External Antenna Mount for AIR-ANT5160NP-R

[nathan.boisse]

I about to embark on a project to create a wireless bridge using a pair of Cisco Aironet 1252's, which will be mounted internally, and a pair of Cisco Aironet 5-GHz MIMO 6-dBi Patch Antenna (AIR-ANT5160NP-R), which will be mounted externally.

Could anyone suggest the best way to mount the antenna? Both will be mounted to steel upper wall of the building (its brick below this). I couldn't find any specific mounting kits.

[srosenthal]

If the wall is in the direction you need to antenna mounted to then I would use some self tapping screws to adhere it to the wall thru the screw holes in the antenna.  Be sure to use some silicone sealent to ensure no water gets into the wall.

Do not tighten the screws down too much and damage the antenna.

Your other choice is to mount the antenna to a steal plate that is then connected to a small pole that can be secured to the wall with antenna mounting brackets.

Seth

[Leo Laohoo]

Steel wall????  Great.  You just made your steel wall as part of a reflective antenna.

[nathan.boisse]

Well, here's a picture of both locations. Unfortunately, the brick part of each building is too low and has obstructions like chainlink fences and trees. Would mounting it on a pole extending from the main building be sufficient to reduce reflection?

As you can see, I've also included a basic Visio diagram of what I intend to do with it. I hope it helps.

[srosenthal]

My bad on the metal wall mounting, it was late and I was tired.

Now  that I have slept some here is what I am thinking.  Why use the MIMO  patch antenna?  On such a short link you can use an omni stick.  Then  mount this to a wall mount antenna bracket such as this -  http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=wall+mount+antenna+brackets&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=6140961992914474386&ei=NCXlTKHiIYKglAfVw6XjCw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q8...

You  would only need one bracket for each location and can secure the  bracket to the metal wall with either large self tapping screws or using  butterfly bolts.

If you are worried about your  signal propogation then make sure your link is encrypted with AES and  that your power is at minimum to establish the 54M link.

I would use the AIR-ANT5160V-R antenna.

[nathan.boisse]

Thankyou for your advice.

The problem we have is that we'd like to expand the system in the future  to connect another couple of sites and as such (maybe I read your post wrong) we decided that 54Mbps would not allow for sufficient bandwidth.We'd like to allow as much bandwidth as possible.

Reading between the lines a bit, are you saying that the MIMO will easily provide the range required?

The omni stick looks like a cheaper option of course, but only if it allows for sufficient throughput and expansion.

However, we have a workshop onsite and can easily whip up a mount for the MIMO should it need to be set away from the main structure of the building.

[srosenthal]

The question that I would have is in what direction are the other buildings you want to add in relationship to the main building and are they in line with the radiating pattern of the patch antenna?

If you do the math, you have a 54M link, once encrypted will provide about 24M of throughput.  Then figure out how many users at each location and what bandwidth requirements they have.

I have some customers using 54M bridge links with multiple locations running both voice and data and have not had any issues.

The AIR-ANT5160NP-R should be able to cover the distance you have labeled in your drawing.  But you did not mention the distances to the other buildings.

If you needed an Omni directional MIMO then you could go with the AIR-ANT5140NV-R that Cisco makes a mouting bracket for.

Seth

[nathan.boisse]

The buildings are laid out as shown in the little diagram attached - the red buildings are the ones we have acquired and will require network access. The other building as about 60m away, max based on the angle from the proposed antenna.

Hopefully wont be needing Omni as you can see from the diagram, internal users wont need to use it, and the connection will be configured as a bridge.

Goalposts change within this company and awful lot (grumble) and I've gotten myself into a method of buying more than they need to cover their last minute requests - they seem to pay it OK.

To be fair with you, this is my first Cisco project and I've probably jumped in at the deep end with it, certainly a lot more to consider than I previously thought, but learning with it (will have to push for a CCNA now).

[srosenthal]

It's hard to say if unit 9 would be covered by the signal provided by the patch antenna.  Every root bridge by nature can support wireless clients in addition to the non-root bridges.  The way that you keep people from connecting to your root bridge is by the security method you use and not providing either the PSK or other type of logon information to wireless users.

The only way to say if the MIMO patch would work is to setup a tempory installation and test the connectivity and to check signal levels.

When I mentioned how many users I was refering to how many wired users would be at each non-root bridge location.  If all your looking at is two remote lcoations then I still think 54M connection is adequate.  Unless of course these users are in need of a large amount of bandwidth.

Seth