The second time he threw a net. We study the second generation Airmax AC

The company Ubiquiti, despite its more than 10 years of age and considerable size, continues to be "young and dynamically developing." And the model ranges of equipment are updated at her very, very quickly. We did not have time to switch to Airmax AC, as we already offer Airmax AC gen2. Let's look at the new products, see if they really are wave 2 and should we switch to them?

First, let's see which models have been updated by the manufacturer: LiteBeam ac, PowerBeam ac, NanoBeam AC, Rocket AC. In short - updated all models. We will study the new solutions in more detail.

Now let's answer the main question: this is exactly the second generation of AirMax AC and not 802.11ac wave 2: Multi-user MIMO should not be expected in this generation of equipment (however, we will soon please you with material about equipment with the support of this technology), as well as 160 MHz bands frequency (and this is good, the air and so busy).

What, then, will please the new line?
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1) Additional radio module 2.4 GHz in all devices used for the initial setup of equipment - now you can set up a communication channel without a laptop at all, from a smartphone, the procedure looks like this:

When you turn on the power, the access point for 15 minutes turns on its 2.4 GHz radio module, you connect with your smartphone and set up the equipment through the Umobile application. After initial setup, this mode can be disabled for security purposes.


2) New radiochips with improved sensitivity, extrapolating our measurements when switching from Airmax AC to Airmax AC gen2, we can expect about 3 dB of sensitivity improvement, which means that some subscribers will be able to translate into higher modulation.

3) The massive introduction of metal cases at base stations should significantly improve their resistance to interference. Thank you, RF ARMOR, you were a pioneer in the shielding of Ubiquiti, but now we have a shielded solution out of the box

4) Return GPS receivers to base stations. They promise us full TDMA GPS sync (although they promised with Rocket Titanium too, but it didn't work out) ...

5) And the most important, in my opinion, the main difference between the new solution from AirMax and AirMax AC is the new family of sector antennas and the transition from the “capacity of a separate sector” paradigm by maximizing the channel energy to “multi-sector base station capacity, radio frequency compatibility”.

In other words - we get a new line of sector antennas, built on the technology of horns, which promises almost no side and rear lobes of radiation.

It should be noted that the solution with horns did not appear from scratch: the sector horn antennas from Rfelements were already available, the high performance of these solutions, in my opinion, and encouraged Ubiquiti to abandon the classical sector antennas.

Let's compare the radiation pattern of new solutions and classical sector antennas:



The difference, as they say, on the face.


Beautiful picture from the manufacturer.

However, the horn antennas have a small drawback, namely, a noticeably lower gain factor than the classical sector antennas. For example, a 45 degree horn has a gain of only 14 dBi, while a 90 degree classic antenna can have a gain of 18 or more dBi. However, in cases of a large number of subscribers and base stations, a record distance of one sector is usually not so necessary.


Range of Airmax AC gen2 antennas and their approximate radiation patterns.

The only thing you need to understand is that when choosing Airmax AC gen2 you automatically select horn antennas with all their advantages and disadvantages - connecting the device to a conventional sector antenna does not work, the radio connectors are completely incompatible. Similarly, the earlier equipment cannot be connected to horn antennas (however, in the future, perhaps, an adapter will appear).

So, the model range:

New base stations Prismstation AC: new base station solution, with GPS module, out-of-band interference filter and horn antennas.



Recommended by the manufacturer with a 45 degree horn antenna. Available options are 30.60.90 degrees. The IsoStation AC device, which looks very similar to PrismStation AC, is an analogue of the Rocket AC lite, differs from PrismStation in the absence of out-of-band filtering of AirPrism radiation and the absence of a GPS module.

The twin brother Isostation AC - Isostation, a device based on the 802.11n chip, can use the same horn antennas, designed to improve the performance of old networks on the AirMax equipment

With client equipment everything is simpler, almost all AirMax AC models have an analogue of gen2, characterized by the presence of a dedicated radio module for configuration. The exceptions are NanoBeam AC 16 and PowerBeam AC 620 - they have no analogues of gen2 yet.


Findings. In general, we can say that the second line of AirMax AC was not a revolution but, rather, an evolution of the family.

If we reject small amenities, such as a radio module for setting up a device from a smartphone, the main change is the development in the direction of reducing the level of interference and greater installation density of the sectors.

Unfortunately, there is an obvious disadvantage: at the moment there is no possibility to use the old Rocket AC with Ubiquiti horn antennas and vice versa, PrismStation with sector antennas with high gain.

That is, at the network design stage you will have to choose active equipment based on what is more important in the implementation: better noise immunity and electromagnetic compatibility of PrismStation horn antennas, or a higher gain factor of the Airmax AC sector antennas.