[REQUEST] Wireless bridge

[glennd]

I'm looking for opinions please.

My customer has two premises on the high street. They are both on the same side of the highway. There is a side street in between. If I stand outside one premises I can see down the footpath to the other. They are about 135m apart. They want to get the networks at the two premises connected.

I initially suggested a vpn but for a number of reasons, most notably the crappy internet and the customer's concerns about security, we decided not to go that way.

So now I'm proposing a Nanobeam wireless bridge. At first I looked at mounting them on the rooftops but the intervening buildings are much taller and no-one wants to be installing large masts on the roofs. I then discovered we have line of sight down the footpath, more or less, so i'm proposing to mount a Nanobeam outside each premises under the eaves, probably about 8 feet up.

Pros: a relatively easy installation mounting the devices, at one premises the switch is at the front of the building close to the mount point, at the other there's a bit more work running cable inside the building
Cons: Trucks and things passing between may cause dropouts in the bridge(?), easy targets for potential vandals.

What have I forgotten?

 

[Computer Bloke]

What have I forgotten?

That wireless signals pass through wood and you might be able to vandal-proof the equipment by mounting it inside the building? (Or am I just applying NZ building standards to the West Island?)

 

[glennd]

That wireless signals pass through wood and you might be able to vandal-proof the equipment by mounting it inside the building? (Or am I just applying NZ building standards to the West Island?)

If they were both inside, there'd be an awful lot of brick and concrete in between.

 

[glennd]

I could conceivably mount them above the footpath coverings (whatever that roof outside a shop is called) about 12-14 feet up but still more or less line of sight.

 

[marley1]

Higher above trucks. Nanobeam good. For that distance can go with Nanostation Loco.

Remember they are passive. Would suggest us-8-150 to power


Adopt them to UNMS

 

[glennd]

Higher above trucks. Nanobeam good. For that distance can go with Nanostation Loco.

Remember they are passive. Would suggest us-8-150 to power


Adopt them to UNMS

interesting. what makes the Nanostation a better choice over the Nanobeam?

 

[marley1]

Didn't say better just short distance can get away with the cheaper units

 

[Your PCMD]

Didn't say better just short distance can get away with the cheaper units

I've got 4 locations setup on the Ubiquiti LiteBeam Gen 2 for over a year with no issues at all, one location is sending signal about a half a mile away. The thing about them is that they are directional while the Nano's are omni-directional. Since there is line of sight, I would recommend the Lite Beam over the Nano's since you can point the signal to where you need it to go.

 

[marley1]

Huh? They are all directionals. Some lightbeam models have 120 degree range. Other Bridges are 30 degree and up.

 

[mikeroq]

I would try to get them up as high as possible.

Also what kind of bandwidth requirements do you have?

 

[glennd]

For the Nanobeams at least, I think the directionality (?) depends on whether you set them to PtP or PtMP.

At this price point, the difference in price is negligible so it matters not which unit I get, I just want the best one for the job.

The Litebeam seems to have a very narrow beam compared to the Nanostation so maybe that's better suited to this task of point to point in an RF noisy environment.

I would try to get them up as high as possible.

Also what kind of bandwidth requirements do you have?

agreed. bandwidth is probably less important than reliability. Also, they were talking about some kind of IP intercom system.

 

[Markverhyden]

Back on the VPN thing. What security concerns? If you setup a PtP tunnel there is almost no security issues. On reliability I'd think there is almost no difference unless one site just has horrible stats. I'd expect that the wireless solution might actually have more problems depending on the device placements.

 

[glennd]

Back on the VPN thing. What security concerns? If you setup a PtP tunnel there is almost no security issues. On reliability I'd think there is almost no difference unless one site just has horrible stats. I'd expect that the wireless solution might actually have more problems depending on the device placements.

Well, you know, customers get this idea in their heads that vpn can be hacked. Also the idea of disconnecting adsl in the remote office is appealing. Internet reliability is an issue in this town and it will get worse as they try to switch over to NBN in the coming months.

I'm not averse to vpn. I would need to upgrade the modem on one side then I can set up an ipsec vpn using the modems which seems to be a somewhat painless solution.

As for wireless placement, I would need to be careful about placement but I think it's do-able.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For narrow beams I love the IsoStation with the 30* Prism horns on 'em. Those Prism horns are like blinders on a horse, also keeps neighboring wifi noise from cutting in.

I have a pair of those doing a ~650 meg link without much aiming, distance about 3.5 blocks, in a crowded urban area, going down from 5th floor level on a brick wall outside a fire escape to 'tween 1st an 2nd floor of a building.

 

[marley1]

For the Nanobeams at least, I think the directionality (?) depends on whether you set them to PtP or PtMP.

At this price point, the difference in price is negligible so it matters not which unit I get, I just want the best one for the job.

The Litebeam seems to have a very narrow beam compared to the Nanostation so maybe that's better suited to this task of point to point in an RF noisy environment.


agreed. bandwidth is probably less important than reliability. Also, they were talking about some kind of IP intercom system.

All units will work in this scenario. This distance is nothing. PtP vs PtMP they are all directional. Some are 30 degree and some go up to 120 degree. Since you shooting down a narrow area you can use really anything. This distance is nothing.

You can go with the $50/unit ones or higher priced and get the same results. Nothing wrong with the higher end models.

We have a good 12+ bridge setups. Most recent were some short distance units and we used the AC Loco simply for cost.