CAMBIUM NETWORKS - upgrade to 5GHz

Cambium - level up to 5Ghz

Among many companies providing solutions for 5GHz (802.11n) wireless connections Cambium Networks is very noteworthy, which presented a whole range of products for Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint solutions operating in 5GHz technology.

The product series Cambium ePMP 2000 and special software Cambium Elevate.

The main idea of the new Cambium ePMP system was to create the most affordable wireless broadband access solution at 5GHz without losing the quality of service provided.

We managed to get a combination of some of the most important Cambium goals enhanced with new innovations:

And on this basis a completely new concept Cambium ePMP Elevate was created, thanks to which we can improve the functioning of our network based on old client units working in 802.11n technology.

The entire Cambium ePMP 2000 series is distinguished by the following features:

1. Collision-free TDMA protocol
(up to 120 clients in the sector without capacity loss)

The entire product series of the Cambium ePMP 2000 line consists of the following elements:

- Access Point ePMP 2000

- Cambium Elevate software

But the equipment is not everything! To ensure high scalability and very high performance Cambium has created its own protocol called ePMP MAC. Additionally, if we combine it with an adaptive "Air Fairness" schedule, we achieve very high efficiency of network segments.

The effectiveness of the ePMP MAC protocol is best illustrated by the following figure:

With this solution, RF Capacity is effectively used and we can efficiently scale the number of connected clients.

Additionally, performance consistency is maintained despite operating in high noise environments, and ePMP has detailed control over UL and DL synchronization.

Cambium ePMP 2000 is also distinguished by much higher throughput performance than other 802.11n devices from well-known companies. And all this thanks to the appropriate propagation time for each static time analysis at different distances.

You can see it in the following diagram of the work cycle Cambium ePMP2000:

As we can see the difference is very big. The transmission delay, which is balanced in each transmission, in the ePMP protocol has been replaced by a map for many static time analyses. This allows us to get much higher throughput.

Speaking briefly, other protocols are ineffective because:

• individual TX/RX and propagation delays cause less time for actual data transmission
• with an increased number of clients, delays significantly increase and significantly reduce throughput

Of course we checked that under real conditions.

We have set up AccessPoint Cambium ePMP2000 with a sector antenna and connected 30 ubi M5 devices, changing the default firmware to Cambium Elevate.

When you see the above graphs and screenshots a conclusion comes to mind...

On the same hardware, you only need to change the protocol to Cambium ePMP to significantly increase the bandwidth of our network, while providing our customers with much better conditions for using the Internet.

Cambium ePMP provides such consistent performance that some operators plan to use IPTV wirelessly!!

New function ePMP provides reliable Multicast wireless connections:

• AP and CPE use "IGMP Snooping" and limit Multicast transmission only to connections that require it
• Saving RF resources

The priorities of packages on the radio are also very important:

• VOIP priority
• High priority
• Low priority

Every package that arrives with a particular classification is immediately queued.

When the main radio track is jammed and packets are rejected, VOIP packets and higher priority packets are taken into account and are set before those with low priority, using rejection delays. Priority setting applies to both Download and Upload.

In summary, it is worth to answer the question "Why ePMP 2000?"

Well, the most common problem of access points in unlicensed bands is interference, especially in environments overloaded with radio waves, which degrades performance or prevents the use of AP.

Cambium ePMP solves such problems by using Hypure ^TM technology:

• Intelligent filtering: improved dynamic filtering technology minimizing channel interference.
• Intelligent BeamForming:
• Reduces and can even eliminate uplink interferences for up to four interferences aimed at ePMP 2000, both on and off the channel
• Dynamically optimizes the mitigation of interference over time for each client, and thereby optimizes for the best bandwidth.

The Cambium ePMP solution meets the expectations of ISPs who struggle to provide their customers with adequate wireless capacity. And as we know, as of today, the 5GHz band is already very "littered" and it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve efficient connections between the client unit and the access point.

Cambium with its innovative wireless networking platform enables a higher level of 5GHz usage, providing customers with a very high standard of service.

Author:

Leszek Błaszczyk

[email protected]