2602E and Single Band Antennas

[viksta]

Hi,

We have a situation where we are looking to replace our end of life wireless hardware with the 2602E access points.  These are mostly in a warehouse location where the devices using the wireless network use the 802.11 b/g band only.  We have a number of sites and a good number of APs to be replaced where they have single band 802.11 b/g antennas installed in high ceilings etc.

We have been advised that it is possible to still use the installed single band antennas as long as we do not enable the 5Ghz radio interface, but that we may have to double up on the single band antennas to cover the 4 antenna connection on this model. 

My thoughts are that "What if we do just a straight AP replacement and not set the Transmit Power Settings any higher than what is already configured on the current APs, will we still need to buy the additional antennas?". "If we connect the single band antennas to postion A and B on the 2602E APs, would we still risk causing damage to the antenna position C and D on the AP?  Would it still continue to try and use these without an antenna connected?"

Does anyone have any experience of this?

[Scott Fella]

I have done many rollout for client like this and your best bet is to use a single antenna with 4 leads that can use both bands. The positive to this is a single mounting solution of the antenna or else you will have to deal with spacing each antenna apart to make sure your not more than three wavelength separated.

This is the antenna I have been replacing the old dynamic 2.4ghz antennas with.

AIR-ANT2544V4M-R=

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps7183/ps469/at_a_glance_c45-513837.pdf

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[viksta]

Hi Scott,

Many thanks for your reply on this.  I have taken a look at the antenna you recommended and I think this could definately be useful in the warehouses. 

Obviously, as with most companies, we were looking to keep our costs down and to just replace the access points and reuse the existing antennas.  But if you think that we may experience more problems than this exercise is worth, then I will recommend to the company that we look to replace the antennas at the same time.

[Scott Fella]

It is more of a problem. They still have to bay the cable vendor to mount each antenna and make sure they are separated apart correctly, plus this gives them the ability to have the 5ghz band which they have with the ap they bought. These antennas have a better down tilt than the old dynamite stick antennas and I have had no issues with these being up 50'. The question is also, what happens when they do want 5ghz in a year... Well.. They have to purchase the antennas and pay for the labor to install and then also labor to configure the wlc.

Hopefully this helps get your customer to understand.

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[George Stefanick]

Scott is right on target ..

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"Satisfaction does not come from knowing the solution, it comes from knowing why." - Rosalind Franklin
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