Only now that I already have all this stuff I started to look into the theory of how to actually set this all up, and I have some questions
My original plan was to have the antennas at the opposite corners of a 10-meter wide wall of a shed that is centrally located on the property, with the NetMetal at the middle. I wasnāt clear on what ādual chainā meant so I thought the NetMetal ax had two independent radios that both did 2.4/5GHz. Now I realize that it doesnāt, and that ādual chainā refers to 2x2 MIMO, so Iām having doubts. Are these antennas going to be too far apart for MIMO? Iām focusing on coverage, not bandwidth, so does that matter? Does this effectively degrade to a SISO setup with clients communicating with the closest antenna only?
Is the five meters of coax going to be an issue, coverage-wise? I also have two HGO-antenna-OUTs I could use directly on the NetMetal, but another reason I didnāt want the screw-on antennas was to place the NetMetal inside, rather than outside, the shed for easier access.
The NetMetal ax is dual band and dual chain. It will do both 2.4 and 5GHz at the same time (dual band), and will use two antennas at the same time (dual chain) for both bands. Theoretically āchainā is a full radio but, in mikrotik-speak it just means front end.
I never put two antennas (of the same AP) that far apart. Iām sure MIMO is going to work for clients that are perpendicular to the axis between the two antennas (same distance to both antennas), but I doubt itās going to work if a client is 1 meter from one antenna and 10 meters from the other. Although I think it would work if a client is far enough, for example 60 meters from one antenna and 70 meters from the other, so that attenuation between the two antennas is small. The closer the client is, the higher the power difference between the two antennas will be. MIMO does degrade to SISO.
Five meters of coax is not an issue, although it depends on the coax. It has to be of the right impedance (50 ohm) and low loss for both 2.4 and 5 GHz.
Since you already bought everything, Iād say try it out and see what happens.
On a side note, putting antennas so far apart (of the same AP) opens up quite a legal conundrum. Itās generally required to set TX power 3 dB lower if using two antennas instead of one, but what happens if the antennas are very far apart? What if they are 10 meters, 50 meters or 100 meters apart? What happens if I put two APs just a few centimeters from each other and on the same channel? Am I not required to reduce power? What if I put 10 APs all a few centimeters from each other and put them all on the same channel? Would that be legal? These questions are going to become interesting with WiFi 7 because the tech allows for a client to talk to multiple APs at the same time.
Thank you very much! That sounds somewhat encouraging since SISO would be enough here, bandwidth-wise. So this setup should not be worse than SISO radios on the described locations (except for the smaller TX power limit). Iāll report back when I get further along with installs.
