Cisco 1242 AP with external antennas AIR-ANT1949 and AIR-ANT4941

[jan-erik.andersson]

Hi, we are about to deploy a wireless system for one of our customers and we have a few questions. The AIR-ANT1949 will be used to transfer the signal about 300-400meters to a building with one laptop. Line of sight is "quite good". The AIR-ANT4941 will be for indoor usage only and shouldnt be a problem. Is there something I am missing here or should this be quite straight forward? Thanks in advance for any help.

[jeff.kish]

Hello,

Are you planning to use these two antennas on the same AP? Unfortunately, this design will not work, or at least it will not work well. Access points (Cisco or otherwise) use two antennas for diversity, which is a wireless concept designed to reduce interference. However, the antennas are supposed to be the same type, and they are meant to cover the exact same area.

I could give you some more nitty-gritty details if you want, but long story short, only one antenna is on at a time. This means that only one of your coverage areas will be active at once, and your remote client may well be unable to communicate at all depending on the traffic density on the other side.

Bad news aside, you can fix all of this simply by purchasing another access point and using different bridging antennas. Get another 1242, and get a 5GHz directional antenna. Simply use the 802.11a bands to connect the bridge, and you can use the AIR-ANT4941s on both APs to connect clients.