Simple WiFi Router Cambium cnPilot R190V

The simple WiFi router Cambium cnPilot R190V is one of the basic offerings from the company Cambium Networks. According to the manufacturer, this IPv6-supporting home networking equipment with the ability to manage in the cloud and perform fully remote configuration, monitoring, troubleshooting and upgrading of the device is a good solution for ISPs looking to provide customers with a simple and powerful device that works well in a home or office environment.

The cnPilot R190V Cambium Networks device provides 4 RJ-45 ports in the FastEthernet standard, including WAN 1x 10/100BaseTX (RJ45), two RJ-11 ports with possibility of implementing VoIP services, and an IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz WiFi interface of up to 300 Mbps. Although for the theoretical modern capabilities of devices with WiFi 5, 6 or 6E such configuration seems to be quite poor, it may be sufficient for basic home applications. Check out the detailed specifications of this Cambium Networks WiFi router, how it is configured, and how it performed against other devices in WiFi network tests.

The main advantage of the cnPilot R190 classic WiFi router is the ability to remotely operate, configure, manage and monitor with Cloud Management, ezView and cnMaestro. This device does not require the purchase of an additional software license to operate, making it cost effective. Cambium Networks' MT7628 chipset with 64 MB of DDR3 RAM and 16 MB of Flash memory is responsible for the performance of the R190V WiFi router. Power supply is provided by a dedicated AC/DC Adapter, AC Input: 100~240 V, 50~60 Hz, DC Output: 12 V, 1.0 A. The operating temperature range of cnPilot R190V is between -5°C and 45°C, while the optimal storage temperature is between -25°C and 85°C. The acceptable relative humidity for the device should be in the range of 10% - 90%, without condensation.

The interfaces of cnPilot R190V are the already mentioned four Ethernet ports - RJ-45 Ethernet 100Base-T, three for LAN and one for WAN. In addition, the device provides two RJ-11 ports for FXS, allowing implementation of advanced VoIP services, FXS port with SIP and T.38 FAX. Two fixed antennas provide the base for WiFi network in IEEE 802.11 b/g/n standard, which gives theoretical throughput of 300 Mbps. It is worth noting, however, that the connection with WAN is in the FastEthernet standard, so there is no possibility of using full capacity of the WiFi connection when going outside of the WLAN - theoretical throughput of 100 Mbps NAT/NAPT is the maximum. The device can also work in Bridge mode. Security levels: WPA-PAK/WPA-PSK (2.0), WPA/WPA2 and support for WMM, WDS, WPS, Firewall protecting against SYN Flooding, IPSpoofing, Smurf Attack, Ping of Death, DoS allow to create safe enough home or SOHO network with up to 4 separate SSIDs.

The cnPilot R190V WiFi router is a desktop device. It comes in a cardboard box with a sticker and includes a power adapter and cables - Ethernet and two telephone ones. The router itself has quite a simple, classic design. On the front there is a row of LEDs indicating the status of the device, on the back - the ports and antennas. The white cuboid shape with slightly rounded corners and the brand symbol embossed on the top may not look appealing, but it works.

After taking the router out of the box and connecting it to the power supply and the included cable to the network card of the device - computer, you can configure it directly. Cambium cnPilot R190V also has a preconfigured WiFi network, which access data can be found on the hardware.

Connecting the cnPilot R190V WiFi router is not complicated. You can configure it locally - connecting via a web browser with the web interface available at 192.168.11.1.

The default login credentials username and password are admin, so you should change them for security reasons.

After logging in, the home page of the device shows network and hardware parameters. There is also a visible menu - tabs leading to configuration, and the status of individual elements of the system. The whole system is in English and is quite intuitively arranged, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to read.

Changing settings via the web interface

By dividing individual information and settings into tabs in the cnPilot R190V web interface, it is possible to find individual properties quite quickly. These are the main categories:

As in the previous tests of other devices, we also put the Cambium cnPilot router WiFi capabilities to the test, checking throughput and network coverage. This is one another test conducted under similar test conditions so that potential users can compare the results with each other. We checked theWiFi coverage in a two-story building and its basement. We also examined the upload and download speeds available at selected test points.

MacBook Pro A1502 with built-in AirPort Extreme WiFi card based on Broadcom BCM4360 3x3, 1.3 Gbps PHY chipset is the mobile test equipment. It supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compliant wireless network standards. The iperf3 test server is connected via a wire to a switch. Before speed testing, we verified the maximum performance of the LAN and the iperf3 server by connecting a laptop using a Gigabit Ethernet card to the switch. We obtained maximum speeds for a single TCP stream of 894 Mbps for download and 958 Mbps for upload. However, these results have no bearing on the speeds achieved in this test case, as the device technologies support much lower bandwidths.

The signal level map was made with the AirSurvey program. The Cambium cnPilot R190V network equipment is marked with an icon, it has been placed in one of the rooms on the ground floor:

The legend for colors shows signal strength. The 4 cnPilot R190V WiFi router as a wireless access point performs satisfactorily in terms of WiFi coverage, although the signal propagates much better downwards than upwards, despite comparable thickness of the ceilings.

The device operates only at 2.4 GHz, and a lack of a Gigabit WAN port is a significant limitation for the theoretical possibilities of WiFi 4 technology. That's why the download and upload speed test results for the Cambium wireless network should be considered from the perspective of the upper limit of the WAN/LAN port throughput of 100 Mbps. The test results for selected points are shown in the table below.

Measurement point 1 - Download 53.38 Mbps / Upload 77.12 Mbps

The analysis of the tests clearly shows the limitations of the cnPilot R190V device, but for basic applications it may be sufficient. It is worth noting that a connection was successfully established at each of the test points, and the achieved upload and download speeds were quite stable during the individual tests. And so in the first test point, the average speed remained at 51/72 Mbps, just as in the second - 48/73 Mbps. In the following points we can see a slight decrease in average throughput due to obstacles to overcome, although as we know, at 2.4 GHz frequencies they don't have such a large impact on the results as in the case of 5 GHz. In the last two points with the most obstacles on the way the results were 37/23 Mbps and 45/59 Mbps

Although it may seem that a device like the Cambium cnPilot R190V supporting WiFi 4 technology falls short of the capabilities of access points with WiFi 6 or even WiFi 6E, it is not the main advantage of the device. The compact WiFi router is, above all, a stable device with the possibility of extensive configuration and management via the cloud. Add to that an affordable price and no licensing required, and you have a scalable budget solution for ISPs looking to simplify customer support and troubleshooting with centralized management, monitoring, and updates. Cambium Networks cnPilot R190V is not exactly attractive hardware for the home or office user with the availability of other more powerful WiFi routers and access points at a similar price, but good enough for ISPs in specific conditions.