Specifications

Wireless AP configuration
Summit WM Getting Started Guide, Software Version 5.170
Figure 15: MIMO in Altitude 802.11n AP
The installation of 802.11n APs is also made easy – the 802.11n APs do not need to be deployed in the
client device’s “line of sight”. On the contrary, the 802.11n APs work better when radio signals bounce
off the obstructions that are typical of any indoor wireless LAN environment — cube walls, doors,
partitions etc. — to reach the client device. Greater the number of bounces, more the number of streams
reaching the client device, and better the phenomenon of multipath.
NOTE
MIMO should not be confused with Diversity feature. While the Diversity is the use of two antennas to increase the
odds that a better radio stream is received on either of the antennas, MIMO antennas radiate and receive multi-
streams of the same packet to achieve the increased throughput.
The Diversity feature is meant to beat the liability of RF corruption, arising out of multipath, whereas MIMO converts
the liability of multipath to its advantage.
MIMO also enhances ‘radio receive sensitivity’, and improves noise rejection.
Channel bonding
In addition to MIMO technology, 802.11n AP makes a number of additional changes to the radio to
increase the effective throughput of the Wireless LAN. The radios of regular Altitude APs use radio
channel spacings that are 20 MHz wide. The radios of 802.11n AP use two channels at the same time
i.e., 40 MHz wide. By using the two 20 MHz channel in this way, 802.11n AP achieves double