New guy around need some info...

anon1 · January 1, 2020, 11:31pm

Hello,

I'm one of WISPs that has 99% of UBNT equipment. I guess it's obvious why I got here - to find better solution.
I heard about Cambium even before, when I started my WISP business. I guess UBNT did better marketing and there I am now. WIFI4EU project is what made me look at
Cambium again because UBNT promised to get certificates 18 months ago. Setting up access points will be piece of cake with Cambium for first time (I got hands on some products for testing from my distributor), even I did many of UNIFI deployments before. But it's not why I am here. I'm here because of WISP business.
I have nothing against UBNT, but some things like catching up with roadmap, promises, waiting for year(s) to deliver actual product drives me insane.
They have pretty good things too, that's why I'm still stick to them.

Right now, I have plans to cover more area and get more customers, so I have to decide - keep stick to UBNT or go with other solutions.
What I miss with UBNT most is 4x4 MU-MIMO access points, like ePMP3000 to have more clients within same channel width.
If you don't mind, I would like to ask few general questions here, feel free to answer, point me on reading other topics, ban me or whatever.

I'm looking mostly at ePMP 3000 device here as my access point solution.

1. There is device itself with 4 connectors, one for each chain from 4x4. I guess GPS antenna is internal because there is not 5th connector for external antenna?
2. I would like to use 3rd party antennas, from RF Elements. My deployment is in very hostile enviroment and asymetric horn antennas are only solution so far. Can I connect two 2x2 antennas to single ePMP3000, what is best option?
2.a If answer is YES, can I point them back-to-back, like in GPS ABAB deployment, (but A is same radio, 2 antennas) to save some costs on radios for first few months? Later I would buy 2 antennas for each radio and point both antennas in same direction to have higher client count.
3. I use spectrum analyzer very much, on both - AP and CPE because there are many n00bz around who have AUTO channels set, or randomly change their freq. Does Cambium have separate radio on AP and CPE to have real time spectrum analyzer or I have to go on clients location to run it because it will drop wifi connection?
3.a Maybe it has mode to turn off wireless connection for 10mins, save and send results back later?
3.b If it's not possible to analyze spectrum, is it possible at least do live wireless network survey from both AP and CPE without cutting wireless link to get some "feel" about other AP channels/signals? I know to get real picture, we need to see also signals from other stations, but in some cases it helps.
4. Elevate FW works only with M5 series from UBNT, no AC? Is it on roadmap, any beta or something?
5. Is it possible to connect 3rd party devices as stations, or only Cambium CPE and UBNT/mikrotik with elevate FW?
6. What is status of multiplexing to get (multi)Gigabit wireless PTP links/redudancy?
7. If I use old LiteBeams from UBNT, they are 1x1 radios, does 4x4 mean it can serve 4 of them at same time or 2 of them + 1 2x2 radio? Please explain it to me, I didn't even do research on this topic, just came in mind right now.
8. Name at least ONE or more adventages why YOU using Cambium over UBNT AC/other vendors equipment

Eric_Ozrelic · January 2, 2020, 2:03am

@anon1 wrote:

1. There is device itself with 4 connectors, one for each chain from 4x4. I guess GPS antenna is internal because there is not 5th connector for external antenna?

The ePMP 3000 has an integrated GPS antenna, or you can attach an external GPS antenna via the RF connector under the bottom flap alongside the ethernet, SFP and BSA ports. Lastly you can feed the AP sync via the ethernet port by a device like a CMM5 or Packetflux Rackinjector.

2. I would like to use 3rd party antennas, from RF Elements. My deployment is in very hostile enviroment and asymetric horn antennas are only solution so far. Can I connect two 2x2 antennas to single ePMP3000, what is best option?

Yes, you can, but MU-MIMO might not work and you won't probably get any benefits from the optional uplink beam steering antenna (BSA). Cambium is currently beta testing a dual horn setup that is supposed to work properly with MU-MIMO. If you absolutely need horns and you don't want to do a bunch of field testing trying to get things working right, you might want to wait until Cambium's solution comes out before deploying.

2.a If answer is YES, can I point them back-to-back, like in GPS ABAB deployment, (but A is same radio, 2 antennas) to save some costs on radios for first few months? Later I would buy 2 antennas for each radio and point both antennas in same direction to have higher client count.

Yes, you can point them back to back, but you won't get any MU-MIMO benefits and no BSA benefits. It might be easier if you just use the lower cost 2x2 3000L radio with RF elements horns to start, and move up to the full 4x4 e3k AP when you're running all AC clients and are ready to pack more people onto the AP and tap into MU-MIMO and 256QAM.

3. I use spectrum analyzer very much, on both - AP and CPE because there are many n00bz around who have AUTO channels set, or randomly change their freq. Does Cambium have separate radio on AP and CPE to have real time spectrum analyzer or I have to go on clients location to run it because it will drop wifi connection?

Both the ePMP 3000 and AC clients have a built in SA that can scan in the background. Running it does not disconnect their RF. Running them for long periods of time can have performance issues, so it's recommended that you only use them for what you need and then turn off the SA when you're done. Running an SA also gathers some wifi beacons and over time will show you various stats on other wifi based AP's around you.

3.a Maybe it has mode to turn off wireless connection for 10mins, save and send results back later?

This isn't currently a feature on ePMP but people have been asking for this. It's currently a feature on the PMP450 line.

3.b If it's not possible to analyze spectrum, is it possible at least do live wireless network survey from both AP and CPE without cutting wireless link to get some "feel" about other AP channels/signals? I know to get real picture, we need to see also signals from other stations, but in some cases it helps.

The ePMP line has some pretty basic tools for this, it's not anywhere close to being as comprehensive or as easy to use and digest as UBNT however. People have been asking for better SA and site survey tools for awhile now. Cambium's listening and supposedly working on better tools.

4. Elevate FW works only with M5 series from UBNT, no AC? Is it on roadmap, any beta or something?

I'd only use Elevate if you have to. It will be much better just to start out with AC clients as you will get MU-MIMO and 256QAM support out of the gate. There are no plans for AC elevate.

5. Is it possible to connect 3rd party devices as stations, or only Cambium CPE and UBNT/mikrotik with elevate FW?

There is no native WiFi support. Only devices that use Cambium's ePMP firmware will be able to connect. There are no plans for native WiFi support.

6. What is status of multiplexing to get (multi)Gigabit wireless PTP links/redudancy?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you talking about something like UBNT's Airfiber NxN series? Cambium doesn't have anything like this, nor any plans to make one. Cambium does have the 802.11ac wave 2 based PTP550 which allows you to bond up to 2 non-contiguous 80MHz channels together to get you a maximum of 1.4gbps net aggregate throughput. Good luck finding two clean 80MHz channels though. It's really difficult to get more then a gigabit of actual throughput out of the 5GHz band, and it's a huge waste IMHO to use this for PtP applications. You're way better off going licensed or using MM wave. If you're wanting to provide at/near gigabit real throughput to PtMP clients, then your best bet currently is PMP450m on 5GHz using a 40MHz channel.

7. If I use old LiteBeams from UBNT, they are 1x1 radios, does 4x4 mean it can serve 4 of them at same time or 2 of them + 1 2x2 radio? Please explain it to me, I didn't even do research on this topic, just came in mind right now.

First, I'd highly recommend that you NOT use 1x1 radios or any older/non-Cambium radios. Legacy N radios cannot participate in MU-MIMO or use 256QAM. Legacy 2x2 or 1x1 N radios will see an RSSI benefit however from the 4x4 and the OEM antenna, which may result in performance gains by being able to reach higher modulations then they would have been able to otherwise. 1x1 radios will use twice as much airtime to transfer the same amount of data as a 2x2 radio. It's not recommended that you use these radios as they will bring down the overall AP performance. You should replace any 1x1 radios out there ASAP!

8. Name at least ONE or more adventages why YOU using Cambium over UBNT AC/other vendors equipment

We really like cnMaestro, their cloud or onpremise management platform, similar but a lot better then UBNT's AirControl or UNMS. We like the support... you can actually call up Cambium and get phone or email technical support. Cambium's radios come with a standard 3 year warranty out of the box.

Lastly, I think the biggest thing for us is we're really close with our Cambium Regional Sales Manager or RSM... they're immensly helpful when it comes to building out projects... helping out with pricing, to technical support, beta equipment and firmware, etc. I can call my RSM day or night and get someone that can help me with whatever I need. If there's one piece of advice for someone new, I'd say get to know and make friends with your RSM. It's invaluable.

Hope that answers your questions! Welcome to the forum BTW!