Wireless BB over wide open space?

philstanbridge · 26 Aug 2008 at 14:30

Guys, need some advice. I've been asked to help with a project which will eventually result in the installation of wireless broadband over approximately 40 acres of land. The majority of this land is wide open space, and outside. Obviously we will need a router and access points but I haven't a clue where to start. Are there any legal consequences of doing this? Is a license required etc? What sort of routers/access points would be required? What sort of budget do you think would be required?

Just to add, this chap runs a holiday park and he wants to offer broadband to his customers.

Westyfield2 · 26 Aug 2008 at 21:02

If it were me (and I'm just a 17yo kid, so am prepared to bow to superior knowledge!):

Pro router (not your standard home router etc).
Multiple switches in the different corners of the land (if getting ethernet to them from the router is going to be difficult, and there's electricity cables you could look at a pro version of the homeplug stuff). Probably 4 switches, one for each 10 acres.
Off of each switch ethernet cables to multiple access points, each with a massive high gain antenna. Probably 10 off of each switch, 1 for each acre.
The switches and access points would need to be covered (something like a beehive maybe) and mount the antennas on the outside.
For the internet connection, leased line, or a few standard Broadband lines (Be* if possible) connected together (load balancing router or something).

That's what I'd be looking at if I were DIY'ing it.

J.B · 27 Aug 2008 at 13:22

If you could get some routers/repeaters that support some kind of mesh topology that could work.

My second idea would be a few Wok-Fi's!
Is it going to be pratical to lay (or string) cables to any part of the site, like Westyfield said would be good to have it wired right up to the AP.

Sure someone on here knows more about it though. Could probably tell you exactly what you need, Im just speculating.

philstanbridge · 27 Aug 2008 at 13:57

I knew it was a can of worms!

What sort of costs would be involved (ball park figure obviously) looking at the above suggestions?

As for practicallity of the site - its' a caravan park. I've no idea how feasible it would be to dig up the land and lay cables. I haven't even been to recce the area myself yet.

Westyfield2 · 27 Aug 2008 at 14:12

One question that will have a pretty big bearing on it:
What's the number of users going to be? (Roughly of course)

Reason being, my home network gets up to 9 users regularly (In a house of four there's 4 PC's, 2 Laptops, Blackberry, iPhone, 2 PSP's, Airport Express) ....... but I'm just imagining over 40 acres there being a lot lot more users :eek:

........ and if that's the case the home network routers we all use wouldn't be handle it and business grade (expensive

) kit would be needed.

philstanbridge · 27 Aug 2008 at 14:20

Well its a holiday park and I can't imagine people would want to spend all their time online - so let's just say 100 users max. That's within the limits of 1 pro router I believe.

bigredshark · 27 Aug 2008 at 14:20

You need some mesh network kit for that sort of thing really. There's some stuff coming to market now which is pretty cool, it's also low enough power that a lead acid battery and a solar panel will run it indefinately.

Downside, it's really not all that quick, speed drops off the more nodes you go through...but it's a holiday park so any broadband is pretty good.

Cost for a mesh netwrok to cover 40 acres...very difficult to say, probably in the region of 15-20k figuring an average of one AP per acre (which is likely on the light side).

The other pro way is to run a professional wireless infrastructure over a wired backbone, something like a cisco wireless AP controller and lots of dumb APs, cost - enoumous, not much change from £40k at best.

Basically, doing it well is expensive, the other option is using heaps of linksys 54mbit APs wired back to a central router. It'd be cheaper (though factor in weatherproofing and power for each AP) but it'd be a nightmare, you'd need to monitor them all to make sure they were still alive, make them easily replaceable (when you've got 40+ APs it's not if one dies but when) etc...

J.B · 27 Aug 2008 at 14:45

I had a feeling bigred would put his 2 cents in!

I think the moral of this thread is its going to be expensive :rolleyes:

Surprised theres not any kit dedicated to this sort of set up.

bigredshark · 27 Aug 2008 at 14:52

J.B said:
I had a feeling bigred would put his 2 cents in!

I think the moral of this thread is its going to be expensive

Surprised theres not any kit dedicated to this sort of set up.

The mesh kit is pretty well suited to this set-up to be honest, no need to run cables, in can be battery power recharging from a solar panel. Those are two big costs taken out straight off. I've seen the kit for less than £200 an AP, which is very favourable compared to cisco and the like.

You can also do stuff with topology to help with the speeds. Basically you spread your internet connections throughout the mesh so they're equally spaced (minimise the number of nodes to get to a wired connection basically).

But speed drop off is nasty, like once your going through 4 or 5 nodes you're struggling to push 512kb through it (this was with older 802.11b based kit, so it will be better but it gives you an idea). It's good for casual access but not yet workable as a residential broadband system basically...

philstanbridge · 27 Aug 2008 at 15:39

Thanks so much for the replies. I still think it's a can of worms but an interesting challenge at the same time! I specified a wireless network when I worked in a school but that came to £8k and that was a few years ago now. I was sort of thinking around £15k. Guess I'll have to go have a look at the place.