Ubiquiti Nano Station Substitute RF Radio Link

[Alaska Country]

Looking at the Air Max Nano station to use with 4 Dahua IP cameras. The link is LOS at about 200 feet. Ethernet would be a good alternative choice, but due to city streets, permits and utilities make the wire route an expensive choice. Also, the Nano stations are sold out along with a lot of other lower priced options.

As a substitute, under consideration, is the the Giga Beam Plus with is more costly but has a very small form factor. The overall question is will this device work as a point to point extension for full duplex IP camera use connected to a 24 port POE unmanaged switch to BI?

It looks like substantial overkill which may make it future proof!

"The GigaBeam Plus (GBE Plus) is a 60 GHz radio that can be used as a high-throughput backhaul/edge point-to-point (PTP) solution in WISP deployments. With its integrated Cassegrain reflector, the GBE Plus delivers 35 dBi antenna gain and can exceed a 1.5 Gbps bidirectional throughput rate with very low latency."

See below spec sheet for more details.

 

[TonyR]

This co. has good stock on non-AC Nanostations and Locos, both 2.4 and 5.
Also, there's this 5AC version radio with gigabit Ethernet and you can get the needed pair for less than one of your "overkill" radio==>> Ubiquiti airMAX LiteBeam Gen 2 5AC 5GHz 23dBi CPE US

 

[bp2008]

Hi.

As a substitute, under consideration, is the the Giga Beam Plus with is more costly but has a very small form factor. The overall question is will this device work as a point to point extension for full duplex IP camera use connected to a 24 port POE unmanaged switch to BI?

Yes it would work and actually deliver gigabit speed too.

I've used Gigabeam Plus before, at about 1.2km range. Three things I would warn you about:
1) The line of sight requirement is more strict than ever with the 60ghz frequency. Don't even try it with them if you have so much as a single sparse tree branch in the way.
2) These radios have an extremely narrow beam so if they are aimed a little bit wrong you will get no link at all. May be less of a problem at 200ft, or it may be worse (maybe you just get an awful signal until they are pointed exactly right?). Lets just say within the same room for testing they were able to link at good rates just pointed vaguely at each other, but once I got them mounted at 1.2km it was like aiming an invisible laser. Took a lot of fiddling to even get them to connect.
3) Several times a day my radios would lose connection and not get it back until the radios were rebooted. Seems like a firmware bug, but firmware updates never fixed it and I could find no evidence of this happening to anyone else. Could have been related to the poor signal strength I had at that long range. I had -62 to -67 dBm depending on weather. The radios require a minimum signal strength of -72 dBm so that was cutting it pretty close. Still, when they were actually connected the speeds were great, 500+ Mbps, and latency 0-2ms. I ended up using the ping watchdog function to reboot them automatically, and ultimately replaced the radios with AF60-LR which are much better suited for the long range and have been stable.

Like @TonyR said the LiteBeam Gen 2 5AC would be a good alternative if you don't mind the larger footprint. Or the non-AC NanoStation Loco M5 if 100 Mbps speed would be enough for you. TP-link has competing products such as this one

http://amzn.com/dp/B00N2RO63U

which is equivalent to the NanoStation Loco M5 with a 100 Mbps network port. Avoid 2.4GHz. Unless there are a lot of obstructions like trees that you haven't mentioned, the greater penetrating capability of 2.4GHz is a bad thing because it means increased interference.

If you do go with a 5GHz radio make sure you reduce the output power so your signal strength is only about 30 dBm higher than the noise floor (about -45 to -55 dBm would usually be ideal). Any higher than that and you are just creating more unnecessary interference for your own and your neighbors' 5GHz wifi networks.

 

[TRLcam]

I have a couple links using the Ubiquiti Gigabeam product. @bp2008 is spot on with his advice. If this radio is installed correctly, it works great.

 

[Flintstone61]

I have a simple pair of Ubiquiti Nano Loco 2.4 GHZ at 400 feet. It's pushing 2 camera feeds right now. Thursday, the pole it was attached to died of old age and fell against the garage. The antenna device was pointed 45-60 degrees to the right of the target and down towards the ground. It kept sending a picture! how many cams are you hoping to send over the airwaves?
I relocated the cam's today to the garage wall for now until we get a new pole.

Ubiquiti NanoStation Loco M2 airMAX [LocoM2-US]

The original NanoStation set the bar for the world's first low-cost and efficiently designed outdoor broadband CPE. The new NanoStation M and NanoStation Loco M take the same concept to the future with new redesigned sleek and elegant form-factors. 150+ Mbps real outdoor throughput and up to...

www.balticnetworks.com

 

[Flintstone61]

She’s been pulled back with a come along and stabilized with some Landscape spikes and 4x4’s.

 

[Alaska Country]

Great advise. Glad that I asked.

Like your comments about the 60 GHz product. Not a fan of 60 or 2.4 GHz systems. But like the 5 GHz one that is suggested. (Ubiquiti airMAX LiteBeam Gen 2 5AC 5GHz 23dBi CPE US)

Also noticed that the suggested firm is much less costly on shipping. For a pair of the giga beam plus B&H was at $28 and directly from Ubiquiti (a name that one could spell would be nice) at $29 for shipping. (most do not offer free shipping to Alaska) One of their resellers in California wanted $67.

There are some trees in regard to the LOS, but still a clear view. The dish will go on the green house that is across the street at an angle. Also have to be concerned with 3 feet of snow on roofs in the winter.

Have provided two images of one end of the link. A general view and a close up taken today with our 19 hour and 22 minute day!!

Appreciate all of the wonderful suggestions and taking the time and effort to be of assistance.



Close up view.

 

[bp2008]

Yeah for that I definitely wouldn't use 60ghz. The tree will grow, then signal will probably be unusable within a few years. With 5 GHz litebeams I am sure they will still be usable with the tree in the way, at only 200ft. Just remember to tune the output power appropriately on both ends

 

[TonyR]

But like the 5 GHz one that is suggested. (Ubiquiti airMAX LiteBeam Gen 2 5AC 5GHz 23dBi CPE US)

Also noticed that the suggested firm is much less costly on shipping.

Glad you find that radio and the vendor to your liking. I've used them several times with great results.

 

[Alaska Country]

Tony:

Yes, ordered a pair of units from your suggested vendor. Like the fact that they have options for shipping while most of other shops tend to use UPS or FedEx at extra cost to the buyer. Plus the cost went from $179 each to $65 each. My credit card said a big thank you.....

The least expensive shipping was from B&H at $28. Your firm was $10.65 using USPS Priority mail. From most places, in the lower 48, to Anchorage is in the range of 4 to 5 days. Should be here Friday or Saturday. Or if ordered from Amazon it would take 10 days!!!

BP, agree on the issues with 60 GHz. That shot is not very long, but could cause issues in the future due to the trees. Considering rain and oxygen the below seems appropriate.

"Two compounds are responsible for the majority of signal absorption: oxygen (O 2) and water vapor (H 2 O). The first peak occurs at 22 GHz due to water, and the second at 63 GHz due to oxygen."

Yes, will reduce the RF out as saturating the front end of a radio can cause some interesting effects. Most in the undesirable classification. Gear in the 2.4 GHz range would also work, but too many WiFi signals out there. Plus one could be responsible for messing up a neighbors system.