Everything your parents never told you about

antennas

Johan FühriDesign Engineer

Poynting Antennas, South Africa

MUM, Poland 2008

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.

Overview

What is an antenna? How does it work? What antennas cannot do Antennas in practice New technologies in antenna/enclosure

systems

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

How does antennas work?

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

8 dBi

How does antennas work?

More gain = larger size Panel/dish antennas – gain proportional to area

Limited by physics Size/gain trade-off Must keep losses down

14 dBi 20 dBi

75cm2

300cm2

1200cm2

What antennas cannot do

Antenna ‘bandwidth’ Can’t work over arbitrarily wide number of channels Frequency limited

100-119 120-139 140-159 160-179 180-199http://www.trevormarshall.com/waveguides.htm

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

Antennas in practice

Connecting to the Electronics Choosing the right antenna

Distribution High site CPE

Point-to-Point Indoor

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

Mounting Electronics Outdoor

POE Injector

Wired network Mains AC

Weatherproof enclosure UV stabilised, shielded ethernet cable

Routerboard platform

Integrated panel antenna

Wireless card

Infrastructure location

Choosing the right antenna

Omni-directional antennas – The Ultimate Solution?

Choosing the right antenna

Sector Antennas Cover only the areas that you need to cover Multiple sector antennas per enclosure One antenna per radio

Choosing the right antenna

Client Premises Equipment – CPE What is important?

Easy installation Aesthetics Good performance Low cost

iPoynt

230mm

240mm55mm

Compact aesthetic design

IP67 rated, injection-moulded design

Ethernet disconnect cable gland

iPoynt

Ethernet clip-off gland

IP67 watertight seal

Wireless electronicsIntegrated 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

iPoynt

Flexible electronics mounting

Grounding lug built into mounting structure

Pigtail Ethernet disconnect gland

N-connector knock-outs

Window knock-out

RB133C/RB411 ready!

iPoynt

Pole or wall mounting flange

Separate Elevation adjust

Separate Azimuth adjust

Choosing the right antenna

Point-to-Point High gain dish/panels with heavy duty enclosures

(long range) Fully integrated medium gain solution (medium

range)

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

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

Choosing the right antenna - Diversity

WLAN-A0033

Dual diversity 2.4 GHz 8dBi Omni’s

Integrated 5GHz 20dBi panel

‘Local Access Node’

WLAN-A0030

Integrated quad diversity (spatial & pol) 2.4 GHz 8dBi Patch antennas

‘Indoor MIMO AP Enclosure’

WLAN-A0031

Integrated diversity 2.4 GHz 7dBi Omni’s

‘Outdoor AP Enclosure’

WLAN-A0032

Dual integrated 2.4 GHz 14dBi Panel antennas

‘Indoor AP Enclosure’

‘Outdoor diversity/2 channel link’

To the future

High performance antenna technology Optimisation-based design Wide band Low loss Low sidelobes

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

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

HI Freq

Diplexer

TX Radio

RX RadioLO Freq

Routerboard

HI Freq

Diplexer

RX Radio

TX RadioLO Freq

Routerboard

LO Band HI Band

To the future

Dual polarised antenna enclosure Two antennas in one enclosure, HP and VP Single Nstreme 2 enclosure

Thank you