Outdoor N access
We are currently looking at different ways to cover outdoor areas as we look to migrate to N wireless. In our existing B/G installation we have installed APs inside buildings and run coaxial cable to antennas located on strategic positions on the outside of the building. However as we look to installing N APs the idea of two antennas and six cables on the outside of the building does not seem aesthetically pleasing. I would appreciate anyone who is willing to share their experience with a similar situation. Thank you Bruce Entwistle Network Manager University of Redlands ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Outdoor N access
On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 10:51:15 -0800, Entwistle, Bruce bruce_entwis...@redlands.edu said: We are currently looking at different ways to cover outdoor areas as we look to migrate to N wireless. In our existing B/G installation we have installed APs inside buildings and run coaxial cable to antennas located on strategic positions on the outside of the building. However as we look to installing N APs the idea of two antennas and six cables on the outside of the building does not seem aesthetically pleasing. I would appreciate anyone who is willing to share their experience with a similar situation. We ran a pair of Cat5e per AP (one for data/power, one for serial console) to the outside of the building, and housed the APs in weatherproof boxes. Each box has 6 RF bulkhead connectors that poke out the bottom which an external antenna connects to. The boxes and antennas are mounted directly to the exterior of the building. If you can conceal it a bit under some protruding eaves, it's not as noticeable, but it certainly isn't all that attractive if it's just sticking out in the open. We used Cisco 1252 APs, plastic enclosures from sparcotech.com, and dual-band MIMO directional antennas from terrawave.com. We did consider the option of housing the APs indoors and running feedline out to the antennas, but the increased number/size of building penetrations needed for the feedline as well as signal loss through the feedline made the externally-mounted APs preferable. -- Nick Kartsioukas Cuesta College Computer Services 805-546-3248 ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: Outdoor N access
We used Terrawave MIMO antennas (a patch model or an omni model depending on the location) mounted on the outside walls of buildings with the AP mounted on the inside of the same wall. The visible cabling on the outside is minimal and most of the inside equipment (AP, lightning protection, grounding) is hidden above drop ceilings or in non-public rooms on the inside. In a few cases where the equipment was in a public area, we put custom white plastic covers over them to make it look a little better. This is the omni antenna (my favorite and the most expensive): http://www.terra-wave.com/shop/24-5-ghz-mimo-antennas-24-5-ghz-mimo-outdoor-omnidirectional-antennas-c-1_2_14_17_20.html This is the patch (the two on the left): http://www.terra-wave.com/shop/24-5-ghz-mimo-antennas-24-5-ghz-mimo-patch-panel-antennas-c-1_2_14_17_21.html I can take some pictures and send them to you if you want. We put 29 units up this summer and no one has complained about the appearance yet. The worst part of the install is drilling through the walls (some of them were very thick). Nathan Nathan P. Hay Network Engineer, Computer Services Cedarville University 937-766-7905 www.cedarville.edu Entwistle, Bruce bruce_entwis...@redlands.edu 12/2/2010 1:51 PM We are currently looking at different ways to cover outdoor areas as we look to migrate to N wireless. In our existing B/G installation we have installed APs inside buildings and run coaxial cable to antennas located on strategic positions on the outside of the building. However as we look to installing N APs the idea of two antennas and six cables on the outside of the building does not seem aesthetically pleasing. I would appreciate anyone who is willing to share their experience with a similar situation. Thank you Bruce Entwistle Network Manager University of Redlands ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Outdoor N access
Bruce, We face the same issue. So far we have solved it by deciding to continue to use b/g outdoor while waiting for an outdoor/enclosed 802.11n (antenna and AP embedded in one elegant metal box) :( This said, the cost of enclosed outdoor APs is really high compared to indoor APs with outdoor antennas. Aruba has a outdoor MIMO antenna that doesn't look too bad (doesn't require two antennas and supports 2.4 and 5), but you still have to deal with 3 cables: AP-ANT-17 or AP-ANT-92. http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/products/ap-ant-17_ss.pdf http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/products/ap-ant-92_ss.pdf (connector works with non-Aruba hardware!) Though we would rather standardize our 802.11n offering, we have also noticed that outdoor wireless is more about coverage than bandwidth, and b/g seems to be fine. Philippe Hanset University of TN On Dec 2, 2010, at 1:51 PM, Entwistle, Bruce wrote: We are currently looking at different ways to cover outdoor areas as we look to migrate to N wireless. In our existing B/G installation we have installed APs inside buildings and run coaxial cable to antennas located on strategic positions on the outside of the building. However as we look to installing N APs the idea of two antennas and six cables on the outside of the building does not seem aesthetically pleasing. I would appreciate anyone who is willing to share their experience with a similar situation. Thank you Bruce Entwistle Network Manager University of Redlands ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
