External antennas on AC/X 88/6U and others, how are they utilized for different bands?

[snovvman]

With at least two bands, 2.4 and 5 Ghz and 3 or 4 external antennas that can be aimed. With beamforming and MIMO turned off, how are the separate antennas used to service clients and on different frequencies?

For example, I have an AP on the second floor, one of the antennas is aimed horizontally to provide better signal to the first floor. There is a 2.4Ghz device and a 5Ghz client on the first floor. How does the client or the AP decide to use the horizontally-aimed antenna? Do the clients and the AP collectively determine which antenna has the strongest signal and communicates through it?

I am also trying to understand if there is real value to aimable antennas, especially when it comes to multi-floor setups. Is the aimed antenna actually used by the clients that it is aimed at? Again, how does the AP decide which antenna to send/receive?

Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

The router/device will use the highest quality signal possible. It doesn't 'pick' antennae individually.

I would suggest having the antennae all pointing the same way I I I I , or, \ | | /, and slowly adjusting the orientation of the whole router to see which gives the best, overall, results.

Yes, aiming antennae can be rewarding, but small changes bring a bigger difference (usually) than laying a single one horizontally.


You may find more details in the links below. (There isn't one thing to tune, it is many things to adjust in relationship to everything else).

Am I all set to start fresh with the latest stable release? And a request for L&LD...

After creating the checklists two weeks ago to save the pages with settings, I've made all the screenshots (I think at least) of all the relevant guides written by @L&LD and the very useful tip by @netware5. The only thing is, those guides are great, except when you'll be offline at least for a...

www.snbforums.com

And here is a more detailed setup for a customer with very limited ISP speeds.

[Release] FreshJR Adaptive QOS (Improvements / Custom Rules / and Inner workings)

the install routine didn't recognize my system as Merlin, so I had to answer the "stock or not" question. Is that normal? AC3200 w/ 384.11. What's the output of "uname -o"? That's the only check it does to determine Merlin. It should be "ASUSWRT-Merlin"

www.snbforums.com

 

[snovvman]

The router/device will use the highest quality signal possible. It doesn't 'pick' antennae individually.

I would suggest having the antennae all pointing the same way I I I I , or, \ | | /, and slowly adjusting the orientation of the whole router to see which gives the best, overall, results.

Yes, aiming antennae can be rewarding, but small changes bring a bigger difference (usually) than laying a single one horizontally.


You may find more details in the links below. (There isn't one thing to tune, it is many things to adjust in relationship to everything else).

Am I all set to start fresh with the latest stable release? And a request for L&LD...

After creating the checklists two weeks ago to save the pages with settings, I've made all the screenshots (I think at least) of all the relevant guides written by @L&LD and the very useful tip by @netware5. The only thing is, those guides are great, except when you'll be offline at least for a...

www.snbforums.com

And here is a more detailed setup for a customer with very limited ISP speeds.

[Release] FreshJR Adaptive QOS (Improvements / Custom Rules / and Inner workings)

the install routine didn't recognize my system as Merlin, so I had to answer the "stock or not" question. Is that normal? AC3200 w/ 384.11. What's the output of "uname -o"? That's the only check it does to determine Merlin. It should be "ASUSWRT-Merlin"

www.snbforums.com

@L&LD-Thanks for all the information. I will have a look.

 

[dlandiss]

I am also trying to understand if there is real value to aimable antennas, especially when it comes to multi-floor setups.

It is worth remembering that the radiation pattern for a single-element antenna is shaped like a donut so that the best signal will be obtained at right angles to the antenna shaft. If, in your multi-story case, you get poor results one one floor try positioning the antennas so they are at right angles to the path to the subject device on that floor.

 

[snovvman]

Thank you, @dlandiss. What I would like to understand is *if* or how the AP routes the signals to the different antennas based on signal quality. For example, if one antenna is aimed such that its radiation pattern will [in fact] better reach a device on another floor, how does the AP "direct" its broadcast and "pick up" the device's transmission from THAT antenna?

Or, do all the antennas broadcast and receive simultaneously the same signals (again, without beamforming)? There is a part of the radio engineering and ASUS' implementation that I do not understand.

The term "diversity antenna" popped into my head, so I searched for it. I found "spatial diversity"--"Spatial diversity uses multiple antennas that are physically separated by some distance, usually at least half a wavelength. This creates different propagation paths for the signal, so that each antenna experiences a different fading level. The receiver can then combine the signals from the different antennas using various methods, such as selection, switching, maximal ratio, or equal gain combining..."

Is this what the AP's multiple antennas doing? Using spatial diversity?

 

[snovvman]

The other remaining question about how the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands are served by the multiple antennas, I found the idea of "dual band" antennas. I presume the AP antennas are "dual band". Someone please contribute if I am not correct. Thanks.

 

[dlandiss]

Is this what the AP's multiple antennas doing? Using spatial diversity?

I cannot answer for sure, but that seems to be the most likely.

 

[dlandiss]

I presume the AP antennas are "dual band".

Yes.