Point to Point wireless project

[FlangeMonkey]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking into putting up a permanent point to point wireless network using parabolic grid antenna's. Its traveling approx. 1 mile (1.2 for padding).

I'm open to opinions, but this is where I am currently at:

My main scope is range, stability and throughput. Functionality will come later.

I'm thinking of going 5ghz, for three reasons, first the legal power is higher than 2.4ghz (but I want to keep things safe). Second that wavelength should be cleaner. Lastly 802.11ac.

I was originally looking to use alfa devices, but have now moved onto something like the Asus RT-AC66U.

I haven't discounted anything, so suggest away...

My first direct question is what power output can I expect to get from the RT-AC66U? I'm struggling to find a reliable answer.

 

[stevech]

with a 22-26dBi gain wire grid parabolic (L-com.com has a large selection), you don't need much power into the antenna to reach the legal limits. In the US, there are different radiated power limits (inclusive of antenna gain), versus antenna beamwidth, versus which part of the 5.4-5.8GHz band you use. Also in some parts of the band, you must use equipment with DFS (dynamic freq. selection).

That said, and based on my experience, if you have line of sight for the 1 mi. path, a pair of under $100 ea. Engenious bridges with radio and antenna all in one unit, w/outdoor packaging and low voltage power up the ethernet cable. Usually, these are not parabolic dishes, more like 18dBi or so.

You can do the math to get the link fade margin you want, versus the signal strength needed to support a particular bit rate.

At a professional level, really good ones I've used are not 802.11, but use the same band, from Redline Communications.

 

[FlangeMonkey]

Interesting,

This is a home setup at reasonable cost levels. So from a professional point of view, what are you using for such a setup?

engeniustech.com looks really interesting, so it looks like the ENH500 would work. Know how fare this will go.

 

[FlangeMonkey]

Thanks for the post stevech. Its sent me off on a tangent and I've come across Ubiquiti equipment. I had a geek orgasm when I sore the airFiber, but the price of these bad boys is a little on the extreme side, but some staggering performance.

I also like the idea that there devices are built on a linux OS so I can tweak it. Only thing is 802.11n speeds and its bottle neck is the network interfaces as there 10/100. This is fine for me, but making me think as 1080p will be going over it but there equipment is reasonably priced, so as a first setup it should be good to go.

 

[stevech]

if you search these forums, you'll see lots of questions about point to point (inter-building) bridges and recommendations. Engenious and Ubiquity are perhaps the most commonly mentioned, for residential users.