MR20 Performance & Comparison

[ClaytonMeyer]

I'd like to hear from people who are already running MR20's in production & what their experience has been. I understand the only difference is the lack of dedicated radios for WIDS/WIPS as well as the Bluetooth beacon/radio. I'm primarily curious if anyone who has run both MR20's and MR33's have noticed any differences. I've got a use case that doesn't really require WIDS/WIPS or bluetooth features so it may be worth saving the $100 and going with MR20.

[GreenMan]

I can't answer your specific question, but remember too that the dedicated WiFi radio, from MR33 upwards, provides all the background channel analysis to feed Auto RF functions;  ensuring your APs find the best channel and Tx power settings for your changing environment, without needing to take a radio away from serving clients, to conduct that analysis (some competitive solutions recommend dedicated APs, purely for the same functions).

[ClaytonMeyer]

---

@GreenMan wrote:

I can't answer your specific question, but remember too that the dedicated WiFi radio, from MR33 upwards, provides all the background channel analysis to feed Auto RF functions;  ensuring your APs find the best channel and Tx power settings for your changing environment, without needing to take a radio away from serving clients, to conduct that analysis (some competitive solutions recommend dedicated APs, purely for the same functions).

---

GreenMan, thats an excellent point. Are you saying the the Auto Channel Assignment is dependent upon the 3rd radio?

[GreenMan]

Well - an MR20 would need to take one of it's potentially client-serving radios offline, opportunistically, in able to perform those tasks.

[ClaytonMeyer]

That makes sense. Good point. This particular scenario is a large residential environment so I would consider it low density.

[PhilipDAth]

This is going to depend on how pristine your WiFi environment is.  If there is no other interference and plenty of spare channel capacity it probably wont make much difference.

If there is a lot of interference or high usage of channels then it could make a big difference.

[PhilipDAth]

Personally for the small price difference I wouldn't take the risk - I would take the MR33.  It is likely to deliver a more consistent WiFi experience for many years to come.

The MR20 will give you a consistent experience when the surrounding RF environment will allow it.