To Sync or Not to Sync...is it even a question?

Hey,

I was talking to a guy I used to work with at another WISP about the whole sync or no sync issue. Apparently he his running a couple sites with-out the use of CMM’s. Some of these sites have a couple BH’s and 3-6 AP’s. He said he just set them all to Generate their own sync, and he hasn’t had an issue with them yet and it’s been 6 months. Has anyone else done this? Are there pros and cons to this? Should I tell him he in for a world of hurt?

Cheers
Brad

I don’t believe it… no one can be that lucky… I have a couple of questions…

what band are the BH and AP’s on

How many SM registered to the AP’s

I’d like to see his sessions page once the units have been up for at least a day…

He should be aware that its a bad setup and why it is a bad setup, and once he does start to see issues he will know what the likely cause is. If he understands how canopy works and what the sync does he will be in a position to make that call.

Thing is he’s been doing wireless since 1996. He said he’s tested the the Sh*t out of everything and looks perfect. I didn’t believe it either. But he’s really got no reason to lie to me about it, cause I’m not about to take out my CMM’s. Next time I’m talking with him I’ll try and get some more details about it and maybe some creen shots fromt he AP’s and the BH’s.

i’m sure he is not lying… I just find it very difficult to believe it, i always get caught out with this timing sync…

I’m interested in his setup… bands being used, frequencies, seperation on the towers etc…

That another thing…he said he is actually reusing a Freq at one of these and there is only 20ft of seperation.

As far as I know, eveything Canopy on his network is 5.7…perhaps the odd 5.2BH but that is it.

he is may not be lieing, until he has another canopy user within 5 miles of his ap’s there may never be a cituation where the cmm is needed. but a time will come where his ap’s and someone else’s will need to work together then he will need a cmm.

well i do not sync anything either but i only have 1 ap per site and they do over lap but there atleast 3 to 8 miles apart of course i have the freq set far apart a possible on each one and i have had no trouble since i started over a year and a half 4 towers running 900 stuff.

Well that will work until someone else puts up a canopy system. Then it will be it has worked great for over a year I can’t figure out what’s wrong.

He’s got a competitor about 300ft from one of his tower sites, and they are using Canopy as wel, and still no problems. I beleive the competitor in the area times everything with CMM’s.

A few reasons he is getting away with it for now

1. He’s lucky
2. His customers don’t expect much and don’t complain
3. He’s lucky

Sync is the magic sause that makes Canopy work. It’s just a matter of time and when it goes bad it will go bad in a big way.

All it will take is another Canopy provider, or if he gets interference on one of the frequencies and has to move.

I agree… it is just luck… then again he is damn lucky… also if the network is not heavily loaded or customers don’t expect much then he could be getting away with it

I just had to pich in a few point about this install.

If he is using connectorized AP with parabolic antenna OR if he is using AP with dish to do PTP or PTM with in a 8° arperture AND his SM and AP have SNR greater than 10 db AND the AP are separated a good distance ( 20’ vertically and horizontally), THEN the setup will work with out a problem and that will not be luck but good planning, ELSE he is one extremely lucky guy.

Now about sharing the same frequency segment it’s also possible if he is pointing the high gain antennas 180° from one another or close to that AND the radios are separated a good distance ( 20’ vertically and horizontally), depends on the antennas, like Radiowaves or Andrew, no grid stuff.

You all must remember that the most important thing is the Signal to Noise Ratio for the system to work. Also the spectrum has no control in the real world. Everyone is doing what they want, most with no RF background and no certification what so ever.

I also have to pitch in that:

It does not mater if someone else installs another AP with in his proximity with or with out the CMM he will have the same problems. Not everyone uses Motorola Canopy Technology, If the other AP is Alvarion, Proxim or what ever. They don’t have time sync and it will cause interference to each other.

His stuff is all standard stuff…Directional AP’s and Standard BH’s…that is all

So he has the magic Canopy equipment.

I KNEW they were holding back on us!!!

possibly. We’ll have to see what happens with it…


…to be continued…