Point to Point Radio Question

My work has two buildings in the same town. The network architect wants to setup a radio dish on the roof of each building pointing at each other to network the building.

Initially this seems like a bad idea to me but I'm not schooled in this technology at all.

Does anybody have any experience or insights into the pros and cons of this type of solution?

Thanks!

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crazychrono100

We got this setup for our customer. Their two buildings is about 2-3 miles away from each other. We got a 100mb link that does about 80-90mb real-world. So it is not bad at all. Although we only used that as a backup connection though so can't vouch for its consistency.

dark3d

Cheap = Ubiquiti Airfiber, Mikrotik
Expensive = Motorola

Stay out of ISM bands. You're going to need a licensed frequency. ($$) If you think you are just going to be able to throw up a 2.4 link and 'make it work' then you will be 'severely disappointed' in the results.

Depending on the business, you may already have spectrum available.

Depending on what telco is around it would be best to rent dark fiber/stay off of a public medium.

J_86

This is pretty popular in some areas of business. We use this a lot of sites we cannot run fiber at for various reasons to a second location that is within a 1-2 mile distance. .
There can be security issues with some wireless point-to-point links, but when set up right its works pretty well.

We are generally using Avalan wireless products: Wireless Ethernet Bridge,Wireless Ethernet Extender,900 Mhz Ethernet Bridge . They have products that operate in 2.4 Ghz as well as products that require a license .

Tranzeo also makes some products that we have also used, but we are mostly migrating over to Avalan Broadband Wireless Manufacturer - Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc.

Dieg0M

We run 2 types of Wireless P2P link between our sites, Radio Frequency based and Millimeter links.
Pro's:
-Low latency
Con's:
-For RF you will need a registered frequency and with high winds or interference you might have packet loss/link down.
-For millimeter link you will have link down or high packet loss when there is rain/fog/snow.
-Lower bandwidth than fiber for both
-Short distance for millimeter link

Kai123

P2P radio is fairly easy to troubleshoot as well (from a NOC perspective).

We currently have strong winds in Ireland. A few issues that some customers are getting are trees being blown into the signal path, and one customer where the winds are so strong its nudged the radio at the site ever-so-slightly, ping responses are 2600ms, avg 600ms. Impressive!

The more expensive P2P radio connections with licensed frequencies are very reliable though.

powmia

Security

Heero

It really, really depends on both the quality of the path and the quality of the gear and installation.

If you have LoS and you bring in a consulting firm to design and install a microwave system with licensed frequency, you can get a link with reliability comparable to fiber. If you buy consumer grade wireless equipment and don't do professional installation, you can have a shitty experience.

Your network architect isn't necessarily wrong to want to do a p2p wireless solution. Assuming you have a good path and properly install the right gear, you can have a link between the sites with comparible speed and reliability to fiber, but for a fraction of the cost.

matai

powmia wrote: »

Security

This is my main concern