Cisco aironet 2800 series Deployment Manual page 38

Client Roaming in a Micro and Macro Cell
RF Operations on "E/P" Series Access Points
When the smart antenna connector is not used, the AP 2800 and AP 3800 "E/P" series function much like an
AP 3700 where both the 2.4–GHz FRA radio and the integrated 5–GHz radio share the top RP-TNC connectors
in a dual band mode.
This is sometimes referred to as Dual Radiating Element (DRE) or dual band mode.
Note
However, once the smart antenna connector is inserted, the access point senses the presence of the new
connector/antenna and automatically switches the FRA (XOR radio) from the top connector that was previously
in 2.4 GHz/5 GHz DRE mode to the smart connector port. This allows the top connectors for the 5 GHz radio
serving clients and the FRA radio is now free (regardless of mode) to use the smart connector for RF
communications.
The flexibility to do this allows many different types of modes, from discrete single band operation (SRE) to
DRE operation. The ability to change the antenna controls (sending different bands 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz out
of different ports in SRE and/or DRE mode) is sometimes referred to as Cisco "Flexport" and was first
introduced in the AP-1530 series.
Figure 36: Antenna control (default) and with smart antenna connector installed
Cisco Aironet Series 2800/3800 Access Point Deployment Guide
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