Outdoor Wi-Fi networks are seeing large rollouts in recent years, particularly those managed by Service Providers, Carriers and Governments. These networks are being rolled out to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth by people on the go. There is another technology: LTE, in a nearby spectrum that is also seeing similar adoption and there are some interesting challenges showing up in the field with co-located equipment.
2.4GHz Wi-Fi Co-existence bcomes an issue with nearby LTE cellular Micro and Pico base stations in the LTE, E-UTRA Frequency Bands 7, 38, 40, and 41. These four bands are the closest to the unlicensed 2.440-2483.5MHz band used by Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi LTE co-existence bands
The near overlap of the typically high powered LTE base stations can have a very detrimental effect on Wi-Fi AP performance, and to help mitigate this Cambium cnPilot outdoor Wi-Fi access points include hardware LTE filters.
LTE filters on the cnPilot e700
These filters play a critical role in ensuring Wi-Fi services provided by the cnPilot APs such as e500, e501S, e502S, e700 are not impacted by any nearby LTE devices. In addition to real-world performance, the improvements from these filters can also be seen in our own lab tests where the Wi-Fi performance with and without filters is dramatically different, especially as the signal strength of the LTE interference is increased:
2.4Ghz performance with and without LTE filters at 2390MHz
2.4Ghz performance with and without LTE filters at 2506MHz
For more details check out our Wi-Fi-LTE co-existence solution paper