WISP or other options

Thu Mar 27 05:09:05 UTC 2014

I think the real problem here is the event is for 2 days and he requires a metric shxt ton of data (for wireless anyways..). Sure you could get all kinds of COOL solutions together, but do you think the (UK Version) LEC is going to run DSL/fiber/blah for a two day event? And who bears that cost burden?

If this was an office, sure .. Go for it. A two day event, find something cheap or tell them to use smoke signals. (not to mention all of the venues I've worked with stateside either don't help, or want 15k for the "event" in question)

And as a side note, as a die hard wireless guy (satellite, microwave, and cellular) I ask only one thing: Do not trivialize a wireless link.. It's not 802.11 and it doesn't act that way. If you just run an air fiber across and it works - great. But when it doesn't work, we're left to explain to the customer why the equipment neglected to work. Microwave is not 802.11.. Cellular is not 802.11.. 5ghz is not 802.11. They all act differently, and need to be designed properly to function in a less than suck capacity. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "Ewwww.. Satellite??" or "Ewww.. Microwave??" or "We'll use AT&T 4G for disaster recovery" and when you get into it the equipment didn't work because the office wireless guy (Todd, the only guy there who can configure the link sys router) couldn't get this POS 4k microwave radio to work. There are appropriate applications for all of these.. I'm usually the only guy in the room who can drop 100mbps into a field in the middle of Africa next week. It's all about choosing your poison and understanding how to handle it. It can be very beneficial, but it can also lead to you polishing your resume should it not "just work"..

A pair of Air Fiber is like 3k USD, and at 24ghz you had better know what you are doing.. I don't know if you've ever pointed something with that narrow of a beam width, but if you have I imagine you'll appreciate what a shit show it is. Especially if you don't have guys at both sides of the path flashing or a pretty decent path analysis (which can cost upwards of 10k in some cases).

My .02 :)

From: Alex Howells <alex at howells.me<mailto:alex at howells.me>>
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 9:41 PM
To: Warren Bailey <wbailey at satelliteintelligencegroup.com<mailto:wbailey at satelliteintelligencegroup.com>>
Cc: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman at meetinghouse.net<mailto:mfidelman at meetinghouse.net>>, "nanog at nanog.org<mailto:nanog at nanog.org>" <nanog at nanog.org<mailto:nanog at nanog.org>>
Subject: Re: WISP or other options

Pay someone to worry about all this stuff, MaxWiFi has a good reputation in the UK at least.

Stuff like the Ubiquiti Networks AirFiber can be good for getting from A-B over "relatively short" distances if you've identified another place which has really good connectivity which you can use, and if good connectivity is truly critical to the events. Obviously this involves masts, may involve permitting, and is a bit more complex than just a DSL line.

It's usually possible to bond multiple DSL connections, and it's not impossible to get phone lines and DSL installed for short events either, although it does depend on the venue being willing to accommodate you.

According to SamKnows the South Queensferry exchange (Dundas Castle) is supposed to have gotten BT FTTC capability from 1st March and some LLU (O2, TalkTalk, Sky) has happened, so again, talk to someone who specialises in this stuff and they'll be able to navigate "What is the least fucked up way to solve this for the event?".

HTH,
 -Alex