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Motorola PTP 400 Ethernet Bridge

Hello,

I have been looking for a decent wireless solution to extend my ethernet across a street with some tree blockage, likely some fog obstruction (location: Watsonville, CA), and minimal tower/antenna construction costs. While web searchign, I came across the Motorola PTP 400, which sounds sufficient, but I don't trust the marketing speak. Check out

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for a bit more information.

I'm not highly concerned about the high-cost of the radios, I found a pair for under $10000 at

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(if wireless doesn't work, we'll be spending like $2000/month for fiber). What I don't want is to get into purchasing and building a large radio antenna.

Has anyone out there deployed these radios? Can you provide some real- world feedback on range, line-of-sight issues, and speed?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers, Andrew

Reply to
ndr2d2
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Greetings from the People's Republic of Santa Cruz.

Ah, my kind of potential customer, unconcerned about expenditures. Remind me to double my consulting rates.

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(if wireless doesn't work, we'll be spending like $2000/month for

5.8GHz antennas are not particularly huge. You get quite a bit of gain in a fairly small package. It gets even better at the higher bands (24GHz). It's not unusual to deploy 3ft diameter dish antennas for long range (10 mile) links. You want the absolute best possible fade margin you can get. The only way to do that effectively is with big antennas. Along with big antennas come big mounting hardware, very rigid towers, radomes, and weather resistant construction.

Not me. I can't afford those. Do you really need all the speed and range? What speed and range do you need? What network interface (ethernet, gigabit, OC-xx fiber, DS3, etc)?

The range, bandwidth, fade margin, required antennas, etc, can all be calculated. See the FAQ at:

for a simplified example of such a link calculation. You get to supply some starting numbers.

You might want to look over:

Unfortunately, you have an account to get prices, but the web pile should give you a clue what's available. I kinda like Proxim:

but admitedly have had no experience beyond reading the docs, setting up SNMP monitoring, and drooling as the equipment is installed and fired up.

If this is a mission critical system, should consider a licensed system, not an unlicensed system. I can put you in contact with a local expert if you want to go licensed.

The 5.8Ghz band is not too horribly crowded in Watsonville, but there is still a potential for problems. CSUMB and MBARI both have 5.8Ghz links and WiMax systems that might cross yours. I suggest you do a site survey with spectrum analyzer and dish before shelling out big dollars for something that may potentially be part of an interference problem. See:

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Google Groups seems to have dumped the reply I wrote yesterday, so here it is again (but shorter this time).

We will have three offices on the same street, maximum distance 800 ft. We're paying $4000 monthly for only two, so it'd be really great to get to a one-time cost type of solution.

We're very close to the Watsonville Airport, so licensed spectrum is probably a good idea. Who's the local contact?

I signed up for the yahoo group for the SF BANC. Do you know who set up the wireless for CSUMB or MBARI?

Thanks, Andrew

at

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>(if wireless doesn't work, we'll be spending like $2000/month for

Reply to
ndr2d2

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