Antennas and MR86 in Survey Mode

[erinoreilly]

Hi, I notice there is no way to specify what external antennas are being used in the survey mode configuration interface. Is this something to be concerned about? I see that in normal mode the antenna model is allowed to be specified.

[alemabrahao · Accepted solution]

I don't think you need to worry about this, you can do a Site Survey even without activating this mode.

[erinoreilly]

Ok thank you for the quick reply!

[KarstenI]

I think there is more to this problem ... Or less ...

Surveying without activating the survey mode always has the potential of automatic changes to the power settings. If not using the survey mode, the RF profile should at least lock down the power, but then you can also enable survey mode with the same amount of "work".

For the antenna, I would assume that the AP still recognizes the Meraki Antennas. But for that, I didn't find any documentation. If the dashboard identifies the antenna, the survey will remain consistent as the power gets fixed on the local status page. The only problem could be that you go above the regulation when attaching an antenna with a high gain. But again, I could think that the AP could limit the TX power if the AP does not recognize the antenna. But again, I did not see any documentation stating this.

[alemabrahao]

What is the advantage of having maximum power? In my humble opinion this will not reflect the reality of the Wireless network. Having these variations in power (in my opinion) is important for you to understand how your Wireless spectrum is, just as is done in an active survey, you generally do not change the power of the antenna, first the network assessment is carried out and after that you do necessary adjustments if necessary.

[KarstenI]

There is no advantage of max power. But you need consistent power in a survey which means it has to be fixed and there should not be any RRM changing it while the survey is done.

[erinoreilly]

Karsten is right. We absolutely want fixed power. Especially since we are doing this to comparing antenna models. We don't want any fluctuations in any other area.

[erinoreilly]

Yeah, it was late and I misinterpreted what he was saying. I thought he was saying that I didn't need to specify which antennas were attached.

Yes, this is a survey on a stick survey in an in production environment and I need to have it in survey mode.

And we are comparing 4 different antennas, so I was wondering about specifying. 

I'm going to create a profile in the dashboard and make my specifications for power and antennas and then enable survey mode. 

You're right, I couldn't find any documentation either.