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What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?

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What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?

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What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2019-08-23 14:53:03 - last edited 2019-08-26 00:50:37
Model: EAP225-Outdoor  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.4.1 Build 20181107 Rel. 35628

Hi,

 

I been trying to find the right equipment but basically its just a WIFI for a large area. EAP are very good but I can't deploy EAP because its a community I can't just deploy it in a lamp post or something and we are very much remote area and lots of houses and families but far apart. I deploy my 2nd EAP to a far releative and current elected official of our community but I want to expand.

 

I watch and read the paraoh but it is more of a point to point, CPE to CPE access. People here can't afford CPEs or modems but have 2 - 4 smartphones each family. EAP is already very good can I attach an external TPLink Antenna or something to strenghten and widen the signal so that I have more choices on those people that I can entrust those EAPs in the future (with compensations, etc).

 

Regards,

JessieG

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?-Solution
2019-08-23 21:53:17 - last edited 2019-08-26 00:50:37

Theoretically you could user other antennas, which then would need to be dual-band antennas.

 

However, exchanging antennas would not be of much benefit in my opinion, since the weak point regarding WiFi range is not the EAP access point, but the smartphones or tablets, which have much worse antennas compared to an AP.

 

According to TP-Link's specifications the range of EAP225-Outdoor is 200+ meters for 2.4 GHz and 300+ meters for 5 GHz (depending on regulatory region and environmental conditions such as obstacles, interferences etc.). I think a smartphone isn't capable to send anything back at reasonable wireless speed to an EAP225-Outdoor over a distance of 300+ meters even with free line of sight to the EAP, albeit the SSID of the EAP could probably be seen on the smartphone because of the EAP's much better signal range.

 

Just test for yourself before buying other antennas: install a WiFi analyzer on your smartphone and measure the signal quality while you're moving away from the EAP. Estimate the distance when the signal drops below -90 to -98 dBm. Also measure transmission speeds/website loading at various distances to ensure data can be exchanged, since WiFi analyzers just measure the signal quality of the AP beaconing the SSID, which is unrelated to the minimum signal quality/strength of the smartphone needed for successful data exchange.

 

A second EAP225-Outdoor could probably mesh with the first EAP225-Outdoor over 300+ meters if both APs have free LoS to each other (or more precisely: fresnel zone clearance between them), but I have not yet tested practical maximum range of two meshed EAP225-Outdoor.

 

For long ranges I recommend two CPE510 or WBS510 with directional antennas feeding local EAP110-Outdoor or EAP225-Outdoor wired to the CPE/WBS. Such setups are known to work in practice, we did successfully deploy such backhaul links already over 1km distance.

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?-Solution
2019-08-23 21:53:17 - last edited 2019-08-26 00:50:37

Theoretically you could user other antennas, which then would need to be dual-band antennas.

 

However, exchanging antennas would not be of much benefit in my opinion, since the weak point regarding WiFi range is not the EAP access point, but the smartphones or tablets, which have much worse antennas compared to an AP.

 

According to TP-Link's specifications the range of EAP225-Outdoor is 200+ meters for 2.4 GHz and 300+ meters for 5 GHz (depending on regulatory region and environmental conditions such as obstacles, interferences etc.). I think a smartphone isn't capable to send anything back at reasonable wireless speed to an EAP225-Outdoor over a distance of 300+ meters even with free line of sight to the EAP, albeit the SSID of the EAP could probably be seen on the smartphone because of the EAP's much better signal range.

 

Just test for yourself before buying other antennas: install a WiFi analyzer on your smartphone and measure the signal quality while you're moving away from the EAP. Estimate the distance when the signal drops below -90 to -98 dBm. Also measure transmission speeds/website loading at various distances to ensure data can be exchanged, since WiFi analyzers just measure the signal quality of the AP beaconing the SSID, which is unrelated to the minimum signal quality/strength of the smartphone needed for successful data exchange.

 

A second EAP225-Outdoor could probably mesh with the first EAP225-Outdoor over 300+ meters if both APs have free LoS to each other (or more precisely: fresnel zone clearance between them), but I have not yet tested practical maximum range of two meshed EAP225-Outdoor.

 

For long ranges I recommend two CPE510 or WBS510 with directional antennas feeding local EAP110-Outdoor or EAP225-Outdoor wired to the CPE/WBS. Such setups are known to work in practice, we did successfully deploy such backhaul links already over 1km distance.

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Re:What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2019-08-24 03:34:23

Hi R1D2,

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the 300meters that is 300meter radius so more or less 150m is the distance. Here is my topology and a screen shot of my omada map.

 

 

The Arrow is my next target for another EAP but its up the slope and around 40ft+ in elevation.

 

Currently its been raininng here for 3 days and the other EAP been disconnected a lot and there been some times isolated? I don't know what it means yet. There are lots of trees in between but I'll try to get it trimmed to have a clear path to the other EAP. When I only had 1 EAP, I tried to put it in a bamboo with about 35ft high. The problem was the people below the bamboo had decrease in wifi signal and lag in mobile phone games. But I still want to try it again after these storms, the storm had just left us but there is another storm comming in 3 to 5 days.

 

I tried the set 2.4G 20GHz only and channel set to 1 and 6 but i revert the channel to auto because gamers are complaining of the lag spike. I know it might be because of the weather it might affect also the ISP connection. But any suggestions are welcome and most of my clients are mobile online gamers.

 

Regards,

JessieG

 

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2019-08-24 12:36:06 - last edited 2019-08-24 12:50:49

JessieG wrote

Hi R1D2,

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Regarding the 300meters that is 300meter radius so more or less 150m is the distance.

 

No, max. range - even of omni antennas - is usually measured as the distance from the AP to a client. This picture is from the first version of the TP-Link website for EAP225-Outdoor:

 

 

 

Maybe it is wrong for this particular antenna type and TP-Link did more measurements meanwhile what caused them to change the picture on their website, but with an 8dBi omnidirectional outdoor antenna the max. range (not radius) with free LoS is ~300 to 500 meters, see https://www.simplewifi.com/pages/antenna-basics.

 

Anyway, with my EAP225-Outdoor I can see a 5 GHz SSID over a distance of ~500 meters in a WLAN survey, but I'm not able to establish a stable link to this device and its SSID even disappears and re-appears from time to time.

 

 

Currently its been raininng here for 3 days and the other EAP been disconnected a lot and there been some times isolated? I don't know what it means yet. There are lots of trees in between but I'll try to get it trimmed to have a clear path to the other EAP.

 

 

Rain and water molecules in leafs of trees attenuate the WiFi signal. The higher the frequency, the higher the attenuation. If APs disconnect while it's raining, the distance between the AP and the client is too large (that's the reason why theoretical distances vary in practice.).

 

 

I tried the set 2.4G 20GHz only and channel set to 1 and 6 but i revert the channel to auto because gamers are complaining of the lag spike. I know it might be because of the weather it might affect also the ISP connection.

 

Lags are caused by latency and by the amount of AirTime available for the client. There is always a relatively high latency in a half-duplex medium such as WiFi unless you have a device which uses two simultaneous links (such as AirFiber for example) to achieve a full-duplex connection. Reducing the channel bandwidth to 20 MHz (it's not GHz) or changing channels can help somewhat to increase AirTime for a specific client, but on half-duplex connections it is not possible at all to completely eliminate latency.

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Re:Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2019-09-07 06:05:35

Hi R1D2,

 

Would a wifi extender work with EAP? there is a person who likes to connect to the EAP network but they can only connect when they are near the window or outside the house. I and they can't afford to purchase the EAP but I can get a TPLINK wifi extender just for them. or any other household who wants to strenghten the EAP signal found outside.

 

Regards,

 

JessieG

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2019-09-07 12:18:52 - last edited 2019-09-07 12:20:33

JessieG wrote

Would a wifi extender work with EAP?

 

 

I do not recommend WiFi extenders/repeaters. Repeaters are not suitable for professional installations, they are guaranteed to cause problems such as the Hidden Node Problem in business-class wireless networks over large distances. The more you deploy, the bigger the problems. What's more: if an EAP225-Outdoor can't establish a link when deployed in-house, then no repeater will work. In my opinion, repeaters have no place in business-class networks.

 

Repeaters might make sense inside the same house to improve a WiFi signal between the living-room and the kitchen if hidden nodes can be ruled out, but they still cap the bandwidth at 1/(2^n), where n is the number of repeaters. So it's unwise to use more than one repeater even for consumer installations.

 

For a stable mesh connection to an outdoor node, the EAP needs to be mounted outdoors: both devices need a free LoS to perform well (I told you already).

 

Remember also: A mesh network can only increase the range of the WLAN, but not the entire bandwidth, unless you use more than one root node to balance the load.

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2020-09-04 09:20:34

@R1D2 what is the height of the pole for the eap225?

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Re: What can we use to strengthen EAP signals?
2020-09-04 11:04:00

 

InpiredCoder wrote

what is the height of the pole for the eap225?

 

Best height is between 2.4m to 3.5m over ground to serve clients on the ground.

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