ค่า Tx Power Mode ใน Ubiquiti และ Mikrotik (RF Tx Power Mode Settings)
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1) The document investigates the power settings of Ubiquiti radio cards when used with Mikrotik software. It finds that using Mikrotik's power override setting can cause throughput degradation, compliance issues, and reliability problems. 2) Testing showed that the default power settings produced the best results in terms of throughput and output power. Increasing power above specifications slowed throughput and caused other issues. 3) The document concludes that the default power settings should always be used, and provides information on power offsets and Mikrotik's implementation for different Ubiquiti card models.
ค่า Tx Power Mode ใน Ubiquiti และ Mikrotik (RF Tx Power Mode Settings)
- 1. DISCLAIMER Ubiquiti / Mikrotik PowerSettings Power Measurement Investigation Study Overview and Background One of the popular topics of discussion concerning Ubiquiti's hi-performance radio card offerings has to do with the driver reported transmit power levels and how they correspond to the actual output power of the card. Because of fixed power limitations in versions of the Atheros Linux MADWIFI driver, Ubiquiti has implemented power "offsets" as a work-around for OEM customers using driver versions with the power limitations to achieve maximum output power. Mikrotik is the only known 3rd party software to take into account Ubiquiti's power offset in their user interface for some, but not all, of Ubiquiti's radio cards. In addition, they have a power override functionality that can increase power of the card beyond the compliance certified and recommended power levels. We will investigate the power "offset" and the power override functionality in this study. Test Setup Testing location was Ubiquiti Networks Labs in Silicon Valley, CA. Using a fixed attenuator with 90dB attenuation and a pair of Routerboards, a link was setup. While the power settings were varied on DUT1, the RSSI levels reported in WinBox and the power level reported from the power meter were reccorded. Mikrotik, RouterOS, and RouterBoard are trademarks of Mikrotikls SIA, Riga, Latvia Ubiquiti, SuperRange, XtremeRange are trademarks of Ubiquiti Networks Inc., California Attenuator Power Meter RB +Ubiquiti DUT 1 RB +Ubiquiti DUT 2 TEST 1: Mikrotik / SR2 Power Setting Investigation TX Power RSSI Dut1/Dut2 Measured Power (dBm) DEFAULT -68/-68 26.5 Using the default power settings, we see the card is able to link up at full data rate and throughput is smooth. We also see measured average power to be 26.5dBm -- matching specification of SR2. Test Setup Diagram
- 2. Using ALL RATES FIXED Power Settings As can be seen above, the power setting override can produce very problematic results including throughput degredation, compliance violations, significant current consumption increases, and potential hardware reliability issues. It is STRONGLY recommended that the default power settings are used at all times. This will force the driver to use the pre-programmed powers for each data rate that are on the EEPROM (memory) of the radio card. These are the power levels Ubiquiti Engineers used during card compliance certification testing and were also found to be the optimum powers to be used following reliability and performance qualification testing. Comparison of Default Setting (Measured 26.5 dBm output power) vs. All Rates Fixed (26dBm) Data Rate Measured Power 1 26.5 dBm 2 26.5 dBm 5.5 26.5 dBm 11 26.5 dBm 6 26.5 dBm 9 26.5 dBm 12 26.5 dBm 18 26.5 dBm 24 24.2 dBm 36 23.0 dBm 48 22.5 dBm 54 21.7 dBm Data Rate Measured Power 1 26.5 dBm 2 26.5 dBm 5.5 26.5 dBm 11 26.5 dBm 6 26.5 dBm 9 26.5 dBm 12 26.5 dBm 18 26.5 dBm 24 26.5 dBm 36 26.5 dBm 48 26.5 dBm 54 26.5 dBm DEFAULT ALL RATES FIXED = 26dBm All Rates Fixed = 30dBm TX Power RSSI Dut1/Dut2 Measured Power (dBm) Observations 30dBm -66/-68 29.1 Throughput poor, major compliance violations, current consumption increase 26dBm -68/-68 26.5 Throughput slows marginally 25dBm -69/-68 25.3 Throughput slows slightly more 24dBm -70/-68 24.1 Throughput slows slightly 23dBm -71/-68 23.3 OK 22dBm -72/-68 22.6 OK 21dBm -73/-68 21.6 OK 20dBm -75/-68 20.5 OK 19dBm -76/-68 19.2 OK 18dBm -77/-68 18.4 OK 17dBm -78/-68 17.5 OK 16dBm -79/-67 16.5 OK 15dBm -80/-68 15.1 OK 14dBm -82/-67 13.9 OK
- 3. TEST 2: Mikrotik / XR5 Power Setting Investigation The results of this test were very similar to the first with the exception here being the Mikrotik software does not have correction for the power offset in XR5. As in the first study, we see the default power setting produces the best results in terms of throughput and power. Going above 18dBm will overdrive card and produce same compliance, throughput, and reliability issues as found in first test. TX Power RSSI Dut1/Dut2 Measured Power (dBm) Obersvations DEFAULT -68/-68 26.5 OK CONCLUSION Using power setting override can lead to a variety of problems and it is highly recommended that the default power settings be used for all Ubiquiti cards. The only instance the power settings should be used is to lower the overall power. However, when lowering the power, it is important to note that higher data rate power must be kept at specifications in line with Ubiquiti's datasheets in order to ensure smooth error-free throughput. Below is a table of Ubiquiti cards, power offset information, and whether Mikrotik has implemented correction for the offset (as of 8/2007). It is important to note that although the Maximum recorded power levels for default setting and the manual all rate fixed setting of 26dBm were identical, the performance of each case is quite different. In the default case, we see the throughput achieves maximum performance the RouterBoard can push and is a smooth curve. In comparison, the all rates fixed 26dBm case, we see the throughput is lower and not as smooth. This is because the default power settings protects the Ubiquiti programmed power values for all data rates. In other words, the maximum power of the card is achieved for lower data rates while the higher data rates requiring lower, more linear output power to achieve error-free performance are also maintained. When the all rates fixed setting is implemented, it will lock all data rates (both low and higher ones) to the same power level and will create problems if these power levels exceed the level Ubiquiti has specified for the higher data rates (36/48/54Mbps). TX Power RSSI Dut1/Dut2 Measured Power (dBm) Obersvations 30dBm -62/-67 31.7 Throughput poor, major compliance violations, current consumption increase 18dBm -66/-66 28.1 Throughput slows marginally 17dBm -67/-66 26.9 Throughput slows slightly more 16dBm -68/-66 26.1 Throughput slows slightly 15dBm -69/-67 25.3 OK 14dBm -70/-66 24.1 OK 13dBm -71/-66 22.9 OK 12dBm -72/-66 22.0 OK 11dBm -73/-66 21.1 OK 10dBm -74/-66 20.3 OK 9dBm -75/-67 19.2 OK 8dBm -76/-66 17.9 OK 7dBm -77/-66 17.0 OK 6dBm -78/-66 16.1 OK 5dBm -79/-66 15.2 OK 4dBm -80/-66 14.3 OK Radio Max Programmed Power Max Actual Power Power Offset Mikrotik Correction for Offset SR2 16dBm 26dBm 10dB YES SR4 19dBm 26dBm 7dB NO SR5 19dBm 26dBm 7dB YES SR9 16dBm 28dBm 12dB YES XR2 18dBm 28dBm 10dB NO XR3 15dBm 25dBm 10dB NO XR5 18dBm 28dBm 10dB NO XR9 17dBm 27dBm 10dB NO