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  • I'm trying to find a few antenna options for a very particular space...  a "hallway" with a curved ceiling.  500ft long, 20ft wide, 25ft high.  6" inch thick stone floor and walls with a title ceiling.  The ceiling is an arch, and starts at about the 20ft mark on the walls. ... very similar to a subway line.  We have penetrations every 60ft and have been able to model acceptably using cisco air-ant2566D4M-r with 3802e APs.  That said, the look of the antenna is being rejected.  Is anyone aware of an alternate antenna that is smaller in anyway (even if it's an inch) that would yield similar results?

    Many thanks,

    Aaron

  • I looked up the antenna specs on the Cisco site.  It's a biggie all right  !

    Is the problem due to the size of the antenna, or the amount that the antenna mount/fixture makes it stick out from the wall ?  According to the specs, it can be flush mounted, without the bracket.  Can it be painted to match the wall color ?

    Five hundred feet is probably too long a run too feed from one end only.  Where you planning on two, mutually facing AP's on different ends of the hallway, on different channels  ?

    You mention its similarity to a subway line - I know that some railroad-tunnel/subway installations have used leaky coax along their routes.

    Of course, you wouldn't get any MIMO coverage, but single stream 40 MHz might get you an acceptable throughput.

    At one time I had looked at Radiax brand cables, but never did anything more with it.

    See also this post and Joshua Bardwell's comment there:

    https://www.cwnp.com/forums/posts?postNum=291886#post291886

  • Yes, the problem is the size of the antenna.  It can be painted, but it will still stand out since the shape is so different from the tiles.  It's also going to cast a shadow due the way it's lit.  An Omni would be more acceptable, but from what I understand, the height is too great for an Omni to work well.  So given that we seem to be stuck using a patch, my hope was to find the smallest physical one that would work.  

    The leaking coax is an interesting option; I didn't even know it existed.  That said, I don't think I could get it closer than 10 ft and the space will be heavily used for functions, so demand for wifi will be very high.  From what I read about the leaky coax, it unfortunately doesn't seem to be a good fit here.

  • Leaky coax is usually used throughout the length of the space.   If you could color it, it might not be noticeable.  Obviously inside a train tunnel, you don't have people walking around, nor usually lights lighting the interior.

    There are companies  who make custom patch antennas.   Have you tried to find any of them ?

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