Extend signal range / increase signal strength of root ap

[max_gbel]

Hi, i'm using s zd1200 two R500 and one H500 which cover two households with around 250 sq meters in total. The mesh ap placed furthest from the root ap has a variable signal strength of 25-40% to the root ap. Now I'm actually looking to increase that signal strength because I believe that this variable signal strength (especially when down to 25%) is the root cause for occasional heartbeat loss.
My question now is if a R600, R700 or even a R610 or R710 would get me that increase in signal strength? I unfortunately don't have the possibility to add another AP between that root ap and mesh ap in question.

Any suggestions or real world experience would be highly appreciated!

Thx Max

[max_gbel]

That's awesome - Thanks a lot for your help on this!

[seanmuir]

You're welcome 🙂

[monnat_systems]

Sean has taken into consideration beamflex gain in to mix

[seanmuir]

I am not taking beamflex in to account, as you dont actually benefit from beamflex gain anyways due to EIRP regulations.

The AP has to drop its power based on ETSI regulations as EIRP has to take in to account the folllowing:

Max Antenna Gain
Beamforming Gain
TX Power

If you were to dismiss the factor of beamforming from within the link budget you would always be in excess of your EIRP, but approx 4dB.

I believe it's the same in the US with the FCC where you also have to take in to account the use of multiple antennae.

🙂

[max_gbel]

So to finish up this thread i basically reached out to ruckus support and their tech support redirected my inquiry to some tech department supporting the DACH region. This guy seemed to be a senior engineer the way he was talking about the capabilities of each AP.
So long story short he said that a newer ap would not help me increase signal strength or coverage. He actually said that it is much better to configure channel selection manually for each channel (2,4 and 5 Ghz). Also the additional spatial streams in "bigger" APs would only add benefit if i'd serve 50+ clients. In the end i configured everything manually as good as it gets which for some reason increased the stability and reliability of my wlan.
I hope these findings help others as well, and thanks again to all your great inputs and ideas.