2 Hop 12 Mile Link Using Bullet 2M's

[phr0zen]

Hello,

I am setting up a wireless link that will provide 12Mbps cable internet to my house about 12 miles away. I do not have a single line of sight path between the cable drop and my house, so I will have to use 2 hops. All paths are line of sight to each other. My problem is determining how to make the link function through both hops. Would this best be implemented using WDS? I can use all static IP's so I think it should work with bridge mode also?

The setup will be as follows
Cable Modem--->Bullet 2M(AP)---> 6.5miles --->Bullet 2M(Bridge)--ethernet cable---Bullet 2M(AP)----->5miles --->Bullet 2M(Bridge)---ethernet cable---Bullet 2M(AP)----1.5miles----Bullet 2M (Bridge)---- ethernet switch


The first tower is about 6.5 miles line of sight from the cable modem. This tower will then link to another tower about 5 miles away. The second tower is then line of sight about 1.5 miles from my house.

My question is, what is the best way to setup the equipment for a 2 hop link?

I have the link budget figured out and have appropriate antennas to span all of the hops. Each tower will use high gain (24dBi) dish antennas facing back to back. Each opposite facing antenna will be on a different wireless channel to reduce interference. The two radios at each site will be on different channels to maximize throughput.

Here is my plan, but I'm not sure if this is the best setup:

At the cable drop, I want to use a Bullet 2M in AP mode. This should transfer the cable IP and provide a direct link to the modem??

The AP will wirelessly connect to a Bullet 2M bridge or WDS at the first tower site. I have a PC and network cameras at this site, so I will want to link them into the network/internet. I plan to use an ethernet switch to connect the other equipment into the link.

The ethernet port on the Bullet 2M bridge at the first hop repeater tower site will connect to a 4port switch. One port will go to another Bullet and the other ports will be used for network cameras and a control PC at the first tower site. All will be static IP addresses.

The dish antenna from the 2nd Bullet AP will face towards the second hop, where I will have have another bullet in bridge mode. This bridge will wirelessly connect to the AP at the first tower.

At this hop, I will connect the ethernet ports together because there is no need to add any devices to the network here. Again, I will use the 3rd non overlapping channel on the AP Bullet.

Finally, I will have a bullet in bridge mode at my house connected to an ethernet switch.

Will this work? and is it the most efficient way to do it? Does using multiple Bullets in bridge mode cause any problems if I'm not using DHCP?

Can anyone give me some input on this setup, or let me know if there is a better way to do it?

Thanks

[wisptec2]

I think all in all it is good, but at your first ap is that bridge mode or router mode?

I would think Router mode would be the best on the first AP and let it get the public IP from the cable modem. Then every thing from then on out is on a LAN. You could even have the AP (the one in Router mode) do DHCP for the laptops back at your house. But static every thing else. I would use AP - Station mode NO WDS.

[Virtual69]

I may be doing a similiar link to this at some point in the future...Is it possible to somehow tunnel the single static IP from the ISP over the hops to a server on the other end?

[Griminal]

I have setup pretty much like that. All of the equipment at the last location gets IPs from the OpenBSD router. The link is maxing out the speed of the Bullet2 HPs.... 25Mbps. I just ordered two more Bullet M2 HPs today and should be able to get 40Mbps+. The only reason I'm using the OpenBSD router is to do some fancy routing at the main location. You could just plug in your first Bullet directly into the cable modem and put it in router mode. My cable modem only wants one client... ie: the first device MAC it finds.

Cable
|
OpenBSD Router (10.10.10.1 - LAN, DHCP - WAN)
|
Bullet M2 HP (AP WDS, bridge mode, 10.10.10.11)
|
Bullet M2 HP (Station WDS, bridge mode, 10.10.10.12)
|
Bullet2 HP (AP WDS, bridge mode, 10.10.10.13)
|
Bullet2 HP (Station WDS, bridge, 10.10.10.14)
|
Switch

[wisptec2]

I may be doing a similiar link to this at some point in the future...Is it possible to somehow tunnel the single static IP from the ISP over the hops to a server on the other end?

Yes, just put every thing in Bridge mode, with static IP Addresses at like 10.0.0.1 and so on.

[phr0zen]

I ordered 2 M2 HP's to test the first hop before buying 4 more.
Does using WDS have any advantage if I am using static IP's everywhere? Is it stable on this firmware, or is my best bet to stay away from using WDS?


Griminal,
Have you had any problems with your link setup? How long has it been up? I'm asking because it appears that the M2 (AirOS 5) firmware is beta... I don't want to have firmware that needs rebooted every day or two or an unreliable link.

[Griminal]

I ordered 2 M2 HP's to test the first hop before buying 4 more.
Does using WDS have any advantage if I am using static IP's everywhere? Is it stable on this firmware, or is my best bet to stay away from using WDS?


Griminal,
Have you had any problems with your link setup? How long has it been up? I'm asking because it appears that the M2 (AirOS 5) firmware is beta... I don't want to have firmware that needs rebooted every day or two or an unreliable link.


I had a few weird issues with the M2's but RC5 seems to have fixed them. I'd have to reboot the first Bullet once a week on average. It would allow local traffic but wouldn't allow outside traffic to go out. I could SSH into the OpenBSD box and ping google.com just fine. *shrug*

WDS is nice to bridge all traffic to the other end of the link. If you need to see VLANs or such. I have fixed DHCP addresses assigned to workstations by MAC address so I can route different traffic out different interfaces and that traffic makes it to the OpenBSD box for processing without issue.

My link has been up for around 3 months.