Convert point to multiple project setup
Convert point to multiple project setup
This is a project I picked up for my family over the holidays. We will be connecting the networks of three houses from a central omni-directional antenna in the middle of a field. I have opted to use Ubiquiti products for this build due to my experience working with them in the past. It ain't much but it's honest work. - The age old story of US Internet providers. The only Internet provider available in this rural location offers only one speed, molasses. It is horribly inconsistent, and service has only degraded over the years. There are three houses, two with independent connections, and one using a hotspot with the only mobile carrier with reception in the area. On a good day, the best connection averages 1.4Mbps download, 0.15 Mbps upload, and 80ms latency. The second house's connection is somehow noticeably and consistently worse than the first. The ISP refuses to add service to the third house despite having it previously due to their over-provisioned lines. Calls to the ISP for the degraded service are a waste of time, any service at all is enough for them to call acceptable. For this premium broadband experience, they are paying $50/mo for two homes, and even more for the hotspot in the third. While researching this project over the best of these connections, I stumbled upon a great example of the current situation. When a PDF failed to open in-browser after a few minutes, I resorted to downloading a copy through terminal. The result was 6 minutes 11 seconds to download a 16.4MB file. If you build it, they will come. A pre-order has been in with Starlink for a year now. The latest update suggests service may be available starting in March. Since the pre-order, another service provider has started offering tower based point to point Internet service some 50 miles away. There is rumor of them expanding the service area, but for now, it is a race to see which service will be available first. We have yet to see if either provider will provide a reliable connection with acceptable speeds. The plan is to build a suitable intranet so that when better service is available, the existing services can be cancelled and all buildings can run off of the same uplink. The Plan - Part 1: Location Points A, B, and C represent the houses, point M represents the bridge between the houses, and P represents our source of power for the bridge (more on this later). Every point to point connection is in line of sight. This is a heavily wooded area, and there is little room for modification due to the treeline. Conveniently, the connections to B and C run parallel with power lines, which keeps the chainsaw out of my hands, and leaves future tree trimming to the power company. The Plan - Part 2: Equipment Point M represents the point to multi-point omni-directional device to serve as the backbone. For this I chose the R5AC-LITE-US ($135 USD) with AMO-5G10 ($125 USD) antenna to operate in bridge mode. Each house will be equipped with a Loco5AC-US ($49 USD each) . I believe this is an economical option which should allow speeds of up to 450Mbps between the locations. I had originally planned on using three more Loco5AC-US as a bridge before exploring omni-directional options. I would have used a NanoSwitch to provide pass-through PoE and power all of the devices. Having found the N-SW, it looks like an awesome product and I was looking forward to using it. Maybe another time! The Plan - Part 3: Power A road running between points A and M prevents burying cable between them. A water well house, marked as point P, is the only way of getting power to our equipment at M. The well house sits just shy of 100m/330ft from our equipment, and while a CAT6 cable has a maximum distance of 100m/327ft, passive PoE (24v) is only good for 45m/150ft at best. Finding a way to use PoE for this would be a money saver, but burying 110v electric is also an option. The downside to this is the cost of electrical cable, outlet, and waterproofing needed at the bridge. Review My idea is to bring the family's Internet out of the 00's and plan for it stable enough to last the next decade. Reducing the overhead of the three Internet connections should cover the cost of equipment within the first year, even with a higher service fee. TL;DR: Using wireless point to point to cut three Internet connections down to one. Burying 110v electrical across a field because PoE will probably not work. Estimated cost: less than $500 USD. Equipment price list: Model Cost Qty Total Price R5AC-LITE-US 89 1 135 AMO-5G10 125 1 125 Loco5AC-US 49 3 147 Pre-tax $407 Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions. I am also open to other brands of point to point equipment if anyone has had good experiences.
As discussed, passive solutions seem unlikely but I can avoid using active components rated for 100m. The adapter I just purchased for my Ubiquiti Litebeam is available in both indoor and outdoor models. You simply plug it into the line at the well house. While I might consider a newer model than the R5AC-LITE, I favor keeping everything integrated so there are no losses in the antenna cable or significant signal loss over short coax runs—though that’s likely fine for short distances.
It’s best to use an INS-3AF-O-G ($21 USD) for converting 802.3af to passive PoE, and a 15W U-POE-AF ($8 USD) because you only require 8.5W. I haven’t found another omni-directional model from Ubiquiti besides the Rocket line in my research. I’ll be using the 6" cables that come with the antenna, and the R5AC-LITE should work well as its specifications align with the Loco5AC.