Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti
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I'm trying to find some easy to read comparisons between two APs. I'm very quickly just picking two off of the top of my head and am hoping to find a side by side comparison.
Hopefully the fine community members here can help me to break this out.
The first at the top of the list is the Cisco MR46E, Cisco claims the aggregate goes
"up to 2,402 Mbps in the 5 GHz band and 1,148 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band, or 3.55Gbps"
This appears to be the max performance total, and not per client.Ubiquiti breaks out their performance differently, and the nearest comparable unit I can find is Unifi HD AP, which lists the 2.4GHz radio at 800 Mbps and the 5 GHZ radio at 1733 Mbps. The aggregate throughput here is shown on a scale, from 10 - 100 clients and 440 Mbps to 300 Mbps or 4.29 Gbps or 32.22 Gbps (which seems insane, maybe my math is wrong here).
Anyways looking to see some comparison of performance and not delve into the "this is better because" conversations.
The use cases here are to cover office and warehouse, a mix of AP's may be used in any general area and I've only picked these two from the top of a list (nothing purchased or set in stone).
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Well, you could start by at least picking something within the same ballpark. The Cisco's start at a little under $1000 each, while the UniFi HD goes for $349 each, but I'd argue that a UniFi nanoHD ($179) or UniFi Pro ($149) would be better with their higher max speed.
Yes, the Cisco can probably handle more clients per access point, and is faster according to the spec sheet. But do you NEED 2402Mbps when you can get 1750Mbps for a fraction of the price?
Finally, I think you're multiplying instead of dividing with your math there. WiFi bandwidth is shared among all clients. Which brings up another point against spending that extra money on the Cisco, in reality it won't be any faster than the Ubiquiti because they will both be limited to the slowest client that connects to them.
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@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Well, you could start by at least picking something within the same ballpark.
That has zero bearing on technical research. You bias against Cisco is showing.
It may (should) matter a lot in the final decision making process. But it has zero bearing on the research, beyond "is this completely out of my price range".
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@travisdh1 So the question isn't do I really need those speeds, I'm trying to find comparable models for each use case. Which the use case for this one cisco model is supposed to be in a warehouse.
- Coverage area, lots of metal structures to deal with
- Two APs max
- limited user totals - not high density
I don't think the speed is the factor, more the range of coverage in that sort of area.
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@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Finally, I think you're multiplying instead of dividing with your math there.
I probably am, but honestly this is the smallest issue of the topic, the real question is what are comparable options between the Cisco's and Ubiquiti's etc.
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@JaredBusch Any input on the technical research for a comparison of the equipment vendors?
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@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@JaredBusch Any input on the technical research for a comparison of the equipment vendors?
No. I'm busy pretending to work and arguing about USB on monitors.
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@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@travisdh1 So the question isn't do I really need those speeds, I'm trying to find comparable models for each use case. Which the use case for this one cisco model is supposed to be in a warehouse.
- Coverage area, lots of metal structures to deal with
- Two APs max
- limited user totals - not high density
I don't think the speed is the factor, more the range of coverage in that sort of area.
Have you ever done a proper site survey? I think that's where you need to start.
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@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Have you ever done a proper site survey? I think that's where you need to start.
For this client no, they aren't huge by any means. They've got a hodgepodge of equipment today, but are sitting on a bunch of dated meraki AP's backed with a mixture of different switches.
The usage for the warehouse is to support handheld computer type scanners for inventory control, no tablets/cell phones etc.
The office space isn't overly large, maybe 100 of so office staff (at the most).
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@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
MR46E,
Heres a good write up from one of my wifi instructors on real world client throughput. Only change I would make is most clients are 2ss today.
https://divdyn.com/wi-fi-throughput/ -
@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Have you ever done a proper site survey? I think that's where you need to start.
For this client no, they aren't huge by any means. They've got a hodgepodge of equipment today, but are sitting on a bunch of dated meraki AP's backed with a mixture of different switches.
The usage for the warehouse is to support handheld computer type scanners for inventory control, no tablets/cell phones etc.
The office space isn't overly large, maybe 100 of so office staff (at the most).
That is going to be a large office area, 100 people take up a lot of space, unless a bunch of them are hot desking.
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@DustinB3403 design for the least capable but most important device. Are the handheld devices capable of 5GHz or are they 2.4 GHz only?
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@jt1001001 good point, I don't know unfortunately but would find out before offerring an answer.
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@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Have you ever done a proper site survey? I think that's where you need to start.
For this client no, they aren't huge by any means. They've got a hodgepodge of equipment today, but are sitting on a bunch of dated meraki AP's backed with a mixture of different switches.
The usage for the warehouse is to support handheld computer type scanners for inventory control, no tablets/cell phones etc.
The office space isn't overly large, maybe 100 of so office staff (at the most).
That is going to be a large office area, 100 people take up a lot of space, unless a bunch of them are hot desking.
The space is rather large, and while I would agree adding AP's may be the ideal approach, I can suspect the customer wouldn't approve adding cabling to run extra APs.
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@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@travisdh1 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
Have you ever done a proper site survey? I think that's where you need to start.
For this client no, they aren't huge by any means. They've got a hodgepodge of equipment today, but are sitting on a bunch of dated meraki AP's backed with a mixture of different switches.
The usage for the warehouse is to support handheld computer type scanners for inventory control, no tablets/cell phones etc.
The office space isn't overly large, maybe 100 of so office staff (at the most).
That is going to be a large office area, 100 people take up a lot of space, unless a bunch of them are hot desking.
The space is rather large, and while I would agree adding AP's may be the ideal approach, I can suspect the customer wouldn't approve adding cabling to run extra APs.
How many do they have today?
I have around 40,000 sqft and I'm running 18 APs - this was based on a Cisco site survey 20 years ago, I could probably get away with half that day.
I did replace the Cisco's 4 years ago with Unifi AP Lites. As I said, I could have probably installed fewer, but I just did a one for one and they've been fine.
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@Dashrender said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
ustomer wouldn't approve adding cabling to run extra APs.
How many do they have today?
That's kind of what I'm thinking of recommending, but would want to ensure that we're list apples to apples and not against grapefuites (if you get my point).
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@DustinB3403 said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
@Dashrender said in Trying to get metrics comparing two APs Cisco and Ubiquiti:
ustomer wouldn't approve adding cabling to run extra APs.
How many do they have today?
That's kind of what I'm thinking of recommending, but would want to ensure that we're list apples to apples and not against grapefuites (if you get my point).
well sure - so look at what the current APs support, then find something that does that or better for the new APs, You might have to play with power settings to keep things from overlapping to much,...
