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Wi-Fi Access Point Product

Overview

A wireless access point is the radio that turns a wired network into Wi-Fi coverage. Unlike a home router it does not route or hand out addresses; it bridges the air to an Ethernet backbone and is deployed in numbers across a building, each unit a cell that clients roam between. This is a ceiling-mount enterprise model, sealed in an unobtrusive puck that takes a single cable for both data and power.

That cable lands on the PoE Uplink Port, which splits off the network traffic and taps the DC supply to run the whole unit. Inside, the Radio Mainboard holds the Wi-Fi SoC, memory, and firmware flash that form the access point's brain. The SoC's two radios drive a pair of RF Front-End Module modules, one per band, that amplify transmit and receive signals before they reach the Antenna Array. The radio-transparent Radome Enclosure lets those antennas radiate through it, while the Mount Bracket twist-locks the unit to a ceiling grid.

How it works

The SoC runs two independent radios, one on 2.4 GHz and one on 5 GHz, so a client picks whichever band serves it best. Each radio's baseband produces a low-level signal that is far too weak to fill a room, so it passes through a front-end module. On transmit a power amplifier raises it to the regulatory limit; on receive a low-noise amplifier lifts faint client signals before the SoC tries to decode them. A fast switch shares each antenna between the two directions, and a SAW filter keeps each chain inside its band.

Multiple antennas per band are what make the access point fast. With Wi-Fi 6 the radio runs MU-MIMO, sending several spatial streams at once and even serving several clients in the same airtime, steering energy toward each by adjusting the phase across antennas. The whole exchange is scheduled tightly so dozens of devices share the channel without colliding, and because the unit draws its power over the same Ethernet run, one cable to the ceiling is all an installer needs.

Build & assembly graph

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Bill of materials

8 top-level lines · 34 rows shown · 320 parts total · indented to 3 levels
# Item / sub-assembly Part no. Qty/assy Ext. qty Parts Type
1 Radio Mainboard 7 parts wifi-ap-mainboard 1 228 assembly
1.1 Bare PCB pcb-bare 1 part
1.2 Wi-Fi SoC wifi-ap-soc 1 part
1.3 DDR Memory wifi-ap-dram 1 part
1.4 Firmware Flash wifi-ap-flash 1 part
1.5 Microcontroller mcu 1 part
1.6 RF Shield Can wifi-ap-rf-shield 3 part
1.7 SMD Passive (R/C/L) smd-passives 220× 220 part
2 RF Front-End Module 5 parts wifi-ap-front-end 2 34 assembly
2.1 Power Amplifier wifi-ap-pa 2 part
2.2 Low-Noise Amplifier wifi-ap-lna 2 part
2.3 RF Tx/Rx Switch wifi-ap-rf-switch 2 part
2.4 SAW Bandpass Filter wifi-ap-bandpass-filter 2 part
2.5 SMD Passive (R/C/L) smd-passives 30× 60 part
3 Antenna Array 3 parts wifi-ap-antenna-array 1 10 assembly
3.1 PCB Antenna wifi-ap-pcb-antenna 4 part
3.2 Chip Antenna wifi-ap-chip-antenna 2 part
3.3 RF Coax Pigtail wifi-ap-rf-cable 4 part
4 PoE Uplink Port 4 parts wifi-ap-poe-port 1 4 assembly
4.1 RJ45 Jack wifi-ap-rj45-jack 1 part
4.2 PoE Magnetics wifi-ap-magnetics 1 part
4.3 PD Controller wifi-ap-pd-controller 1 part
4.4 Connector connector 1 part
5 Radome Enclosure 4 parts wifi-ap-enclosure 1 4 assembly
5.1 Radome Cover wifi-ap-radome 1 part
5.2 Base Plate wifi-ap-base-plate 1 part
5.3 LED Light Pipe wifi-ap-light-pipe 1 part
5.4 Fastener Set fastener-set 1 part
6 Status LED wifi-ap-status-led 1 part
7 Mount Bracket 3 parts wifi-ap-mount-bracket 1 4 assembly
7.1 Bracket Plate wifi-ap-bracket-plate 1 part
7.2 T-Bar Clip wifi-ap-tbar-clip 2 part
7.3 Fastener Set fastener-set 1 part
8 Wire Bundle wire-bundle 1 part

Sourcing — likely vendors

Companies that make this · indicative price $30–$50k · MOQ & lead are typical
VendorHQSpecialtyMOQLead time
🇺🇸Cisco
cisco.com ↗
San Jose, US Networking 500 units 8–14 wks
🇺🇸Juniper
juniper.net ↗
Sunnyvale, US Networking 500 units 8–14 wks
arista.com ↗ Santa Clara, US Networking 500 units 8–14 wks
🇫🇮Nokia
nokia.com ↗
Espoo, FI Telecom equipment 500 units 8–14 wks
🇨🇳Huawei
huawei.com ↗
Shenzhen, CN Networking & telecom 500 units 8–14 wks

362-word article