Apologies for simple and potentially ignorant question but I’m new to the wireless broadband and Canopy world. My understanding of the Canopy reflectors is that they can be used to extend range of coverage effectively creating a “hop” from the AP to the CPE/Subcriber Module. If this is true how much of an extension do you get from the reflector and does the reflector itself carry any bandwidth overhead (do you lose bandwidth by using a reflector or does the CPE connected to the reflector still receive the same shared bandwidth that a CPE connected directly to an AP get).
Thanks in advance for the help…
A Canopy unit with an internal antenna spreads its signal over a 60-degree path. The reflector simply focuses this wide radiation pattern into a narrow (6-degree wide?) pattern.
The result: the signal strength within this narrow pattern is stronger. The normal 2-mile range for the 5.7GHz AP-SM pair is extended to more like 13 miles. Under good conditions you can actually reach futher – both with and without the reflector – but the 5.7 AP is limited to 15 miles within its software configuration.
The reflector makes no change in timing or bandwidth by itself, but when you set the AP’s MaxRange above a certain point (10 miles?) the bandwidth is lowered somewhat because the AP adds an extra control slot to the data stream to compensate for the longer time it takes for the signal to travel to and from the most distant units.