Topic 15 [wireless]: Wireless IP: New alternatives to leased lines #544 of 545: Paul Terry http://www.spring.com/yapp.html (terry) Tue Nov 25 '97 (07:04) 3 lines I'd be interested in more details on the waveland stuff Steve. I'm still scratching my head on how to do a wireless setup for Austin to my isp that others could share. Any more ideas Dave? Topic 15 [wireless]: Wireless IP: New alternatives to leased lines #545 of 545: Dave Hughes (dave) Tue Nov 25 '97 (08:31) 57 lines Its really pretty basic terry. For the crudest rule of thumbm assume that connecting up wirelessly anyone to your ISP system who is 5 miles or less away is pretty easy, between 5 and 15, harder, and over 15 hardest. Then decide who are you trying to hook up at what (as an acceptable minimum) throughput speeds. Knowing the cheapest way for starters is to assume a base radio - at your ISP location - will operate up to T-1 half duplex. Which could handle 24 simultaneous 56kbps sessions. So you then look at radios, like Breezecoms, where one 'Access Point' at the base, connected into your system via an ethernet connection (or thru a hub) can be connected to X number of 'Bridge' units - all acting like one big LAN. And systematically after you connect up the Access Point to as high gain an omni antenna as high as you can get it on your roof above your system, take Brigde units to each customer's premises and see if you can get a link, carrying a small omni, or yagi, to point back to the AP as the case may be. Knowing that the ethernet coming out the bcak of the radio can run up to hundreds of feet without serious loss. So if you get 3 customers with Bridges, which cost you about $1,800 apiece, the AP about $1,400 - their radios talking to be base radio (little green link lights on all), then all thats left is connecting them by their ethernet to their radio, giving them IP addresses, and they are connected. In this configuration with those radios, acting as extensions to your LAN, each user will be able to use up to the highest thruput of your radios, expecting at least 512kbps each. Degrading only as more users share the same base radio thruput. So figure out what to charge them since you will not require phoneline at your end, serving them. Alternatively, if where your system is is *not* central enough to radiate out to your intended customers, then you can find a tall building which is more central, and between which you can see/reach by a pair of radios. Then make a deal with the building management to put an omni antenna on their roof, run the RF cable to the top floor where, inside you can get wall power and put the radio, put the *Access Point* radio there (one AP can talke to many WBs), and connect up your Bridge radio first to get a good link, and connected up as many others at customers premises who can see/link to the high antenna and access point. (no computer needed there, for the AP just receives and relays traffic). The effective throughput will be halved to maybe 512kbps, but thats hardly a problem when its free secure, digital communications unaffected by weather. While the radios may differ, the principles I have laid out above stay pretty much the same.

can you put repeaters in the get over the 15 mile being hard ? Topic 15 [wireless]: Wireless IP: New alternatives to leased lines #547 of 547: Dave Hughes (dave) Tue Nov 25 '97 (15:30) 22 lines Yes, most of the radios can act as a relay - though you can get slow downs from latency if you relay more than twice. Usually the over 15 being hard is a matter of the difficulty of getting a clean line of sight that far, and the farther you go, with the 1 watt FCC limitations, the cleaner that line must be. Now the BreezeCom units operate at only 50 milliwatts of power - 1/20th of a watt - because the Isralis made them for the European market, which limits to 1 watt. So they really don't operate well over 7 miles. While Solectek makes a 2Mbps radio rated at 25 miles, 1 watt. I'm trying to line up the Four Republican Horseman of the Senate's Science & Technology Committee - Stevens of Alaska, Burns of Montana, Dorgan of North Dakota, McCain of Arizona, all of whom are from rural states where connectivity to small towns and schools is costly by telcos - to ask the new FCC CHairman why 5 Watts is unacceptable for rural America. There is hardly a case for excessive 'interference' for eskimo villages in the north, served by a satellite internet feed, to reach the 50 mile surroundung area.

Dave Hughes (dave) Wed Nov 26 '97 (11:50) 9 lines Yes, but the professional site-survey is critical. What you want for any link that may turn out to be marginal, is a visit by a radio enginner from Solectek, or a local reseller, using a spectrum analyzer, to see whether, between these two points (1) get a good link (2) how robust it will be (3) what potential interference there might be. On such a long stretch you might be paying for a one day survey that tells you it won't work well enough to spend the money for the radios/antennas and installation.

From Katie mailto://mirmir@well.com here are some wireless services, you might show to your closest and most entrepreneurial isp, for duplication or franchise/setup: http://www.cyberhighway.net/news/wireless.html http://www.wirelesstcp.net/fastest/wireless.htm a great many wireline isps are adding a wireless service.