A customer of mine wants to connect two offices via a wireless link. The only problem is there are many trees in the way. The customer would like to get at least 3.0 / 3.0 mbps. Any ideas for equipment to use?
Not going to happen with standard Canopy.
I would suggest looking at an OFDM solution.
You don’t think 2.4 would handle some trees for 500 yards?
I dont like 2.4 because is very crouded, but you can try with a reflector.
I have some near line of sight links using the reflector…
Gut feeling? No. but I don’t really have enough information. Can you define “some” trees? How many? What type? How much change will there be if the trees are wet? Covered in snow? As mentioned previously, what does the noise floor look like?
More importantly: Is this a mission critical link? Does his ability to do business depend on it? Are you willing to experiment to get a working link?
From an economic standpoint: What’s the alternative? Probably a Leased line. A T1 leased line (no IP) is at least 350/mo without local loop. He wants 3Mx3M. A bonded 2xT1 leased line (again, no IP) has to be 600/mo plus local loop, but probably much more (but I am guessing). At 600/mo, that would be 7200 for one year. That’s a 30M OFDM Backhaul sale with a decent profit. He would get an ROI on the radios in the first year.
Personally I would not settle for the sale. I would rather lease the radios at around 150-180/mo and then sell him a circuit with as much BW as the radios would give (at least 3Mx3M) for 350/400 per month with a 36 month contract. Over the 36 months the income would be ~12k and the lease would be ~6k netting ~6k over the 36 months.
He wins because he did not need to lay out the cash, and if the radios have an issue (which you know they won’t) it’s not his problem. It’s a fixed cost which business owners like. At the end of the 36 months you will likely re-sign him because people don’t like to change unless they have to, and if it’s reliable there is no need to change. Plus he will be saving thousands of dollars over a leased line. When you re-sign, the radios would be paid for (or close to it) and the income would be all profit (yeah, 12k profit over 36 mos).
If after the first 36 mos he decides to go in a different direction, you pull the (paid for) radios and use them somewhere else (cause you KNOW the radios will still be working).
But that’s me.
I am not guaranteeing that a set of OFDM BH’s are going to work, but I would bet that they will perform MUCH better than a 2.4 link through the trees even with a reflector at the SM. Pretty sure you can’t put a reflector on the AP because it is a Multi Point device.
You would still need to engineer the link and determine your losses and fade margin. A quick look at the estimator tool indicates that at 1/4 mile you would have about 66dB of margin assuming LOS and that the terrain is flat and the antennas are 40’ off the ground.
1 Like
There is no problem putting a reflector on a ap.
I have a 1.5 miles link using a reflector on a 2.4SM with no line of sight and a lot of pine trees. -75dbm 1x no rereg and 100%. The AP has no reflector.
I would try it and monitor it for a couple of weeks.
1 Like
Just curious, what if it doesn’t work? That’s and AP and SM that cannot be returned and reduced customer confidence.
Are you sure you can legally put a reflector on an AP?
Legally you cannot put a reflector on an AP.
charles.regan wrote: I have a 1.5 miles link using a reflector on a 2.4SM with no line of sight and a lot of pine trees.
You are getting a 2.4GHz signal to do NLOS through pine trees? What kind of throughput do you get with the 1X? What height is the AP?
Check this bad boy out :
http://www.wirelessinteractive.com/orion/
Not sure on the price but 900 MHz up to 22mbs depending on how you set the channels up 
They have what is possibly a 400 MHz solution on the drawing board called Pegasus. Sure hope the FCC opens those TV whitespaces up to us WISPs !
keefe007 wrote: A customer of mine wants to connect two offices via a wireless link. The only problem is there are many trees in the way. The customer would like to get at least 3.0 / 3.0 mbps. Any ideas for equipment to use?