Wireless Access

Hello,

We are starting a project for outdoor wirelless access for the shunters on two of our locations. The wireless network is used for only one purpose, to send pickup and drop assignments to the shunters, this information is exchanged with a server in our network.

The initial goal is to have a fully covered outdoor wireless network, to allow the shunters to send and receive their data from all over the terrains. I  think this will be a difficult taks, we have trailers, trucks and froklifts on our outdoor terrains and they are a dynamic and busy locations, so one time the data could be send and received in clear sight, but antoher time there could be 2 trailers between an ap antenna and a shunter.

I think that we need accesspoints for indoor use mounted internally to our building, with external antenna's directed to the outside of the terrain (the building is in the center, the terrain is around our building)  and some outdoor ap's with antenna's towards our building on the fencing at the outside of the terrain.

I already found information for a AP-175, that is suitable for outdoor use. Currently we usa AP-104 / AP-105 for inside usage. So i assume we can use the AP-175 outdoors and a AP-104 indoor with external anntenna's? Is there a maximum distance for the antenna cable?

Is this a good setup? I found that prices for a AP-175 are much higher than the AP-104, offcourse this is expected due to the fact that the AP-175 is created for outdoor usage.

Are there any other AP's suitable for outdoor usage? And what is the experience to use an indoor AP in a waterproof outdoor box? 

Any other suggestions/best practice tips are welcome, i'm still collection information for this project.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Roland

Have you priced out the 104 with everything that is needed (enclosure, antennas, lightning arrestors)? Sometimes by the time you are done, the price is close to the AP-175.

Here are some responses to the questions you asked.

If you have obstructions you can/should look at meshing with AP-175 to extend the coverage around/over obstacles

Cable losses. Every 1 dB of cable loss descreses your maximum range by  (10^(1/20)-1)*100 = 12%

A cable loss calculator can be found at http://timesmicrowave.com/calculator/

Smaller cables have higher losses.

Larger cables are more difficult to install without breaking them.

5 GHz losses are higher for the same cable than they are at 2.4 GHz

Using 175 with direct attach antennas will give best RF performance

Putting an indoor AP into a box can be done but the upper temperature range should be derated by at least 10C (18F) due to self heating and solar loading of the box.