On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 10:51:15 -0800, "Entwistle, Bruce" <bruce_entwis...@redlands.edu> said: > We are currently looking at different ways to cover outdoor areas as we > look to migrate to N wireless. In our existing B/G installation we have > installed APs inside buildings and run coaxial cable to antennas located > on strategic positions on the outside of the building. However as we > look to installing N APs the idea of two antennas and six cables on the > outside of the building does not seem aesthetically pleasing. I would > appreciate anyone who is willing to share their experience with a similar > situation.
We ran a pair of Cat5e per AP (one for data/power, one for serial console) to the outside of the building, and housed the APs in weatherproof boxes. Each box has 6 RF bulkhead connectors that poke out the bottom which an external antenna connects to. The boxes and antennas are mounted directly to the exterior of the building. If you can conceal it a bit under some protruding eaves, it's not as noticeable, but it certainly isn't all that attractive if it's just sticking out in the open. We used Cisco 1252 APs, plastic enclosures from sparcotech.com, and dual-band MIMO directional antennas from terrawave.com. We did consider the option of housing the APs indoors and running feedline out to the antennas, but the increased number/size of building penetrations needed for the feedline as well as signal loss through the feedline made the externally-mounted APs preferable. -- Nick Kartsioukas Cuesta College Computer Services 805-546-3248 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
