Wireless LAN Accessories

When the time comes to connect all of your wireless LAN devices together, you will need to purchase the appropriate cables and accessories that will maximize your throughput, minimize your signal loss, and, most importantly, allow you to make the connections correctly. This section will discuss the different types of accessories and where they fit into a wireless LAN design. The following types of accessories are discussed in this section:

• RF Amplifiers
• RF Attenuators
• Lightning Arrestors
• RF Connectors
• RF Cables
• RF Splitters

Each of these devices is important to building a successful wireless LAN. Some items are used more than others, and some items are mandatory whereas others are optional. It is likely that an administrator will have to install and use all of these items multiple times while implementing and managing a wireless LAN.


RF Amplifiers
As its name suggests, an RF amplifier is used to amplify, or increase the amplitude of, an RF signal, which is measured in +dB. An amplifier will be used when compensating for the loss incurred by the RF signal, either due to the distance between antennas or the length of cable from a wireless infrastructure device to its antenna. Most RF amplifiers used with wireless LANs are powered using DC voltage fed onto the RF cable with a DC injector near the RF signal source (such as the access point or bridge).

Sometimes this DC voltage used to power RF amplifiers is called "phantom voltage" because the RF amplifier seems to magically power up. This DC injector is powered using AC voltage from a wall outlet, so it might be located in a wiring closet. In this scenario, the RF cable carries both the high frequency RF signal and the DC voltage necessary to power the in-line amplifier, which, in turn, boosts the RF signal amplitude. Figure 5.20 shows an example of an RF amplifier (left), and how an RF amplifier is mounted on a pole (right) between the access point and its antenna.

RF amplifiers come in two types: unidirectional and bi-directional. Unidirectional amplifiers compensate for the signal loss incurred over long RF cables by increasing the signal level before it is injected into the transmitting antenna. Bi-directional amplifiers boost the effective sensitivity of the receiving antenna by amplifying the received signal before it is fed into the access point, bridge, or client device.


RF Attenuators

An RF attenuator is a device that causes precisely measured loss (in –dB) in an RF signal. While an amplifier will increase the RF signal, an attenuator will decrease it. Why would you need or want to decrease your RF signal? Consider the case where an access point has a fixed output of 100mW, and the only antenna available is an omni-directional antenna with +20 dBi gain. Using this equipment together would violate FCC rules for power output, so an attenuator could be added to decrease the RF signal down to 30mW before it entered the antenna. This configuration would put the power output within FCC parameters. Figure 5.22 shows examples of fixed-loss RF attenuators with BNC connectors (left) and SMA connectors (right). Figure 5.23 shows an example of an RF step attenuator.