[SOLVED] Unifi UAP‑AC‑PRO vs UAP‑AC‑HD

[glennd]

The plan is to install a Unifi AP to service a block of about 12 motel rooms. The distance from the AP to the block is maybe 50-70 metres. The question is: assuming worst case where there are four people per room all glued to their respective screens at the same time, will either unit cope with the load?

I see the HD is definitely the superior performer but is that overkill for this task? Will the PRO perform just as well?

Money wise, the HD is more than twice the price of the PRO so it behooves me to choose the most appropriate device.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Honestly, I'd go with the HD. Not only can the unit handle more associations, but it has almost double the 2.4ghz bandwidth. The upgraded CPU in it will handle the load of all the clients coming in and out better too. Yes... more expensive... but you'll never have to worry about it, even if a convention rolls through. Not to mention it's future proof against expanding WAN speeds.

Pro tops out at 450mbit on the 2.4, and 1.3gbit on the 5ghz. So at full tilt, this is about 50% of your gigabit line.

HD tops out at 800mbit on the 2.4, and 1.7gbit on the 5ghz. This thing can actually saturate a gbit wire...

 

[glennd]

Honestly, I'd go with the HD. Not only can the unit handle more associations, but it has almost double the 2.4ghz bandwidth. The upgraded CPU in it will handle the load of all the clients coming in and out better too. Yes... more expensive... but you'll never have to worry about it, even if a convention rolls through. Not to mention it's future proof against expanding WAN speeds.

Pro tops out at 450mbit on the 2.4, and 1.3gbit on the 5ghz. So at full tilt, this is about 50% of your gigabit line.

HD tops out at 800mbit on the 2.4, and 1.7gbit on the 5ghz. This thing can actually saturate a gbit wire...

agree with all of that. Some additional information is the fastest the WAN will ever get to is about 45/20 Mbps.

 

[SAFCasper]

If you asked me which to choose... I would say neither and purchase 2-3x UAP-AC-LITE for less $$ than a single UAP-AC-HD

You don't have high WAN speeds and you don't have high density. I just don't see any justification for a UAP-AC-HD. Said yourself the worst case scenario is 4x12 = 48 users.

I also struggle to see how a single AP is going to provide coverage for 12 motel rooms. Just how small are they and are the walls made of paper??

 

[glennd]

If you asked me which to choose... I would say neither and purchase 2-3x UAP-AC-LITE for less $$ than a single UAP-AC-HD

You don't have high WAN speeds and you don't have high density. I just don't see any justification for a UAP-AC-HD. Said yourself the worst case scenario is 4x12 = 48 users.

I also struggle to see how a single AP is going to provide coverage for 12 motel rooms. Just how small are they and are the walls made of paper??

The Pro up to 200 users, the HD 500+ users so I guess density is not the issue. That just leaves the data rate. The Pro gives a total speed of 1750Mbps / 48 users = 36Mbps which for these parts is perfectly respectable.

The rooms are arranged in a kind of J shape and they are quite small. I plan to point the AP down the throat of the J to maximise coverage to the rooms. The walls are double brick. My measurements today indicated we'll lose about 10dB signal inside most of the rooms. The single room farthest from the AP will lose perhaps 20dB.

I'm thinking maybe 2 Pros in mesh should nearly eliminate the 20dB signal loss at the farthest point.

Edit: The Lite models are not rated for outdoor use.

 

[SAFCasper]

The Pro up to 200 users, the HD 500+ users so I guess density is not the issue. That just leaves the data rate. The Pro gives a total speed of 1750Mbps / 48 users = 36Mbps which for these parts is perfectly respectable.

36Mb I would consider quite top-end for a motel so yeah no issues there. Plus, the odds of everyone saturating their connection at the same time is very low. Even Netflix 4k streaming recommends just 25Mb.

You probably want to place some bandwidth caps anyway or that 45/20 WAN will be crippled in no time.

The rooms are arranged in a kind of J shape and they are quite small. I plan to point the AP down the throat of the J to maximise coverage to the rooms. The walls are double brick. My measurements today indicated we'll lose about 10dB signal inside most of the rooms. The single room farthest from the AP will lose perhaps 20dB.

I'm thinking maybe 2 Pros in mesh should nearly eliminate the 20dB signal loss at the farthest point.

Always prefer cabled but mesh definitely works when needed. Being outdoor hopefully no walls between them.so a good link. Just be careful of placement eg. could a truck parking between the two AP's block the link?

Have you looked into the UAP-AC-M-PRO? It's basically the same specs as UAP-AC-PRO but designed specifically to create mesh networks.

 

[glennd]

You probably want to place some bandwidth caps anyway or that 45/20 WAN will be crippled in no time.

yes, unifi provides those tools.

Being outdoor hopefully no walls between them.so a good link. Just be careful of placement eg. could a truck parking between the two AP's block the link?

it would have to be a big truck.

Have you looked into the UAP-AC-M-PRO? It's basically the same specs as UAP-AC-PRO but designed specifically to create mesh networks.

I never understood how they differ from the mesh the Pro devices offer. I've meshed Pro devices previously and the hand-over has been seamless plus the M-PRO devices are $100 more so I'm not sure where the advantages are.

 

[RCD_Technology_Solutions]

Good Morning,

Simple, i would go with the PROs.

Here is why...

Several years ago I was contacted by a Hotel on the east end of Long Island NY, in a affluent community. The hotel was 3 floors and 60 rooms.

Upon arriving and doing a site visit i found in the hallway hidden behind fake metal air ducts were WIFI access points from D-Link, in total there was 12 or so throughout. They all were configured with the same SSID name and password. A huge WIFI nightmare indeed.

The Hotel suffered by real bad YELP reviews and was hurting their business.

I wound up removing the Access points and installing AC-PROs. 8 in total.

3 3 3

2 2

1 1 1



The above diagram quickly shows the placements 3 is the 3rd floor ect......

essentially it looks like several large Xs from a view looking in from the side.


each floor was about 100 feet with rooms on both sides of the hall way.

I then configured a larger network figuring 60 rooms with a family of 4 with 2 devices per person between laptop, ipad, ect. planning for 480 ip addresses with a 8 hour DHCP lease. Works perfectly, we have not had a complaint since the installation, in fact I was called to provide WIFI to the outdoor pool and deck area. I used to more AC-PROs since they were not in the weather.

We also installed 2 separate cable modems and sonicwalls. The wifi and corp lan are completely isolated from each other.

Bob

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The Pros are to be phased out, and they're 3x3 MIMO
For over a year my new standard AP is the nano HD....it's the replacement for the Pro. It's 4x4 MIMO.
About the same price!

If designing and installing now, why the heck not go with current technology to be more future proof? And delay the "outdated" status of the equipment?

While "Yes" most devices out there now are will 2x2 or maybe the latest equipment is 3x3..and not much 4x4 yet...but I still go back to "Why not install current radios...4x4...to be future proof and have an installation that won't be outdated in just 3 or 5 years...but will be good and current for more years."

Only thing to remember....is it has a single ethernet port. Sometimes the dual ports of the Pro or full HD can come in handy due to existing wiring....so the price of the full HD model warrants its purchase if you need to share that 1x data run.

Compare the additional 150 bucks price to the price of having a wiring guy do another ethernet run....I just had this yesterday at a restaurant that needed to add wireless to their kitchen...but a pain in the butt old building to run wiring in. So the owner wanted wireless over by the prep cooks line...only 1x data run to a jack on the wall used for their kitchen line printer. I shipped her the larger model with dual ethernet ports so she placed the AP on the wall there doing pass through...the line printer plugged into "secondary" port on the AP.

(yes I normally don't like to have APs mounted on walls but it's a small kitchen they have so having it oriented vertical is still more than ample for the small space).

 

[SAFCasper]

The Pros are to be phased out, and they're 3x3 MIMO
For over a year my new standard AP is the nano HD....it's the replacement for the Pro. It's 4x4 MIMO.
About the same price!

...

I'm of the same opinion. Besides a few niche cases the NanoHD is all-round better or as-good as the AC-PRO

Unfortunately, this is one of those situations. NanoHD is not outdoor rated.

I never understood how they differ from the mesh the Pro devices offer. I've meshed Pro devices previously and the hand-over has been seamless plus the M-PRO devices are $100 more so I'm not sure where the advantages are.

I honestly don't know. Never used them I just know of their existence and they are designed for mesh so thought it could be a good fit. Maybe its just a pre-configured auto-mesh type thing? Didn't realise they cost significantly more.

I've also meshed AC-PRO, AC-Lite, NanoHD and many of the older models together. Never had any issues with it. Not the best speeds on older models but it was always stable.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If exposed to the elements, rain/snow/ice, I'd use the full Outdoor M models.
If it's under an overhang...mounted horizontally on a ceiling, rain/water won't get to them and they're fine.
The PRO model has that rubber insert covering the ethernet port section to give it some water resistance. Granted it's not totally water proof like you could submerge it in a bucket of water. But any other indoor APs can be mounted on a ceiling horizontally and be fine. Temp wise 'n such..no difference in the units for their operating range. Unless some kid grabs a garden hose and blasts the thing with stream for several minute..but in the real world, no diffy.

As for "Mesh" versus the regular indoor models....just a couple of years ago the Mesh models had better mesh features and configuration, however in recent firmware/Unifi updates in the past...2 years I think, the indoor models now have those same features. Prior to that the indoor models could still mesh...yes..even back in the green halo first gen models, but it was quite limited and if I recall limited to single hop.