After creating your site and adding Access Points to it, to create a reliable wireless network, carefully plan the locations of the Access Points and antenna configurations.

When deploying Access Points in the United States that operate in the CBRS band, it’s important to note that they must go through a registration process with the Spectrum Access System (SAS) to start transmitting. The Certified Professional Installer (CPI) is responsible for entering the AP locations and antenna configurations to bring up the AP. This registration process ensures that the Access Points don’t interfere with other wireless systems operating in the same frequency band.

The location and configuration of Access Points are crucial for providing adequate coverage and ensuring a seamless user experience. Therefore, it’s essential to have a clear plan in place before deploying Access Points. This includes identifying the locations where the Access Points will be installed and determining the antenna configuration for any external antennas that will be used.

If you’re deploying Access Points outside the United States, you don’t need to go through the SAS registration process. However, it’s still important to install and configure the Access Points correctly. An Admin user on the Orchestrator can install and configure Access Points, ensuring that they’re set up correctly and providing optimal coverage.

In conclusion, creating a reliable wireless network requires careful planning and attention to detail. Identifying the locations of Access Points and determining the appropriate antenna configuration are crucial steps in this process.

You will need Certified Professional Installer (CPI) credentials in order to activate your Celona Access Points (AP) and request for their access to CBRS spectrum via the Spectrum Access System (SAS) services used by FCC in the United States.

In order to add CPI information to your sites configured within the Celona Orchestrator, a Certified Professional Installer (CPI) must be added to your account. CPI credentials are used to attest that AP deployment parameters (coordinates, antenna parameters, etc) are correct.

CPI credentials can be registered under your existing Celona Orchestrator user account or a separate user account specifically for the CPI. To create a new account, proceed with these instructions. Otherwise, skip to Adding CPI Credentials below.

To add your installer's user details in Celona Orchestrator, navigate to Admin Settings > Users.

On the Users page, click Add User to continue.

Add the CPI's contact information and select Installer as the Role. Click Add and Celona Orchestrator will send an email to the CPI inviting them to create an account.

Once the CPI has created a password and logged in, they must add their CPI ID and certificate to their profile. Click the Account icon (top-right) and select Profile.

In the CPI Certificate Information card, press Add and follow the instructions.

With CPI information added to Celona Orchestrator, proceed to configure your Celona APs.

Select Access Points from the left-hand menu and select the AP you want to configure.

The screenshot above shows the AP Details before the configuration has been completed. In the Antennas card, click the Edit icon to add installation parameters.

For indoor APs with built-in antenna (AP 12, AP 13, AP 20, AP22), only latitude and longitude data are required. Outdoor APs (AP 11, AP 13E, AP 21) with external antenna support additional data is required, including:

To comply with FCC regulations, the CPI is responsible for adding and verifying the accuracy of information related to the AP installation at your site.

Once all of the data is entered, check the box for CPI compliance and press Save/Update. Repeat this process for each Celona AP deployed.

If you have a large number of APs to provision, installation parameters can be entered using the Celona API. Here is the link to our API documentation. If you have any questions, please email support@celona.io.

Note - CPI data for ALL access points must be added before a site can be brought up. This is because Celona's CBRS Domain Proxy requests spectrum for the APs it manages as a group to facilitate coordination via our Self-Organizing Network algorithm.

Once the APs are provisioned, Celona Orchestrator will begin the automated process of acquiring your spectrum grants from SAS.

For the first time, the APs are brought up, you don't need to schedule a SAS Registration, once the APs are UP and transmitting, for every CPI installation parameters update, a SAS Registration must be scheduled. This article describes the SAS Registration Scheduler

You can track the status of your SAS grants from the Access Points page of the Orchestrator. If an AP shows its status as Provisioned, it is connected to Orchestrator but awaiting a grant to start broadcasting. As soon as the grant is received and the radio is “live”, the AP status in the Orchestrator will change to Up.

As APs come up, our self-organizing network (SON) algorithms automate the process of frequency assignment and TX power configuration for each AP, ensuring your users and devices experience seamless handover across your coverage areas.

The Domain Proxy service running on the Celona Edge interfaces with the SAS on behalf of all Celona APs at a site. This service sends periodic heartbeat keep-alive requests to SAS for each AP's grant to utilize the CBRS spectrum.

AP operations and the Domain Proxy service are decoupled on purpose to ensure that we maintain the state of the AP even if the AP is out of service momentarily. This allows the Domain Proxy service on the Celona Edge to retain existing grants with SAS service by continuing to keep the periodic heartbeat.

During the heartbeats to the SAS service, the SAS provider (e.g., Google, Federated) will ensure 99.999% availability, with Celona cloud receiving live reporting of its status as part of the system integration. If the Domain Proxy on the Celona Edge loses connectivity to the SAS service for more than 240 seconds, as per FCC regulation, spectrum grants to the Celona APs will be suspended until the connection to the SAS service can be re-established from the Celona Edge.

The AP operational state as reported within Celona Orchestrator will capture any issues during the SAS process: Registration, Spectrum Acquisition & Spectrum Grant Termination. You may subscribe to the AP state change monitoring API from Celona Orchestrator to be alerted when AP operational state changes due to SAS related errors.

To check on the status of your new site, click the Celona logo (top-left) to navigate to the main dashboard, displaying the status of all sites, physical assets and connected devices.

Select your new site from the dropdown to view the site-specific status of your Celona APs and Edge Clusters. Next, let’s connect some devices.

Select Access Points from the left-hand menu and select the AP you want to configure.

The screenshot above shows the AP Details before the configuration has been completed. In the Antennas card, click the Edit icon to add installation parameters.

For indoor APs with built-in antenna (AP 22), only latitude and longitude data are required. Outdoor APs (AP 21) with external antenna support additional data is required, including:

Once all of the data is entered, press Save/Update. Repeat this process for each Celona AP deployed on the site.

As APs with Antenna Parameters complete, come up, our self-organizing network (SON) algorithms automate the process of frequency assignment and TX power configuration for each AP, ensuring your users and devices experience seamless handover across your coverage areas.

The AP operational state as reported within Celona Orchestrator will capture any issues during the Spectrum allocation process. You may subscribe to the AP state change monitoring API from Celona Orchestrator to be alerted when AP operational state changes due to Spectrum-related errors.

To check on the status of your new site, click the Celona logo (top-left) to navigate to the main dashboard, displaying the status of all sites, physical assets, and connected devices.