MR74 External Antenna setting for 3rd party antennas

[Harvs]

Hello team,

I would like to know if there is an official setting for 3rd party sector antenna. I am using Aruba AP-ANT-48 in a warehouse environment. They point down racked warehouse isles 98 metres long 11 metres high 3 metres wide

cheers all

[BrechtSchamp]

The value you set usually results from a wireless site survey.

In any case the values you set must result in an EIRP below what your wireless regulatory domain allows.

Your antenna is an 8.5dBi antenna. Here in Belgium the max EIRP is 20dBm. The value you set + 8.5dBi (- any cable losses) should in our case stay below 20.

Transmit_Power_and_Antenna_Configuration

[PhilipDAth]

One of the big reasons why you should use antennas from the same vendor as your WiFi kit is so that you don't break the law -  as @BrechtSchamp says.

[MerakiDave]

@PhilipDAth and @BrechtSchamp are correct, and the official answer is no, there is no official 3rd party antenna support unless the antenna has been specifically certified, such as the Cisco Aironet AIR-ANT2513P4M-N on the Meraki MR84 for example.  In that case that antenna is fully certified and supported. 

That doesn't mean you cannot use 3rd party antennas, but it would be an unsupported configuration, and it is the customer's responsibility to understand and confirm you are within the maximum EIRP allowance within your regulatory domain.  If you used 3rd party you could have to select the closest omni/patch/sector equivalent in Dashboard and perform an active post-deployment site survey.  And if you called into Meraki Support asking them to troubleshoot RF issues, they may not be able to assist much with 3rd party antennas.

[Harvs]

thanks for the feedback! I wasn't particularly clear on what I was asking there - it was more to do with the external antenna setting on each AP. I have been told by a Meraki phone support tech that I should set them to dual band Omni 2.4 and 5G for 3rd party antennas. I am running them as dual band sector though and they seem to be working well. 

Meraki Antennas are horrendously over priced - 20 x Aruba AP-ANT-48 vs 40 x Meraki antennas at 8 X the cost of the Aruba's. I do understand that my support will be limited though if I do have issues.

cheers