3802e vs 3802P with external antennas for high ceilings

[cesar.fiestas]

Hello Experts.

Out of curiosity, when deploying Access Points in warehouses for example with high ceilings, what is the recommended solution (AP and Antenna) for areas with high ceilings with high warehouse rack shelves isles.

I understand that the 3802P have a better chipset than the 3802E, specially because it can be used with a high gain antenna up to 13dbi as opposed to the 3802E that it can be used with an antenna of max 6dbi.

But my question is can the 3802E with the antenna 2566P4W-R be sufficient to beam the wifi down from 40 feet high ceiling? or is it better to use the 3802P with the 2513P4M-N in this case? have any one have experience or the proper calculation of the amount of dbi needed for for certain heights? Obiously high density per se is not needed here, other than to have enough wifi for the handheld bar code scanner to work properly at about 5 feet or so from the ground.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@cesar.fiestas wrote:

Out of curiosity, when deploying Access Points in warehouses for example with high ceilings, what is the recommended solution

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Get a wireless site survey done properly. 

There is only way to do the survey right but there are thousand ways to get this wrong. 

The cost of correcting someone else's mistake(s) is a booming business.  

[cesar.fiestas]

Leo,

Indeed I agree with you 100%, we are always as a best practice conducting a wireless survey for our clients, although recently the question came up as when to use which AP model 3802E vs 3802P and while the antennas that can be use for those AP's are different, the question was, what was the approximate beam distance in open space facing downwards for example using the 3802E with air-ant2566p4w-r antenna as opposed to using the 3802P with the approved antenna matching this AP.

It got to be a calculation of the radiation pattern of the beam. Yes a lot may depend on the power set on the AP, etc but it got to be an approximate.

[patoberli]

Problem is, thanks to reflection of the walls and shelves, this is extremely hard to guess, I would even say near impossible. Also the client has to be able to send its signal back to the AP, so you also need to take its radiation pattern into mind. That's why a site survey is so important.

Cisco has some materials in regards to where they recommend the 3802P (or actually the antenna), see here:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/antenna/installation/guide/ant2513p4mn.html

And here some information for the first (I think) P model, the 3502P: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-3500p-access-point/data_sheet_c78-676841.html
What is written there regarding the usage is the same for the successor models.

[Mikey Boy]

Hi, we have successfully deployed ant-2566 in a ceiling position within a warehouse up to 18 metres from ground level.

In this type of deployment we have always done a site survey with lift access equipment to physically check the coverage provided by this antenna before deploying it. I would not like to fit in this way without getting some real data from the environment before hand.

The thing to remember is that with the higher gain antenna you are not really increasing the coverage area as the client radios will be the limiting factor. That being said, antenna gain works both ways so if the radio TX is set accordingly you can benefit from the higher gain antennas from that perspective. 

40ft is 12 metres, if this is max roof height can you not drop the antennas from the roof to the light height, warehouses rarely build racking all the way to the roof as they have to allow for lighting to be dropped.? We have also successfully used omni antenna under 12 metres, but you must survey it.