I would like to thank everyone for their comments and recommendations. I would like to acknowledge that I meant to say “bridge” instead of range extender. I also realize that I did not provide enough information to present a clear understanding what I want to do. I am located in a rural area and have three primary areas I would like to have cameras located in. Area 1 includes my house, storm shelter, storage shed and surrounding property. Area 2 includes my livestock barn, tractor barn and surrounding property. Area 3 includes my shop, carport, trailer and surrounding property. Each area is approximately 200-250 yards apart. I am currently running 14 Wi-Fi cameras with an outdoor AP but want to transition to PoE cameras to eliminate the need for electrical power at each camera as well as increase the total number of cameras. I have included an updated diagram. Any additional comments and recommendations will be appreciated.Has anyone connected a PoE camera switch up link port to the Ethernet port of a router set up as a signal extender. If you have, what were your results? A diagram of what I have in mind is attached.
View attachment 124692
I do have intermittent problems during the day with the existing wireless cameras which I assume are atmospheric related. The diagram mistakenly shows 10 wireless cameras instead of 14 cameras I currently have in use. My overall goal is to replace all existing wireless cameras with PoE cameras. This would be a transition from WiFi to all PoE over time starting with Area 1 (House) shown in the diagram. Once completed Area 1 would consist of 12-14 PoE cameras connected via the PoE Switch/Ethernet Hub located inside storm shelter that is connected via Ethernet cable to the main wireless router located inside the house. Area 2 (Barn) and Area 3 (Shop) would each have 4 PoE cameras that would transmit their signals via a PoE Switch/Outdoor Bridge to the outdoor AP located atop a 20-foot mast in Area 1. This would reduce the number of wireless camera signals to a total of 8 cameras via two separate bridges of 4 cameras each. I have updated the diagram to show the planned configuration without existing wireless cameras in the mix. Hope this paints a clearer picture of what I am trying to achieve to eliminate the need to dig 3-foot trenches (freeze line here) and bury Cat-5 cable.Once again, WiFi is not made for the continuous streams of video that surveillance cameras produce. You may get by with two, or maybe three, then everything will fall apart due to channel overload. You're showing 10 cameras connect with WIFi. The dropout rate on those cameras will be so bad they will be unusable for surveillance, especially if they're all on the same channel.
To add to that, you'll be running all the cameras through your WiFi router which will also choke due to the heavy demand of surveillance video. You'll have a total of 22 cameras, total bit rate unknown, running through your WiFi router, and 18 of them on WIFi connections which won't work well, to get to the Blue Iris machine. I really don't think that will work out well at all.
Sounds like I will be digging trenches and burying cat-5. Hub is for laptop to view cameras while in shelter. Can eliminate hub when I get 16 port PoE switch. My current PoE switch does not have enough ports to attach laptop.In response to post #7:
Not to pile on, but the"Outdoor AP on 20 ft. mast", if set up for optimum performance, cannot work with the 10 "WiFi Cameras" because:
Now that 2 "Outdoor Bridges" will connect with the "Outdoor AP", we're talking PtMP" mode, such as ==>> airMAX - Configure a Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) ISP-Style Access Point
That being said then even if you don't use Ubiquiti brand, most decent, well-designed radios that operate as AP-Bridge-TO-Station-Bridge will use proprietary protocol such as "AirMax" and WDS and a channel width that is NOT compatible with standard Wi-Fi devices...those cameras won't work with it. This protocol is required to provide the most reliable, highest bandwidth connection between the 2 radios. TP-LINK outdoor long range wireless devices use a similar technology, called "Pharos".
Also, not sure the role of the "8 port hub" is in the storm shelter. FWIW, hubs are obsolete and where needed, a "switch" can and should take its place.
What if I use repeaters instead of bridges and connect the PoE switch up-link to the repeater cat-5 port?Sounds like I will be digging trenches and burying cat-5. Hub is for laptop to view cameras while in shelter. Can eliminate hub when I get 16 port PoE switch. My current PoE switch does not have enough ports to attach laptop.
+1^^.
Not sure how lightning is is MO but running metallic cable between 2 or more outdoor buildings is an invitation to damage and problems. I would avoid in AL, GA, FL, TN, MS and more.
Also, the advantages offered, in spite of additional expense, by quality, made-for-purpose Ubiquiti or TP-LINK radios to operate as a PtMP or Layer 2 transparent bridge (as linked and described) will far outweigh the time and trouble for trenching and installing CAT-5 in your needed places, IMO.
Thanks for all the assistance. I will get a second CPE210 for test/practice purposes since they are reasonably priced. There are trees on the property but line of sight between locations is pretty good. VHF radios work well between house, shop and barn. If successful with the CPE210's I will purchase the Ubiquiti equipment for long term operation. I'll update as I proceed. Again, thanks for all the help.Your experiment using your CPE210 won't be very revealing unless you use TWO, one at each end, of the bridge to operate as the Layer 2 Transparent bridge. When done properly, it operates as it were a CAT-5 cable regarding data, only the voltage for POE is not available.
I would not consider using the laptops and buying/installing Blue Iris, as they don't perform well together mainly due to hardware design and restrictions to keep temps down and improve battery life.
Your money would be better spent. IMO, setting up the bridges as depicted in the links and depending on the topology that suits, either PtMP or PtP. If it were me, I would use all 5GHz devices for the bridges as long as you have good LOS (Line Of Sight) between the proposed radio locations. Although I have used some TP-LINK AP's for restaurants and offices, I can only speak to using Ubiquiti NS5 Locos, NS2 Locos, NS Loco 5 AC's and NS2M's as bridges and have had stellar results.
If you've had the CPE210 for some time you may have to bring its firmware up with the new one; choose v1 or v2 ==>> Download for CPE210Thanks for all the assistance. I will get a second CPE210 for test/practice purposes since they are reasonably priced.