Outdoor wireless network

I am attempting to assemble a wireless network in a wooded area (campground aprox 1 mile radius) where campers would be able to have internet access. I am looking for some possible solutions without running any cabling. I also have a few buildings I would like to tie into the system.

I currently have a cisco 350 access point, some workgroup bridges, some 14dB gain amps, and a 15 dBi gain omni antenna.

What height would be optimal for the antenna? Am I going to need to get more access points to use as repeaters or is there a better way of doing this?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Reply to
Joe
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If you do not have line of sight between the access points and the PCs it is not likely to work.

Do a google on this newsgroup for prior discussions of the impact of trees and wireless internet.

Reply to
Bob Alston

Such a high gain omni antenna will have a pretty flat "doughnut" dispersion pattern, so if you mount it really high it will overshoot everyone. If you can shoot under the trees you might be able to do some good. But as Bob said, shooting through trees is usually a no-go. I've had some luck up to a quarter mile or so shooting through a small amount of trees, but I wouldn't start out designing a network to go through trees unless you have 900MHz equipment.

Reply to
Ro?ge?r

Trees and 2.4Ghz do not mix. Broadleaf trees and trunks are like a solid wall. Nothing gets through. Needles and light foliage might work.

You might wanna look into wireless repeaters and WDS (wireless distribution something). They eliminate the wired backhauls, but cut your effective bandwidth in half.

How far away?

Loose the amps. They cause more trouble than they're worth. Also, you're going to be illegal if you use the amp with that setup. Maximum into an omni is +30dBm (1 watt) into a 6dBi omni for a grand total of +36dBm EIRP.

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If you start with the +20dBm from the Cisco AP you'll be overdriving the +14dB amplifier, which would allegedly be putting out +34dBm or about 3 watts. My guess is your unspecified amplifier puts out no more than 1 watt (+30dBm). Therefore, you'll need to add -4dB of attenuation to use the amp effectively and limit your antenna gain to

6dBi. If you use the 15dBi omni antenna, you're way over the legal limit.

With the +15dBi antenna and the +20dBm output Cisco 350, you're 1dB below the absolute max EIRP limit.

Any reason why you didn't bother to specify the make and model so I can lookup the vertical radiation angle and downtilt? This is a serious problem with high gain vertical omni antennas. The vertical radiation angle can easily be so narrow that if you mount the antenna too high, you end up sending all the signal over everyone's head. Even so, you will also have very little signal directly below the antenna.

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for a decent 15dBi omni is 3 degree beamwidth (-3dB) and 3 degree downtilt. That's a mighty narrow beamwidth. You may have to put it almost at ground level in order to make it work.

IMHO, repeaters and WDS doth suck. A better idea. Find a tree that overlooks the campgrounds from the edge, not the center. Dump the omni and replace it with a 8dBi panel or 120 degree sector antenna. Point the panel antenna downward toward the campground. Keep the antenna below the branch level to avoid tree cluttter. There's less of that low to the ground. Use a 2nd radio, on a different channel, to act as a transparent bridge to act as a backhaul to wherever.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

The best bet for your situation is a mesh network, there are a few companies that make some great products. Firetide is one, Mesh is for locations that dont fit the LOS that most systems require.

Reply to
AirHead

A mesh network is perfect for your situation, there are a few companies that make some great products, cant remember them all, one I think is Firetide. Mesh is for those situations where the norm wont work

Reply to
TechMeister

Reply to
AirHead

Reply to
AirHead

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