Everything your parents never told you about antennas

1. Everything your parents never told you about antennas Johan Führi Design Engineer Poynting Antennas, South Africa MUM, Poland 2008

2. Poynting Antennas • Antenna and enclosure design and manufacture • Company size 180 people, 2600m2 factory • 20 R&D staff (3xPh.D, M.Sc’s, B.Sc’s, Techs) • Turnover USD 7.5 million p/a. • About 40,000 units per month output. • Export to Europe, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Israel and United States. • Various low cost, high performance fabrication technologies developed in-house. • Cutting edge outdoor enclosure portfolio with proven applications globally.

3. Overview • What is an antenna? • How does it work? • What antennas cannot do • Antennas in practice • New technologies in antenna/enclosure systems

4. What is an Antenna? • “The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.” – Albert Einstein. • Mechanical device that converts an electrical signal into an electromagnetic wave and vice-versa • It is not an AERIAL

5. Antenna focuses outgoing and incoming signals In a particular direction With a particular pattern More ‘gain’ = more focusing in the firing direction In TX, less signal sent in other directions In RX, antenna is ‘deafer’ in other directions More signal in the firing direction Lower interference More signal = higher range/data rates How does antennas work?

6. More gain = larger size Panel/dish antennas – gain proportional to area Limited by physics Size/gain trade-off Must keep losses down 300cm2 75cm2 8 dBi 14 dBi 20 dBi 1200cm2 How does antennas work?

7. http://www.trevormarshall.com/waveguides.htm 140-159 160-179 180-199 100-119 120-139 What antennas cannot do • Antenna ‘bandwidth’ • Can’t work over arbitrarily wide number of channels • Frequency limited

8. How does antennas work? • In summary • Antennas focus energy to increase signal • High gain means less signal in other directions • Gain depends on antenna size • Cannot cheat physics – must reduce loss • Antennas can work differently in different channels

9. Antennas in practice • Connecting to the Electronics • Choosing the right antenna • Distribution • High site • CPE • Point-to-Point • Indoor

10. Connecting to the Electronics • Keep the radio close to the antenna • RF cable kept short • Negligible losses – best possible signal • Lower susceptibility to lightning impulse

11. UV stabilised, shielded ethernet cable Weatherproof enclosure Integrated panel antenna Infrastructure location Wireless card Routerboard platform POE Injector Wired network Mains AC Mounting Electronics Outdoor

12. Choosing the right antenna • Omni-directional antennas – The Ultimate Solution?

13. Choosing the right antenna • Sector Antennas • Cover only the areas that you need to cover • Multiple sector antennas per enclosure • One antenna per radio

14. Choosing the right antenna • Client Premises Equipment – CPE • What is important? • Easy installation • Aesthetics • Good performance • Low cost

15. 240mm 55mm Compact aesthetic design IP67 rated, injection-moulded design Ethernet disconnect cable gland 230mm iPoynt

16. Wireless electronics Integrated directional antenna 14dBi @ 2.3-2.7 GHz (x4.0 range*) 17dBi @ 3.3-3.8 GHz (x5.6 range*) 20dBi @ 5.1-6.0 GHz (x8.0 range*) * Range relative to 2dBi dipole antenna IP67 watertight seal Ethernet clip-off gland iPoynt

17. Flexible electronics mounting Grounding lug built into mounting structure Pigtail Ethernet disconnect gland RB133C/RB411 ready! Window knock-out N-connector knock-outs iPoynt

18. Separate Elevation adjust Pole or wall mounting flange Separate Azimuth adjust iPoynt

19. Choosing the right antenna • Point-to-Point • High gain dish/panels with heavy duty enclosures (long range) • Fully integrated medium gain solution (medium range)

20. Choosing the right antenna • High gain antennas • Narrow beamwidth • Cutting out noise • High gain • Improved signal strength • Higher data rates • Grid Antennas • Lower wind resistance

21. Choosing the right antenna • Indoor Antennas • Main problem is Multipath Interference • Space diversity • Polarisation diversity • Relatively low gain antenna – wide beamwidth • Going through walls – unreliable signal

22. Choosing the right antenna - Diversity WLAN-A0030 Integrated quad diversity (spatial & pol) 2.4 GHz 8dBi Patch antennas ‘Indoor MIMO AP Enclosure’ WLAN-A0032 Dual integrated 2.4 GHz 14dBi Panel antennas ‘Indoor AP Enclosure’ ‘Outdoor diversity/2 channel link’ WLAN-A0033 Dual diversity 2.4 GHz 8dBi Omni’s Integrated 5GHz 20dBi panel ‘Local Access Node’ WLAN-A0031 Integrated diversity 2.4 GHz 7dBi Omni’s ‘Outdoor AP Enclosure’

23. To the future • High performance antenna technology • Optimisation-based design • Wide band • Low loss • Low sidelobes

24. To the future • Integrated Multi-sector enclosures • Compact integrated outdoor enclosure for 5GHz • Quad-reconfiguarable sector array • 4x 90 degrees • 2x180 degrees • 1x360 degrees 4x 90 degrees 2x 180 degrees 1x 360 degrees

25. HI Band LO Band HI Freq HI Freq RX Radio TX Radio Diplexer Diplexer Routerboard Routerboard LO Freq LO Freq TX Radio RX Radio To the future • Antenna sharing for Nstreme 2 • Only one pair of antennas to run Nstreme 2 • Minimise installation costs and mounting space • Need wideband antenna, diplexer

26. To the future • Dual polarised antenna enclosure • Two antennas in one enclosure, HP and VP • Single Nstreme 2 enclosure

27. Thank you