Affected platforms: ePMP4500s Affected versions: 5.10.0 and newer
Backward Compatibility in ePMP 5.10.0 and Migration Mode Overview
Starting with the ePMP 5.10.0 release, backward compatibility has been introduced between ePMP 4500 series Access Points (APs) and legacy Subscriber Modules (SMs) such as the ePMP 1000s, Force 180s (F180), Force 190s (F190), and Force 200s (F200). This functionality allows network operators to continue supporting older SMs while upgrading APs infrastructure.
To enable this feature, navigate to the Configuration → Radio section of the web user interface and activate Migration Mode.
Migration Mode is specifically designed to support legacy SMs—including F300, F180, F200, and ePMP 1000—during transitional periods. While this mode facilitates smoother upgrades and minimizes service disruption, it is intended strictly for temporary use during network migration. It is not recommended for long-term deployment due to performance trade-offs.
Increased Latency: Users may experience higher latency compared to standard (greenfield) deployments.
Reduced Throughput: A slight decrease in data throughput may occur.
Performance Variability: Overall sector performance is influenced by both the quantity and proportion of legacy SMs (F180, F200, ePMP 1000) connected to the AP.
To achieve optimal performance, it is recommended to complete the migration to newer SM models as soon as feasible.
lets be honest here, many of us are not going to forklift
If replacing 1k/2k APs, Can we assume we will see density improvements at minimum?
If replacing 3k will we see improvements?
Overall sector performance limitations I assume are in reference to a full 4k deployment? Is this accurate, and we will likely see reliabilty/performance improvements in reference to 1/2/3k deployments?
How long will migration mode be supported? is it a scheduled firmware depretiated feature?
I would like to also ask this:
If no other changes are made to a legacy system, will replacing a 1k or 2k AP with a 4500 result in better performance than the 1k or 2k AP supported?
Indeed Cambium could provide little more details for this backward compatibility. We only recently exchanged lots of SMs to F300, since 4000 series wasn’t finished for two+ years and way too expensive for our market. Also absence of smaller form factor SMs didn’t help either, because absolute majority of our deployments are sub-3km, therefore F4525 was an overkill + many mountings would have needed to be replaced to support them. We also replaced almost all of APs from 3000L to 3000 4x4 during recent promotion, targeting to have all SMs F300 only on 3000 APs. The plan was to replace most busy APs to 4000 later and run them with F300 by replacing to 4000-series SMs for heavy users first when they becom available in Q2-Q3.
We found that forklifting is more expensive sometimes than the SM itself. People here don’t want to hear about it anymore unfortunately
While we don’t have many 130/180/200 SMs, there are still quite many Elevated Mikrotik SXT SMs. It’s a pitty to change them to AC/AX when they only use up to 10GB/week and perform surprisingly well. I wonder if there are any difference to run elevated Mikrotik 11n devices in comparison to F180s besides Licensing mechanism of course. It would be very nice if Cambium just droped the licensing and let say at least up to 10-15 elevated units to connect to 4500 APs. This would make lots of room for everyone to maneuver. Think of LTE compatibility - when very old Cat4 devices work in brand new 4-5G networks perfectly just with reduced capacity
