WISP start up questions

[timmay]

Hi I'm considering setting up a WISP in a (UK) village local to me which has poor/no ADSL availability.

There are a lot of fine details I need to work out before even trying to put together a business plan and getting the necessary grants required to make it happen.

Lets start with the simple stuff, correct me if I'm wrong or help advise where you can:-

1) Frequency?

I can't use 180Mhz (X1), 900Mhz and 3Ghz.
I could use 2.4Ghz and in a rural setting there might not be too much interference but there are only 3 non-overlapping channels and power limit of 100mW.
I can use 5Ghz band B at 1W and band C at 4W
Is that it?

2) Range!

Really coverage from the mast(s) only needs to be about 1km for most users maybe I'll have a couple or so at 3km. Even the NanoStation loco has a range of 5km but what is this likely to be in real life with NLOS. There are a few big trees and some tall wind brake hedges! How well will 5Ghz (band C at 4W) penetrate a tree or 2 on a link only 0.5~1km?

3) Base station antenna?

Omni or sector (45°, 90°, 120°)?
What about diversity? (dual diversity and polarity diversity)?
Will antenna vertical beamwidth of 7° (15dBi) have a massive negative affect on clients low and close to the mast compared to an antenna with 16° (12dBi)?

4) Reliability and maintenance?

There should in theory be a sudden influx of customers on to the network and once up and running I would hope that the network would just keep ticking over. That's probably wish full thinking but it does need to be reliable if not what's the point as I'd end up with loads of maintenance overhead which would cost £££ and time. So how reliable are ubiquiti radios, would it make sense to build the network with redundant AP's/Radios?

That'll do for now.

Thanks for you're help.

[WHT]

1) Frequency?
You really need to do a site survey of the entire area for RF pollution. Even the little AirView with external antenna would help.

2) Range?
Double your internet connection speed and use that as your data speed. Now determine what signal level will cover what you want. 5.8 Gig is very allergic to trees.

3) Base station antenna
Start with an omni and one AP. When that AP loads out past 30 to 35 users, add two more APs and convert over to all 120º ector antennas (one for each AP).

4) Reliability and maintenance
Bandwidth management.

So how reliable are ubiquiti radios, would it make sense to build the network with redundant AP's/Radios?
Spare units ready to go would work.

[j2sw]

Build reliability into your network design. Don't worry about if Vendor A is more reliable than Vendor B. Have redundant systems. Instead of one backhaul into a site have another path out. That path would ideally be another medium (fiber, copper, etc.). This way if you can't climb the tower then you are still up.

Justin

[kijoma]

hi,

if you get stuck, we are based in the UK and very familiar with the tree/terrain issues we have over here :)

click on "contact us" on www.kijoma.net and i'll get back to you as soon as poss. I come on here occasionally but due to workload it isn't as often as i'd like.

Cheers

[raytaylor]

1) Frequency?

You may be surprised how much 100mw with a decent antenna will give you. Also if you reduce your channel widths, you can get up to 7 non-overlapping channels. 5.8 is normally better though because you then are able to stay away from microwaves, bluetooth and most cordless phones.