MR86 and ANT-27

[gcarmich]

Can I use two ANT-27 antennas facing 180 degrees apart with a single MR86? 

Is Meraki Wi-Fi Channel and Power Management effective in this configuration? Does it sense at the antenna vs the base unit?

Are there any issue with extending the ANT-27 away from the AP with low loss cabling?  Is there a suggested distance limit?

Thanks,

Gil

[GreenMan]

In a word:   no, this is not a good idea - the MR86 client radios are 4-stream, so connect to four dual-band antenna posts, with one spatial stream provided by each.   The antennas therefore need to have essentially the same coverage area.   For dual-pigtail directional antennas (like ANT-27) they therefore need to be pointed in the same direction.

If you need enhanced range in two different directions you could use your pair of ANT-27s with the MR76 but, with that AP there's one pair of antenna posts for 2.4 clients and a different pair for 5 GHz clients - so you'd have only single band coverage in either direction.

Why would you want to extend the antennas away from the AP?   All you do is lose effective power through the loss in the extra cable.  If you did do it, there's no limit - the loss would be proportional to the cable length.

[gcarmich]

This was a suggested configuration that I was uncomfortable with.  It was also suggested to extend the omnis from with MR86 with low loss cable so that omni antennas cover more area with a single AP.  My thought with this, beyond the cable loss, was that it might interfere with the effectiveness of 4x4 MIMO.  Would this be true?  Are there other disadvantages beyond cable loss with extending the onmis?

[GreenMan · Accepted solution]

It sounds like the aim of extending the omnis is to extend the coverage provided by the AP.   By definition this would have to involve some locations being effectively out of reach for some of the antenna elements.   This will severely affect multi-stream clients, where AP and client think they can establish streams, some of which will work and some of which won't.   If this is the case, cable extensions won't help.