The PowerBeam ac directs RF energy in a tighter beamwidth. With the focus in one direction, the PowerBeam ac blocks or spatially filters out noise, to improve noise immunity. This feature is important in an area crowded with other RF signals of the same or similar frequency.

Ubiquiti's InnerFeed technology integrates the radio into the feedhorn of an antenna, so there is no need for a cable. This improves performance because it eliminates cable losses. Featuring high performance and innovative mechanical design, the PowerBeam ac is versatile and cost-effective to deploy.

Designed for improved usability, airOS v7 is the enhanced operating system for Ubiquiti airMAX ac. It supports airMAX ac protocol and has long-range Point-to-Point (PtP) link mode. This offers selectable channel width of 10/20/30/40/50/60/80 MHz in PtP and 10/20/30/40 MHz in PtMP. Additionally, this PowerBeam features automatic/manual transmit power control, automatic distance selection (ACK timing), and a strong WPA2 security.

airOS offers usability enhancements such as dynamic configuration changes*, instant input validation, HTML5 technology, optimization for mobile devices, detailed device statistics, comprehensive array of diagnostic tools, including Ethernet cabling test, RF diagnostics, and airView spectrum analyzer.

airMAX ac devices feature a multi-radio architecture to power an enhanced RF analytics engine. An independent processor on the PCBA powers a second, dedicated radio, which analyzes the full 5 GHz spectrum and every received symbol to provide you with the advanced RF analytics in the industry. Data from the spectrum analysis and RF performance monitoring is displayed on the main tab and airView Spectrum analyzer of airOS V7.

The main tab displays the RF information such as, persistent RF Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) constellation diagrams, Carrier to Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (CINR) histograms, and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) time series plots.

airView allows you to identify noise signatures and plan your networks to minimize noise interference. airView constantly monitors environmental noise, collects energy data points in real-time spectral views, and helps optimize channel selection, network design, and wireless performance. airView runs in the background without disabling the wireless link, so there is no disruption to the network.

 

In airView, there are three spectral views, each of which represents different data. Waterfall represents aggregate energy collected for each frequency, Waveform represents aggregate energy collected, and ambient noise level background represents noise energy shown as a function of frequency. airView provides powerful spectrum analyzer functionality, eliminating the need to rent or purchase additional equipment for conducting site surveys.

Unlike standard Wi-Fi protocol, Ubiquiti's Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) airMAX protocol allows each client to send and receive data using pre-designated time slots scheduled by an intelligent AP controller. This time slot method eliminates hidden node collisions and maximizes airtime efficiency, so airMAX technology provides performance improvements in latency, noise immunity, scalability, and throughput compared to other outdoor systems in its class. With Intelligent QoS priority assigned to voice/video for seamless streaming it is capable of high-speed, carrier-class links with long distance.

The airMAX ac technology boosts the advantages of proprietary TDMA protocol. Ubiquiti's airMAX engine with custom IC improves TDMA latency and network scalability. The custom silicon provides hardware acceleration capabilities to the airMAX scheduler, to support the high data rates and dense modulation used in airMAX ac technology.

airMAX ac supports high data rates, which require dense modulation, 256QAM is a significant increase from 64QAM, which is used in airMAX. With the use of proprietary airMAX ac technology, airMAX ac products supports up to 450+ Mb/s real TCP/IP throughput up to triple the throughput of standard airMAX products.

The mounting bracket of the PowerBeam offers 20° of uptilt and 10° of downtilt, while the mounting bracket offers ± 15° of tilt. Only a single wrench is required to mount the PowerBeam ac on a pole. The antenna feed can be detached with the push of a button. Its fasteners are GEOMET-coated for improved corrosion resistance when compared with zinc-plated fasteners. Dish and brackets are made of galvanized steel that is powder-coated for enhanced corrosion resistance. The pole bracket design prevents paint from being removed from the metal brackets for improved corrosion resistance.