Hi guys, I’m helping a customer expand their LAN to a second building where a few network cameras will be mounted. The distance between the buildings is 37 meters, and as we want to avoid having to dig down physical cabling, I am currently looking for a wireless solution. The idea is to install some form of point-to-point devices on the main building and the new building, install a switch in the new building and wire up all the cameras with ethernet. The point-to-point devices I’ve found so far has all had a multi kilometer range, which seems a bit excessive for my case. So I wanted to ask you guys for recommendations for devices that would better fit this case. Required bandwidth for the wireless link will be less than 1Gb/s.
The requirement may be less than 1Gb/s, but I would suggest a pair of Ubiquiti Wave-Pico or a pair of Gigabeam / Gigabeam Plus, depending on availability. The Nanobeam 5AC would work too if you find a pair of those.
Though I am not a huge UI fan, I have the link between the main and guest house on my property (~2 acre separation) just having two of my Unify AC-Pros in mode to server as AP and Bridge.
Been running that way 3 years and zero issues. Last I iperfed it was running at ~400. At it is just part of my wireless infra at home, not really a dedicated system.
I run those un-managed, I fire up a VM with the SW when I need to make changes.
How clear is it between your two dwellings? I’m looking to do this at my Camp, its around 400 feet from the one building to the next, would probably be 500-600 feet of Fiber. My worry is it’s a moderatedly wooded area.
Line of sight for the most part, there is a 32 foot gate between them (Steel) but it does not cover the whole area, so even if it is causing appreciable interference, it is not enough to prevent it working.
The original plan was to try and shoot over it, but in testing it just worked, so I just said 'Why move them?"
I have done radio shots in the multi-mile range using Cisco BR1310’s a long time ago, they would be no where near the throughput needed, but IIRC they were like 10Mi range un-amped. So it does snot take a lot of power to go a long way. Just remember the higher the BW the lower the range unless you are talking high dollar pro equipment. Remember as well lower frequencies tolerate barriers better. So if you get it just right but not quite and want to tweak it, consider using the lower frequency bands instead of channel hopping. You can sometimes get better consistent performance that way.
It can be tricky, if you do not have a spectrum analyzer to see what is going on (I have a wi-spy original 2.4 and a DBX 2.4/5g) the most simple way is something like farproc wifi analyzer (Android, I am sure there is a iPhone version or equivalent). I am not associated with the product, but I have used it because it has a signal strength beep pattern.
Getting max signal is just a matter of listening and adjusting antenna. And there are like dozens of utilities that can be leveraged in linux world.
But for 400’, if not too densely wooded, it should not be an issue. Option B would be two directionals. And if you cannot get elevation (pole or tower), go for power. Plenty of amps out there, and while you can run afoul of the FCC if not careful in congested urban areas; in rural camp scenarios you can get away with a few hundred more mA output, and that can make a HUGE difference. Keep it on properly aligned directional antennas and not [power + omni = range], there should be little to no issue powering through a few trees.
I’m mostly looking at Ubiquiti stuff. It’s probably overkill for homeowner type stuff, but I was able to set up and expand a few of them with a little direction from IT at the last place I worked, so it’s a familiar product. It’s rural area, but a cluster of seasonal homes, one of the reasons I want to go point to point instead of just extending Wifi range is to deter neighbors from loitering to sponge the network. Thanks for the insight, I’m definitely open to suggestion.
If you have a place to put them, I would consider a couple of pre-paired long range bridges from amazon, if they do not pan out, you can return them easily until you find a product that works.
They should be completely adequate to make a single residential leap no further than that. And since they are set up for range (many miles some of them), with the short distance, you should be able to overcome the obstruction.
To add some feedback, I ended up going with two Unifi UAP-AC Mesh APs which ended up being the most cost affective option with what was available here in Sweden.
It’s been working great so far and I will try to update with more feedback when all cameras and everything is up and running!
I almost hate to waste time/money experimenting with something that’s not gonna be permanent. with the UI stuff, if the bridge doesn’t work, I’ll be sucking it up and burying fiber. I’m not afraid to trim some of the vegetation either. The Secondary dwelling is going to be a part time rental as well, so I’d like to set that up as a different Wifi network than the main building. I certainly appreciate all the inisght!
I want to skip the mesh, there’s a private road that goes through, and I know there are some neighbors that we’re friendly enough to let hook to the WIFI while we’re all around the campfire…but I’m afraid they’ll definitely loiter if the WIFI reaches too far.
