New EPMP Deployment half speeds of UBNT, Lower DB..

We recently deployed our first EPMP 1000 Tower with 2.4 Ghz Radios and the Cambium recommended Antennas built by Mars.  We are experiencing an average of 7 MBPS Download and 4 MBPS on our LOS customers .5 miles and less.  These customers have a 50 to 55 DB signal up to 62 for the NLOS ones.  Further customers are experiencing a more degregation of speeds.  This has been the issue from customer 1 to customer 6.  

Comparrison:

Our 2.4 EPMP AP's were damaged from ESD within 4 days while all the UBNT equipment and Mikrotik router remained fine.  In the interim to recieving new 2.4 APs we put up a 2.4 UBNT NSM2, switched the SMs  to WIFI Mode and immediatly the signals improved by nearly 10 DB, and the throughput averaged 18 to 20 MBPS.

After replacing the EPMPs we went right back to the extremly limited speeds, comparable to the  pmp100 2.4 APs.

My concern is the WHY is it so much slower, every setting is per the  EPMP Optimization Guide, DB's are in range...

Also The recommended Antenna, the one Mars makes for Cambium is X polorized, If Im not mistaken isnt the EPMP Force 200 and 1000's were + polorized and if so is that why there lowered signal and quality?

Matthew

Something seems really wrong here, and def off from mine (and other people's) experiences with ePMP on 2.4GHz.

What firmware revision are you running on the AP's and SM's? Are you using TDD mode, and what frame type? Also, can you post a screen shot of an SA from the AP, and possibly from one of the clients having the most issues? Are you using the original 1000 integrated radios as client radios, or the new 200 dishes for client radios?

Lastly, while the Cambium OEM 2.4GHz sector antenna (made by MARS) is +-45deg, the client/SM radios are all H/V polarized. Cambium has a white paper on why this isn't a problem. It also would not explain the issues you're having.

There's a heady white paper on the subject here.

2 Likes

The lower RSSI at the client may be due to the Cambium radios actually enforcing EIRP rules instead of letting you run 27dBm into the antenna like the UBNT radios would.  Regardless, your signals are great and shouldn't be an issue.

What do your MCS rates look like?  Perhpas you can post a screenshot of the monitor -> wireless page?

There is a mix of integrated 1000 clients (2) and Force 200 (4) clients.

I was unable to post all the screenshots but so I left out the system page and will display some of that here.  All radios are up to date and have went through the multiple update process before hitting the Vans..  (I wish that would be one update not multiple per).

Monitor System

Hardware Version 2.4 GHz Connectorized Radio with Sync
Serial number (MSN) N/A
Firmware Version U-Boot 9350_PX 1.1.4.e (Feb 24 2016 - 20:14:38)
Software Version (Active Bank) 2.6.1
Software Version (Inactive Bank) 2.6
Date and Time 26 May 2016, 09:28:19 EDT
System Uptime 6 days, 20 hours
Wireless MAC Address 00:04:56:CA:7F:00
Ethernet MAC Address 00:04:56:CA:7E:FF
DFS Status Not Available
Sync Source Status GPS Sync Up

Hmmm.  We're experiencing similar trouble with one customer right now on 2.4GHz ePMP. (most of our customers are provisioned for less than 7Mbps so in most cases we wouldn't see this)  2.6.1 firmware both ends.

Signal -55dBm up and down, SNR 41dB up and down.  MCS15 up & down, and QoS set to wide open at 200Mbps up and down limits.  Error drops and capacity drops are all <0.1% both directions on wireless and ethernet sides.

I can link test 78Mbps down and 18Mbps up between the units themselves, but the customer so far has never been able to get past 7Mbps down... Haven't been able to get a knowledgeable network guy onsite yet to diagnose deeper.  Customer using Netgear WNR2000v4 router.

(unrelated:  We're seeing a huge percentage of WNR2000v5 routers misconfigured - seems the 'quick setup' encourages customers to set it in AP-only mode instead of routing [one customer on the phone while configuring said it was pre-checked and said "Recommended" next to it!], picking up one of those models this weekend for testing)

j

The netgear routers will recommend being setup in AP-only mode if they detect NAT in front of them, assuming another router is already installed.

That's what I was wondering, but we're NOT NATting, we're handing out routable public IPs via DHCP...  Something in it's internal logic might be misreading the situation.

j

Hello, 

You need to run firmware update one more  time to upgrade the  inactive bank, and update GPS with the same firmware 2.6.1 if is not up to date.

Are you using frequency re utilization on the AP's?, it looks like you are. where you able to perform spectrum analizer and get a clean channel? Are you still using the ubiquiti equipment on the same tower? if so, could you tuen ubiquiti equipment off for few minutes and try running more tests to the CPE's?

At your access point, can you go to Tools-> eDetect and post the screenshot here?

If you are not using frequency re utilization betwen two AP's, try changing the acces points to Flexible instead of 75/25 and 2.5 Ms  instead of 5Ms see what happens, Otherwise, remember to have exact parameters betwen both AP's when they are sysnc for frequency reuse.

Can you use 20 Mhz channels instead of 10 Mhz channels?

Can you post an screenshot of your spectrum analisys  for the frequency range you are using?

Thx