Im currently using 4 t1 lines. 2 at one location, 2 at another for reliability concerns. I pay about 3k a month for the 4 lines and some IP’s. A fractional t3 line has about a 6k local loop charge. Only other thing we have looked into was bringing in a chunk from a colo provider via wireless, however i have concerns about the reliability of a 40 mile wireless backhaul.
What have some of you guys used as your backbones?
Thanks
We’re using the Canopy 45 Mbps backhauls. The OFD radios are very stable. For our longer links we use the connectorized versions with 4 ft radome enclosed dishes (dual polarized).
Aaron
Motorola have available a T1 / E1 Multiplexer that will do the job for you nicely.
2 x Mux’s & 2 x 10Mbps Backhauls with reflectors and your away. Don’t use the 45Mbps Backhaul for a 40mile link as you may not get the throughput required for 4 T1’s due to the self adjusting modulation scheme.
You can daisy chain the Mux’s to provide more channels (just change to 20Mbps Backhauls). Any unused bandwidth can be used for data.
I wouldn’t rely on one link as your backhaul if its crucial. Redundancy is a must if this link is a primary feed.
The new firmware for the 45 Mbps backhaul has a setting to optimize for TDM traffic. Haven’t played with it yet but I have 10 sets of these things sitting here for me to work on next week. 
Aaron
acherman wrote: The new firmware for the 45 Mbps backhaul has a setting to optimize for TDM traffic. Haven't played with it yet but I have 10 sets of these things sitting here for me to work on next week. :D
Aaron
You have 10 pairs of 45Mbps BH?? Am I just misreading your post here?
I'd love to see the application this is for!! :lol:
Nope, you read it right. Actually, I have 7 pairs of the connectorized units, 1 pair of intergrated units, and I’m waiting on 2 more pairs of integrated units (supposed to ship on the 15th, but they were also supposed to ship yesterday 
).
Maybe when it’s all running I will post a network diagram.
Aaron
WOW! I’d love to see that… :shock:
It’ still about a month and a half away, but if I remember I will post a diagram. We will have two “ring” configurations, covering approx. 4000 square miles. Each point will have a 2.4 GHz cluster as well as at least one 900 MHz AP with omni directional antenna for hard to reach customers. The entire area won’t be covered but the higher populated spots will be. Our main focus is industrial customer in the outlying woodlands (mostly gas and oil field). Should be fun… :lol:
Aaron
Man, what a fun project! I’m jealous… :evil:
I am working on a communications enhancement project here in the Ukraine and I am wondering what the best product is for use in a rural area where you need a long haul NLOS link. I will have about 13 sites to cover in my “test bed” so I want to get the best possible poject design. Just looking for imput.
The 45 Mbps BH’s are OFDM radios. They have excellent NLOS capabilities. The manufacturers, Orthogon Systems, have a new product, the Spectra. They’re main focus is on nLOS and NLOS radios. They clame the Spectra will do 300 Mbps NLOS, but not much range. They do have a Try-and-Buy program if you can find a distributer (Hutton is one) and they are great to work with in terms of computer modeling your paths and determining what will and won’t work.
http://www.orthogonsystems.com
Aaron