Military vehicle interference issues

[ted.salmon]

We just completed a site survey of an Army vehicle maintenance yard. They want to be able to upload info pulled from a vehicle in real time. The maintenance yard has 3 sections the largest being 700' X 300' and the others 200' X 200' and 200' X 100' We had 1252 APs mounted on extendable poles 14ft height with Air Magnet as the client on a laptop. In the areas fronting the APs signal is strong anywhere from -20 to -40dBm as soon as you get near a vehicle which in the yard consist of Humvees, 5 ton trucks, 2.5 ton trucks, MRAPS and wreckers. The signal will diminish -80 then losing connection then coming up again then losing connection. If you go in to the cab of a vehicle signal dies completely. The mechanics think this is due to the paint on the vehicles which is an low IR signature paint? We have done larger yards than this but commercial vehicles and container yards, and have not seen results like this. Anyone with similar experiences?

[Leo Laohoo]

The mechanics think this is due to the paint on the vehicles which is an low IR signature paint?

Paint will not cause this major issue.  It's the bl00dy armour!  How thick are their armour plates (DON'T ANSWER THAT!)?  What about the ballistics glass?

TO solve your issue, I'd recommend you put more APs in.  The choice of the 1252, in my humble opinion, is right.  I'd do the same thing.

What about your antenna?  What models are you using?  How many?  DO you have controller-based setup or autonomous?

extendable poles 14ft

Not ideal (Cisco recommends up to 10 ft) but it should be good enough.