Hello,
We are currently looking at a project to blanket a 27 acre area with wireless coverage. We have light poles with 110V power spaced conveniently throughout the area. My thought was a RB433 with 2 R52H cards installed. One for a wireless backhaul in 5Ghz to a central onmi, and the other for a 2.4Ghz omni for CPE access. My question, what is a realistic coverage area going to be with an R52H card in the 2.4Ghz range? We received a spec sheet on some Cisco equipment that says 12,000-15,000 square feet, but I am looking at an area over 1,100,000 square feet. It is a large rectangle with little to no obstructions. All of the light poles are 15-20 feet taller than anything else out there.
You need to be more concerned about the users device talking back to the AP. With the proper antennas the R52Hn cards can reach miles. The average device (phone, tablet, laptop) can reach approximately 300ft. How many devices are you going to be connecting to the system at any given time?
The antenna you choose will be very important. An antenna will not only amplify your transmit signal but equally amplify your receive signal. Turning up your radio gain on the other hand will not help your receive signal at all. A really good antenna on your ap will really help with weaker clients. I recommend sectors if you can or the highest gain omni you can get so long as your virtical beamwith isn’t a problem on the higher gain antennas.