 should be better than 4500l?
what are those promos? epmp3000 cost 1000€ for redio only here…
Hi. There are both 3000 and 4000 series radios, basically 3000 series are 802.11 AC based, while 4000 series are 802.11 AX based. Given that, the 4000 series are all ‘better’.
However, it’s more complicated than that – there are both ‘Full’ and ‘Lite’ models, so the ePMP3000 (Full = 4x4) vs the 3000L (Lite = 2x2), and likewise there is the 4500 (Full = 8x8) and the 4500L (Lite = 2x2) versions in 5Ghz as well.
So, to answer your question, yes, the 4500 is newer and ‘better’ but there are still some features of the 3000 Full 4x4 which may be better than the 4500L (Lite 2x2), even though the 4500 series is newer… the ‘Lite’ versions are lite 
Another thing to consider is that the 4500 series is currently very new, so not 10)% of all features are fully implemented yet (software always takes a while to mature after the hardware is completed) so if you buy a 3000 or 3000L the software (version 4.7.1) is fully mature, while if you purchase a 4500 or 4500L the software is still a work in progress and not all features are fully mature quite yet, That’s being addressed in the coming weeks and months, but you wouldn’t get 100% total feature set right today out of the 4000 series. For example, forwards/backwards compatibility isn’t quite available, so the 4500 series AP’s can’t quite talk to the 300 series SM’s today, although that will change as soon as it’s possible of course.
Contact your Cambium regional sales manager (RSM) or ask your distributor for any ePMP promos. You can also find some promos on Cambium’s website here: