My company is about to start testing of cnRanger, the gear is mounted on one of our sites. Any tips or tricks we should be aware of for setting the gear? It seems like a very promising solution and could get a lot new connections for us and possibly fix some troublesome ones as well
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We’ve have a few sites deployed with cnRanger for 2.5GHz. What bands are you wanting to deploy on and what questions did you have?
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We’ll be using 2.5ghz as well. I’m more on the installer side, so more if there are any idiosyncrasies that would be worth knowing about regarding the CPE? Are you using any CPE other than the Cambium units? I’ve been told other brands should be compatible with cnRanger
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The 2.5GHz client radio (what Cambium calls an “SM”, or what 3GPP/LTE calls a “UE”), are super easy to install and configure. Just register the SIM/IMSI on the BBU with the IP and MIR and then pop the SIM in the SM. Configure the SM if you want to use bridge or NAT mode. Once the radio has registered to the BBU, onboard into cnMaestro for monitoring, management, and firmware updates.
While you can use 3rd party UE’s with cnRanger, I wouldn’t recommend it. Here are a few reasons why you’d want to stick with cnRanger SM’s:
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Best integration with cnMaestro. As far as I know cnMaestro doesn’t have support for 3rd party UE’s. Using 3rd party UE’s would require you to manage them yourself using TR69 or SNMP and a 3rd party monitoring/management system.
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If you want to do things like offer clients static IP addresses, then you’ll want to use cnRanger’s proprietary implementation of bridge mode, which will require you to use a cnRanger SM.
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The cnRanger SM has a higher transmit power then 3rd party LTE UE’s. 26dBm vs. 23dBm, respectively. This extended TX power coupled with the high gain flat panel antenna design allow for higher uplink performance, which is typically where you have the most difficulty with nNLOS LTE shots.
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First off, welcome to our community Callum!!
Looks like you’ll be using this in New Zealand, correct? What gear are you referring to, when you suggest that cnRanger may enable you to connect with better coverage?
Please keep posting here as your experience unfolds, and we can help assist you if needed. I would love for you to share your experience. How is it different than other Cambium equipment (if you have that experience)? How is it similar? Compare to other gear, whether fixed wireless or LTE?
Thanks in advance… (pictures are ALWAYS welcome)
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Hi Matt, thanks for the welcome!
Yes we’re based in Taranaki, New Zealand. We’ll be using 2.5GHz cnRanger (actually in the very high range where it transitions into 2.6GHz, not that I think that should make a difference).
The site is is going on (literally went live with the gear this week) was previously all Ubiquiti sectors/horns. There are now 3 Medusa sectors up, with the upgrades to 450b’s going pretty well, perhaps not as fast as we would like due to just not having enough time to do them, with excellent results. The cnRanger is obviously for a nLOS/NLOS solution for those customer with a good view of the site.
I aim to do some testing with a cnRanger SM this weekend. A couple of guys on the team have had a go today and didnt have much luck connecting with them so far. I’ll update again after I’ve had a go
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