For a new potential project i have been testing with this new Omada EAP668. This specific project required me to find an access point that can provide very narrow coverage on 2.4 and 5GHz. It should be IP68 rated so it is weather proof or at least can withstand humidity and cold temperatures. In the portfolio of Omada by TP-Link i did find an access point that can do 30° by 30° horizontal and vertical beamwidth. This project needed even more directionality than the 30° provided by Omada EAP650 D30. We used the EAP650 D30-Outdoor before in another warehouse project, example of the EAP650 D30 below
Now back to the EAP668-Outdoor, to me this EAP looks great when i look at the specifications on the datasheet. Because the EAP668 has 4 external N-type connectors i went for this one, in combination with an Acceltex antenna i have a lot of flexibility.
When the EAP668 was delivered i was amazed by the size of the access point, it is gigantic to be honest. To give you an idea i compared it to the AP-735 and the Ekahau Sidekick 2.
Interfaces
- 1x 1 / 2.5Gbps ethernet port for input allowing 802.3at/bt power input
- 1x 1Gbps ethernet port for downlink connection, if you want another device behind this access point with the option to provide 802.3at PoE so you can power another device.
- 1x 10Gbps SFP+ fiber interface as uplink, in this case you can pull a fiber optic to this access point and provide power using a seperate Power Injector.
Do we really need 10Gbps SFP+ over fiber or 2.5Gbps over the ethernet port, i don’t think so. If we use the EAP668 as a single access point with no downlink ethernet connection you will never reach the 1Gbps limit. When we do use the downlink ethernet port to connect another access point we may reach the 1Gbps limit. Personally i am not a big fan of daisy chaining several devices behind each other, so for me the 1x 2.5Gbps port will be more than sufficient, probably i will use it on 1Gbps anyway since the EAP668 is a dual-band access point. On the picture below we have the orange ethernet cable connected to the uplink port, the red cable is connected to the 1Gbps port and provides power for another access point as demo. The interface on the right is the SFP+ interface for a fiber uplink and the one on the left is a reset button.
Antenna connections
In my test setup i am going to connect this EAP668 with the Acceltex tri-band antenna ATS-OHDP-2456-12-4NP-36. I don’t really need the 6GHz antenna but this specific antenna is providing me a 30×30° beamwidth on 2.4Ghz and a 20×20° beamwidth on 5 & 6GHz so i can have great directionality. The 4 N-type connectors on the Acceltex antenna are perfect to connect with the EAP668.
From the controller perspective i have 3 interfaces to connect the EAP668, this EAP668 is connected on 2.5Gbps to a switch in my network. The 1Gbps ethernet port is connected to an EAP773 access point
When i edit the ETH1 interface i can configure the downlink port just as i want it, i can choose to provide PoE out or just leave it as a non-PoE port. Checking this PoE Out option will require the ETH0 port to get 802.3bt PoE power from the switch. If i connect a camera, IP phone or another access point to the downlink port i have the necessary options to provide tagged and untagged VLANs.
If i connect the Acceltex antenna to the EAP668 access point, i do need to set the Antenna gain for the specified antenna in order to stay within the regulatory domain settings. But also and even more important from a practical level, i don’t want to radiate to much power in the air in order not to blast too much energy to my clients. With the sliders you can set the power, however it would be helpful to see the actual antenna gain set because now without touching the sliders i can only guess the value that is set.
When this demo setup comes to an actual project i will certainly write about this project. This is it for now but if you have questions on your warehouse project or i need for Wi-Fi in events we are always available on our contact page
