Do yourself a favor.
If you are not going to spend the money on training (highly recommended), at least download the Canopy Operators guide and read it end to end. Pay special attention to timing and frames. Also grab all of the white papers, and application notes.
Do some searches for various RF theory pages. Every WISP should know how to do a link budget, Fresnel zone, and ERP estimation.
You’ll be glad you did.
I had seen/heard through a webinar that Motorola was starting a new project that brings all the Canopy WISPS together for a ‘meating’…(IIRC)
Is there still headway being made on this, or am I just out of the loop right now?
It’d be great (and beneficial) if Moto Canopy WISPS could get together maybe 1 or 2 times a year (or more for regional areas) and discuss how their experiences are going and tips/tricks with the gear…maybe share stories (i.e., presentations), new tools they’ve found/created, etc.
Kinda like the linux user group meetings held monthly or semi-anually, or even the 2600 ‘meatings’.
Stand by for a bit - we hope to have an announcement soon on a ‘meeting’…
What ever happened to CanopyCon?
Im all about reading the manuals. It would just be nice if motorola has made them more user friendly. Even the moto techs ive spoken to said its in a bad format. All the info is there, but its not very organized
Jerry Richardson wrote: Do yourself a favor.
If you are not going to spend the money on training (highly recommended), at least download the Canopy Operators guide and read it end to end. Pay special attention to timing and frames. Also grab all of the white papers, and application notes.
Do some searches for various RF theory pages. Every WISP should know how to do a link budget, Fresnel zone, and ERP estimation.
You'll be glad you did.
Thanks for the heads-up/reminder. Sometimes it seems the fires are so hot it's hard to train on how to prevent them/put them out. I will try to catch up with the reading material in my 'spare time'.
If you read the manual you will immediately be 1000% more effective at resolving your issues. You don’t need to reas the whole thing, there is alot in there about the explanation of the devices, part numbers, etc.
Focus on the Planning Guide starting on page 129.
There are two major reasons people have issues with Canopy
1. Interference
2. Unrealistic expectations
1. Interference
There are two types of interference.
a. Outside Interference - this is where spectrum analysis is key as you will know what type of RF environment you are starting in. Once you know what the noise floor looks like, and the open frequencies that are available you can plan your AP deployment and assign frequencies.
It’s not uncommon for some joker to buy some radios and put them up without a spectrum analysis or any planning. These guys cause themselves and others problems as frequency co-ordination is critical to the success of multiple WISP’s in a given area.
Other sources of interference are cordeless phones (some 2.4 and 5.7 cordless phones use 900MHz as a ring channel or return audio channel), remote camera systems, wireless security systems, WallMart RFID systems, paging systems, etc.
Metal roofs and barns are also a problem.
b. Self Interference - this is caused mainly by radios not being timed correctly. You need to make sure that all of your AP’s in a given band are set with the same Max Distance, Downlink %, and Control Slots.
Also, 900MHz AP’s within 10miles, 2.4 AP’s within 7.5 miles, and 5.x AP’s within 5 miles and LOS will be a factor and should be sync’s with the other towers.
2. Unrealistic expectations
900MHz has good Non-LOS capabilities, however it is not like cellular where the Tx power is 50 to 500 watts and the Rx sensitivity is -100dB or better.
900MHz Canopy has a Tx power of 4W EIRP and a Rx sensitivity of -90dB. Expecting to penetrate 2 miles of dense foliage is unrealistic. The solution is to elevate the AP’s and SM’s such that you are looking above the densest part of the forest where there may just be a few tree tops.
Hope this helps