1532E bridge setup with ANT5114

[charlietweet]

We are looking for help from someone with good knowledge of setting up bridges using 1532s.

We are trying to setup a bridge pair using 1532E's on both sides with antenna:  AIR-ANT5114P2M-N on both sides.  We have converted both 1532E's to iOS.  

After configuring and physically installing both sides with antennas aligned in a clear visual line-of-sight, we do establish a link.  However, the signal on both ends is awful and reading about -90.  The distance is only about 1500 feet between the 2 sides.

Questions:

1.  From the AP, we have antenna cables connected to the bottom ports 1 and 2 going a few feet up to the 5114-antenna.  Does it matter if the antenna port A has its cable going to the 1532 port 1 or 2?  Same thing for port B on the antenna...does it matter if its cable goes to 1532 port 1 or 2?  Would that cause the signal to weaken?

2.  We have configured the root side for 5GHz channel 161.  As stated, we are using the bottom antenna ports 1 and 2 to provide dual-band coverage for the bridge link and wireless clients.  Would using ports 3 and 4 on top help increase the signal or selecting a different channel help increase the signal?

3.  We never changed the antenna band mode.  I just read about it after we completed the install, but I am not finding anything on how to verify or configure antenna band mode using iOS on the 1532s.  Is there any related configuration that would help increase the signal?

thanks in advance for your help.

[Scott Fella]

Make sure you configure the unit for single band.  Also, your using the wrong ports:)

AP1532E (External Antenna)

The 1532E access point is equipped with four N-type RF connectors. The 1532E can be configured via software to support dual band or single band antennas. When configured for dual band antennas, antenna ports 1 and 2 on the bottom of the unit (Figure 1-2) are used to support multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) operation on both 2.4 and 5 GHz radios. When using the Cisco Aironet AIR-ANT2547V-N or AIR-ANT2547VG-N omindirectional antennas, the antenna can be connected directly to the access point (Figure 2-16). If the antennas are remotely located, an appropriate low loss RF cable should be used.

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Note Ensure that the antenna band mode is configured before the 1532E access point is installed.

When configured for single band antennas, antenna port 1 and antenna port 2 support MIMO operation for the 2.4 GHz radio, and antenna ports 3 and 4 (Figure 1-3) support MIMO on the 5 GHz radio. See the Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Configuration Guide for information on the software configuration.

-Scott

[charlietweet]

Thanks Scott.

I still have 2 questions:

1.  If we currently have an antenna (AIR-ANT5114P2M-N) physically connected to ports 1,2 on the bottom of the 1532E and you say these are the wrong ports, then why is the bridge link establishing at all?  We do have a link that is in associated state; the issue is the signal is weak at -90.  In other words, what is the difference in using the bottom ports 1,2 on both bridge APs compared to using the top ports 3,4 on both bridge APs?  Won't they both establish the same link with the same signal at 5 GHz?

2.  The WLC config guide does not provide directions to configure the 1532E in iOS mode.  How do you configure single band in iOS?