On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:25:34 -0600, tom wrote:

The semi-exception that I know of, as of about 2 years ago when my
ex-employer ISP that did (somewhat successfully) muni wifi, was testing
and eventually installed, Go Networks APs. They were the only ones at
the time that could use 20W ERP because they were phased array antenna
APs. And they mapped the vector vs MAC address so it knew the best
antenna angle to your PC.

tom
K0TAR

What "vector"? The beamwidth width was 120 degrees for Go Networks
and 60 degress for Vivato. That's not a beam. That's a barn door.
That nonsense got me rather irate when the FCC concluded that an
overpowerful alligator, with beam steering, will somehow cause less
interference than a sector antenna system.

Go Networks was one of the later vendors to hop on the alligator
bandwagon:
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/2006/04/go_networks_slips_veil_on_cellularmesh_metro_wi-fi.html
They picked up the fumble after Vivato dropped the ball.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivato
To add insult to injury, Go Networks somehow convinced the FCC that
120 degree wide steerable "beams" qualified for the higher power. I
could do better with common sector antennas. At least Vivato used 60
degree beams, which was marginally better. As I recall, their
literature had an illustrators imaginative drawing showing what might
be hundreds of beams with what appeared to be about 5 degree
beamwidth. The illustration also showed the steerable antenna hung on
a wall, thus eliminating half the "beams".

What I saw with the one Vivato 2210 controller I played with was that
the usable range was about the same as a lower powered omni or panel
system because of the alligator effect. The AP was deaf. So was
management.

Incidentally, one local Muni Wi-Fi network turned DOWN their mesh
nodes TX power when they were finally convinced that they were
creating almost all of their own interference. Things worked much
better when the access points and repeaters used approximately the
same tx power as the client radios.

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