Can I place the antenna at a distance from the access point?

[-Hellsing-]

There was a question, whether it is possible to put antennas at a distance from an access point? How far? Is it possible to do so?
Thank you.

[marce1000]

 - Well for starters, your connecting cable will become an antenna too, you will loose gain on your effective antenna; the cables will also induce unwanted radiation patterns,

M,

[-Hellsing-]

As far as I know, the cable that goes to the antenna is not an antenna, but rather protects against interference. My question is, can I put the antenna at a distance from the access point?

[marce1000]

 - Well assuming your are not using chicken-wire, for your antenna connections , your statement is true; but there will be some loss in gain or db; if the cables become too long. That may not be to bad, but the if the ap is controller-based the situation becomes very different. The controller will assume a normal ap and regulate TPC and DCA according to it's algorithms. While the AP may then experience  the WIFI environment different ,this could lead to confusion on both parts, and interfere with smooth client connectivity.

M.

[-Hellsing-]

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@marce1000 wrote:

 The controller will assume a normal ap and regulate TPC and DCA according to it's algorithms. While the AP may then experience  the WIFI environment different ,this could lead to confusion on both parts, and interfere with smooth client connectivity.

M.

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Thanks for the answer. How far from the access point can I put each antenna, so that everything would be okay?

[marce1000]

 - You are deferring my answer (with due apologies); to make everything work okay the AP must be used as is.

M.

[Dennis Kline]

The short answer to your question is "yes".  You can place the antenna away from the access point, using coax cable (with appropriate connectors) between the two.

The more correct answer is "yes, but I don't recommend doing so".  First, you can not (should not) attempt to use the same coax for both 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz.  Secondly, there will be loss in the coax, which will degrade the overall performance.of the access point.  If you decide to go forward, you need to do an RF link budget calculation, to determine how much loss you will experience verses performance.  Otherwise, you are just shooting in the dark and hoping it will work well.