On 02/14/2011 07:50 AM, Optimum Wireless Services wrote: > Hello. > > Thought I share this with the list. > > I have a friend that is using MT as ap on one of his towers with his > radios in 10MHz and on another tower bullets with sector panels, similar > set up on both towers except for the radios. He was explaining that he > finds the bullets outperforms the ubiquiti radios on the MT by far. His > explanation: > > "The reason why bullets outperfoms the radios intalled on a router board > is because of the pigtail used from the radio to the antenna. This > pigtail works like a electricity cable in that the thicker the cable the > more current is able to pass through so, the mikrotik pigtails are way > too thin. When there is a certain number of clients connected to that > radio the pigtail saturates the radio traffic because of the 'high > traffic or current passing through the pigtail' and as a result; links > between clients and ap can be slow and performance decreases. Now, the > bullets do not have any pigtail or other connector and thats a reason > why links with bullets are more stable and performs better than having a > routerboard and radios with pigtails." > > What you guys think of his logic? Well, his "logic" is fine, but his "reasoning" is wrong. There are a couple of reasons that the bullet devices work better (or MAY work better). The first (and most important) has to do with RF shielding. The radio cards used in the MT platform are mini-pci type cards and they are connected to their antenna using a very small rf cable. This rf cable (the pigtail) has a tendency toward being very lossy, which can dramatically impact performance. Another problem has to do with the shielding on the card itself. When you install these devices in a routerboard (for example), the radio cards have SOME shielding on them, but in practice, this shielding tends to be less than perfect. It's position on the board is subject to RF coming from the routerboard. With the bullet device, this position can be optimized so that the impact of these rf signals (noise) are minimized.
The second reason is related to the first. This has to do with being purpose built. In the MT device, there are drivers that allow it to run as an access point/client. There are also a HUGE number of other options available. Ubiquiti builds radios. Making the comparison between a purpose built radio (bullet) and a device capable of being a radio (MT) is similar to comparing a luxury H3 and the Army's HumVee. While you can certainly take the H3 offroad, it's performance there will not even approach the performance of the Army's purpose built specifically to do just that. -- ******************************************************************** * Butch Evans * Professional Network Consultation* * http://www.butchevans.com/ * Network Engineering * * http://store.wispgear.net/ * Wired or Wireless Networks * * http://blog.butchevans.com/ * ImageStream, Mikrotik and MORE! * * NOTE THE NEW PHONE NUMBER: 702-537-0979 * ******************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
