View Full Version : Bonding wifi links
raytaylor
01-10-2009, 06:52 AM
Hi again
I am now looking to increase the speed between our base station and master tower.
Basically we have a link from our base station to a high hill which goes into a standard network switch. Other access points also connect into this switch and bridge off to other repeaters.
We are thinking about increasing our internet uplink capacity but the speed will then be limited by the first link to our main repeater.
I am wondering if there is a way to use another bridge on a different channel between the main repeater on the hill back to the base and somehow bond the 2 bridges together. Does anyone know of a way to take 2 ethernet cables and bond them to increase the speed? I think that is what I have to do here.
http://i44.tinypic.com/34g371c.png
Do you actually want to increase the speed or simply the bandwidth?
If you want to increase the speed, i.e. you have a 24 Mbps link (where a 48 Bps link would be too unstable) and want a 48 Bps link. You could run turbo mode which increase the channel width to increase the bandwidth and still retain teh receiver sensitivity of a 24 Mbps link.
If that is not what you are looking for, then you'll need to do actual ethernet bonding, usually referred to as "link aggregation". This is easy with a Linux box.
raytaylor
01-10-2009, 08:09 PM
Do you actually want to increase the speed or simply the bandwidth?
If you want to increase the speed, i.e. you have a 24 Mbps link (where a 48 Bps link would be too unstable) and want a 48 Bps link. You could run turbo mode which increase the channel width to increase the bandwidth and still retain teh receiver sensitivity of a 24 Mbps link.
If that is not what you are looking for, then you'll need to do actual ethernet bonding, usually referred to as "link aggregation". This is easy with a Linux box.
The individual bridges wouldnt work with turbo modes or expanding channel widths because of the distance.
Is there another way to do link aggregation without a linux box? Because its solar powered at the other end, we dont really have the power to run a pc.
raytaylor
01-10-2009, 08:15 PM
Thanks for the help.
I just did a google search on link aggregation and found i just need to replace the switches at each end with managed switches.
I am sure i can find some low powered ones that hopefully use around 10 watts otherwise im off to buy another solar panel.
Thanks :-)
The D-Link DES-3226L ($220) comes to mind.
Keep in mind, all of your individual links have to be the same speed.
D-Link says, "The DES-3226L supports 802.3ad Link Aggregation (Static Mode). Link Aggregation or port trunking enables users to increase availability and aggregates bandwidth between servers and/or other switches, by combining multiple links of the same speed as one logical link."
Cisco says, "The ports also need to operate at the same speed. It is possible to trunk 100-megabit ports together, but trunking a 100-megabit port and a gigabit port together will most likely not work, even though mixing port sizes within a trunk is technically supported in the 802.3ad standard. Ports operating in different duplex will not aggregate. One half duplex and a full duplex port cannot aggregate"
Interesting reading here,
http://forum.ubnt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2797&sid=65b02a90093ec73d8e6a4121d18c56ea
raytaylor
01-11-2009, 08:10 PM
The D-Link DES-3226L ($220) comes to mind.
Keep in mind, all of your individual links have to be the same speed.
D-Link says, "The DES-3226L supports 802.3ad Link Aggregation (Static Mode). Link Aggregation or port trunking enables users to increase availability and aggregates bandwidth between servers and/or other switches, by combining multiple links of the same speed as one logical link."
Cisco says, "The ports also need to operate at the same speed. It is possible to trunk 100-megabit ports together, but trunking a 100-megabit port and a gigabit port together will most likely not work, even though mixing port sizes within a trunk is technically supported in the 802.3ad standard. Ports operating in different duplex will not aggregate. One half duplex and a full duplex port cannot aggregate"
Interesting reading here,
http://forum.ubnt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2797&sid=65b02a90093ec73d8e6a4121d18c56ea
Should be ok if both radios on both the trunks are the same model so they should all be seen as 100mb or all be seen as 1000mb to the switches. Since its only going at about 48-54mbit per link i dont mind if i have to configure them to run at 100mbit anyway.
Thanks for the model suggestion - I shall go and look it up now. :-)
edit: on reading that other thread - It might be best if i just upgrade the radios or look at maybe linux on eeepc's as they only use about 25 watts.
But then again either way its still cheaper to upgrade the radios.
"maybe linux on eeepc's as they only use about 25 watts"
Would Knopix on a 1 Gig flash drive work?
Or Ubunti on a bigger flash drive?
raytaylor
01-11-2009, 08:36 PM
"maybe linux on eeepc's as they only use about 25 watts"
Would Knopix on a 1 Gig flash drive work?
Or Ubunti on a bigger flash drive?
Probably - Although the eee comes with ubuntu on the 4gig internal drive. At work we have all got them now for onsite diagnosis with windows and a 32gig sd memory card.
But i am going to give up on this idea. Upgrading the radios seems simpler and I dont want to be stuck with some hardware i dont need.
To give you an idea 2x eee's = $1000 + 80w solar panel for one end is $1000 then convert to usd so you can understand the example = USD $1168 plus i will still need to add capacity to the deep cycle batteries up on the hill.
Chyvak
01-16-2009, 09:12 AM
Where I can download Knopix for flashdrive?
mike95826
01-22-2009, 05:56 PM
You many want to look at the Mikrotik RB493AH.
It has 9 ethernet ports and 3 mini-pci slots. The AH model uses a 680 Mhz processor so it should be powerful enough for most applications. The preloaded Level 5 software already installed includes network bonding, agregating and fallback.
They are less than $200 each.
Where I can download Knopix for flashdrive?
Knoppix is downloadable as a BitTorrent.
yeh, some MT solution, 4example, bind together a few ethernets and switch few power stations...,
but more simply is run a 2x RB 600 witch 4 miniPCI each,
make 2x nstream2 and no problem :)
mlomaster
01-31-2009, 03:47 AM
consider use of tp-link TL-R480T+ it has two separate wan ports, over wireless they can be connected to separate ports of router or even separate modems.
We use them for dividing internet consume by ip ports. Like: all web, mail, etc. to one modem and all other to second. This help with performance as well. Users always have nice clear channel for web with good ping.
But we do not do any accounting.
