Does anyone here have experience with non-Line-of-Sight wireless setups?

J

jmroberts70

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Oct 15, 2002
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I'm trying to link two offices together that are around 10 miles apart. There is a 1,000 ft mountain range between them. Are there solutions that could either "reflect" the line of sight signal at the peak, or possibly relay the signal? Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree but it seems it may be less expensive to setup a point to point connection as opposed to paying for an expensive bank of T1's at the remote office (nut much else available at this site since it is a fairly rural location).

Here's a shot of the two offices in Google Earth with an elevation profile I generated:
lineofsight01.jpg


I'm sure there are other issues like who owns the land at the top of the hill and will they let me erect something there so this may be all for nothing but I'd like to know if it's worth pursuing further...

Any thoughts?
 
As long as both sides can get line of sight to the top and you can get access and power then use 4 rockets or 4 nanobeam or 4 airgrid in 5ghz. To form a bridge.
They can help you select the best solution on the forum over there.
http://www.ubnt.com/airmax
 
Yeah, I was actually looking at the Ubiquiti solution. I guess I need to find out how hard it will be to get power to the top of the hill!
 
Colour me cynical, but your equipment will be stolen or vandalised or both within days. Can you use a satellite uplink / downlink?
 
And what's going to happen when someone puts a crane in the LOS?
 
You will have a nightmare getting permits, erecting a structure to support equipment, having utilities run, etc, and that's even if you manage to get a lease from the land owner. You might need a fairly high tower to keep everything out of the Fresnel zone as well. Even if you do manage this, it will not be cheap at all. I'll be very surprised if you could pull this off for under 6 figures.
 
jmroberts70 said:
Yeah, I was actually looking at the Ubiquiti solution. I guess I need to find out how hard it will be to get power to the top of the hill!
Click to expand...
You don't have to go strait across either. You can cross over anyplace you can get line of sight and power.
You can get the range to make it work even if it is slightly longer.
 
First thing I would look for is existing towers that you can rent space on, such as cell towers. I use to have a great contact for this, but fell out of contact with the guy. Then determine your best path.
 
k1pp3r said:
First thing I would look for is existing towers that you can rent space on, such as cell towers. I use to have a great contact for this, but fell out of contact with the guy. Then determine your best path.
Click to expand...

Ah ha! Great idea. I guess I need to do some driving around now...
 
It looks like the terrain drops off really steeply, if there isn't a lot of foliage in the way, just build a micro tower. There are a few examples on the Ubiquiti forum of people putting a 10' monopole in a plastic tub of concrete for these remote mountain relays.

http://community.ubnt.com/t5/airMAX-Getting-Started/airMAX-Solar-Powered-Tower/ta-p/496599

For security, put GPS trackers in the solar panels and radios, with an IP camera at the top of the tower pointing down.

Getting permission to use an existing tower is almost not even worth it, unless its a private tower or owned by a municipality. AT&T and Verizon don't want you anywhere near their stuff unless you have a big name behind you and a lot of insurance.
 
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