Meraki MA-ANT-3-C5 question

[dagger1982]

Hey all, having a disagreement with a coworker. MA-ANT-3-C5 saucer omni antenna mounting direction. We need to project the best signal horizontally into an area with high metal racking filled with boxes. We have MR46E with this antenna. The question is do we point the flat down the aisle (vertical mounting) or horizontal like you would in a drop ceiling. What say you? thx

[GIdenJoe]

Well none actually.  You are using an MA-ANT-3-C5 on a MR46E then you will have a cable short and it will not work.  You need a MA-ANT-3-C6 instead.  About the radiation pattern it depends where you want to mount it and how high.  To be sure of this you need to test this in a predictive wireless software and put the antenna in both ways and check which pattern best matches your use case.  If it is very high it probably would be better to mount it vertically since you have more signal on the sides than the front of the antenna but you really should use a predictive survey software and put the antenna at the correct height.

[dagger1982]

Oops, my bad. The antenna is a MA-ANT-3-D6 with correct number of connectors. They were bought by someone else. Anyway, the mounting is at 20' high but needs to have best power to one side only and for about 150' with racking. Not the setup I would have gone with but it is what I have. One tech says mount them horizontal because all the power is out the edges and the other says mount them vertical and point in the direction they will be used.

[Ryan_Miles]

The downtilt omni creates a donut like coverage with more bias towards pushing the signal downwards than the standard omni panel.

Coverage patterns can be found in the datasheets.

C5

D5

General guidance is to use the downtilt for mounting heights between 8-25 feet. And generally this would mean the antenna is mounted parallel to the floor (pointing down). You could mount the antenna parallel to a wall understanding that you'll be sending a lot of signal up & down.

You don't often see an internal antenna AP mounted on a wall for the same reason. It's shooting a lot of the signal into the ceiling and floor instead of outward to clients below.

[dagger1982]

Thank you for the info. My area is over 2 stories tall so I'm looking to avoid any weak RF immediately straight up with some obstruction.