Outdoor Wifi to cover 4 acres

[TenYardFight]

Got this message today:

Please provide me with a quote to cover my entire 4acre property with Wifi access. My current wifi router is roughly located next to the blue dot in the aerial below.




I've been watching the @YeOldeStonecat thread and others, knowing that this is something we should be able to tackle with Ubiquiti equipment. Can you point me in the right direction? I thought it interesting to note he wants wifi on the whole property, not just in the buildings...

 

[Mike McCall]

I think I would ask for some clarification. Clients sometimes say one thing when meaning another. I would ask if they really want the entire property covered vs. in & around the buildings.

 

[TenYardFight]

He just confirmed he wants Wi-Fi in the whole property.

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[YeOldeStonecat]

Assuming it's a house in lower left, and a work garage or shop over in upper right?
First...underconduit 'tween 'em? If conduit...could change how we get ethernet over to the shop


Without further knowledge/more info...immediate hunch would be, Unifi APs inside the house...maybe just 1...perhaps 2 with lower power. Dunno what the house is like. Exterior cable with UBNT ether surge protection to top of house....to an outdoor Unifi AP....for 360 coverage down in that half of the yard.

Probably a Nano in a window...assuming line of site to the shop, beaming over to the shop. And another Nano in the shop..aimed at the house, catching the signal...bridging it to ethernet..switch...spreading out to the shop internally. Data jacks for PCs in shop if needed.
Run a external ethernet with ethernet surge...to rooftop...to another outdoor Unifi AP up on that roof, for 360 outside coverage for the north half of the lot.

 

[TenYardFight]

Thanks! This was enough for me to feel like we could do it. Meeting with the client soon and will follow up.

 

[Your PCMD]

Thanks! This was enough for me to feel like we could do it. Meeting with the client soon and will follow up.

Anything can be done with enough money!

 

[TenYardFight]

So apparently there won't be line of site from one building to the next. I suppose my next best option is to run cable to a pole near each building and position the poles in such a way that they have line of site?

 

[TAPtech]

How's that? What's in the way? If its just the leaves and some tree branches, you might be fine over that distance.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So apparently there won't be line of site from one building to the next. I suppose my next best option is to run cable to a pole near each building and position the poles in such a way that they have line of site?

Well....it can vary. 5.0 point to point tolerates some foliage in the way of line of site better than 2.5 ptp los.
During dry seasons..less water in the foliage, less dispersal of signal. After rains...if there's a good amount of foliage in the way, it will have more water content...it can interfere a bit more.
Looking at your picture...I can't tell for sure if 2 of the trees 'tween the houses are deciduous (like maple)...or spruce/pine type (which interfere more, they're denser).

What options might you have of having them get out a chain saw/pole saw...and do some haircuts on the trees? For that school project I did...I had a tree company come out twice to lop the top off of a huge full grown maple. I'm talking about a honking huge tree...I had them lop off 30% of it across the top. Sure looks ugly from the roof of the school, but....from the ground, you can't really tell much, it didn't lose much visual appeal from ground level.

The distance you're shooting, the beam 'tween a pair of nano's won't be too wide....if a tree is in the way, can cut a "tunnel" through the limbs...make a path right through the limbs.

Options from the roof of each building for erecting masts?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Good resources for additional mounting hardware...
RFArmor.com
DoubleRadius.com (also bit Ubiquiti resellers)

 

[uprighttech]

Based on that aerial picture, a pair of NanoBeams or LiteBeams should work no problem between the buildings.

 

[SAFCasper]

I have numbered the buildings to prevent any confusion. Now...

Looks like there is clear line of sight from 3 to 4. An option could be using an an additional pair of Nano's to make a PTP link between 1 and 3. Feed that into another Nano which then links from 3 to 4.

You would require a power source in building 3 for this to work.

EDIT:
Picture didn't work. Added as an attachment instead.

 

[TenYardFight]

Visited today. Attaching a new picture. We're going to start with what's in red. Run exterior cable from the bottom circle to the top one and mount a UAPOUTDOOR5.

In purple is what we'll do next if the signal doesn't make it to building 4. We'd put a nanostation right next to the UAPOUTDOOR5 on building 2 and a matching one on building 4. We'd then put another UAPOUTDOOR5 on building 4.

Question: Should I run TWO exterior cables, in case we need to mount a nanostation later? Or should I count on the UAPOUTDOOR5's ethernet bridge to pass data and POE to the nanostation...

 

[uprighttech]

@TenYardFight: I think the NanoStations are no longer being produced. They've been replaced by products such as the NanoBeams, which work great and will do exactly what you need. You can either connect the NanoBeam and UAP to a common PoE switch or you can connect the LAN ports on the two PoE injectors together. I've done the latter on a couple of projects. Works great!

 

[TenYardFight]

Thanks! So just to be clear. I can just run one cable and feel good about hooking up both the UAPOUTDOOR5 and a NanoBeam to it?

 

[uprighttech]

@TenYardFight: I may have lied to you. NanoStation is still on the products page. It just doesn't show up in the "airMAX ac" section; you have to click on "airMAX."

With the NanoBeams you would have to run 2 cables, as the NB does not have a second ethernet port. However, you do not have to have a switch between the NB and the UAP. You can just run a cable from a PoE injector to each and then connect an ethernet cable between the LAN port on NB PoE injection and the LAN port on the UAP PoE injector.

The NanoStation does have a second ethernet port on it that can be configured for PoE passthrough. So that would probably be the way to go for you. Don't understand why they removed the secondary port for the NanoBeams and LiteBeams.

 

[uprighttech]

Or should I count on the UAPOUTDOOR5's ethernet bridge to pass data and POE to the nanostation

This should say Nanostation passing data and PoE to the UAPOutdoor5.

 

[TenYardFight]

Hmmm. But the UAPOUTDOOR5 does have a bridge it looks like. Why not let it be first in the chain?

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[YeOldeStonecat]

Cuz you need to power too...POE feed.
Do 2x ToughCable runs.
The NSMs will continue to be made and sold for a while...many people just don't find them on the site because they miss the button to the right for the legacy (non-AC) products.

I haven't done the new NanoBeam AC myself....one of our other guys recently set them up...but yeah for some reason they just singled ported that.

I just run 2x cables up into primary POE/Data ports on each.
Do your "bridging" of the connection down at the ground level, via a ToughSwitch 8 (cuz you want the 48v), or bridge through the POE injectors.

Note..the Outdoor legacy Unifi (2.4) is 48v if you use that. The newer Outdoor AC went back to normal 24v.

 

[uprighttech]

Hmmm. But the UAPOUTDOOR5 does have a bridge it looks like. Why not let it be first in the chain?

The secondary ports on UAPs do not pass PoE.