ptmp Point to Multipoint Project

[Sweet T]

This is a project I picked up for my family over the holidays. We will be connecting the networks of three houses from a central omni-directional antenna in the middle of a field. I have opted to use Ubiquiti products for this build due to my experience working with them in the past.

 

It ain't much but it's honest work. - The age old story of US Internet providers.

The only Internet provider available in this rural location offers only one speed, molasses. It is horribly inconsistent, and service has only degraded over the years. There are three houses, two with independent connections, and one using a hotspot with the only mobile carrier with reception in the area. On a good day, the best connection averages 1.4Mbps download, 0.15 Mbps upload, and 80ms latency. The second house's connection is somehow noticeably and consistently worse than the first. The ISP refuses to add service to the third house despite having it previously due to their over-provisioned lines. Calls to the ISP for the degraded service are a waste of time, any service at all is enough for them to call acceptable. For this premium broadband experience, they are paying $50/mo for two homes, and even more for the hotspot in the third.

 

While researching this project over the best of these connections, I stumbled upon a great example of the current situation. When a PDF failed to open in-browser after a few minutes, I resorted to downloading a copy through terminal. The result was 6 minutes 11 seconds to download a 16.4MB file.

 

If you build it, they will come.

A pre-order has been in with Starlink for a year now. The latest update suggests service may be available starting in March. Since the pre-order, another service provider has started offering tower based point to point Internet service some 50 miles away. There is rumor of them expanding the service area, but for now, it is a race to see which service will be available first. We have yet to see if either provider will provide a reliable connection with acceptable speeds. The plan is to build a suitable intranet so that when better service is available, the existing services can be cancelled and all buildings can run off of the same uplink.

 

The Plan - Part 1: Location

Points A, B, and C represent the houses, point M represents the bridge between the houses, and P represents our source of power for the bridge (more on this later). Every point to point connection is in line of sight. This is a heavily wooded area, and there is little room for modification due to the treeline. Conveniently, the connections to B and C run parallel with power lines, which keeps the chainsaw out of my hands, and leaves future tree trimming to the power company.

 

 

The Plan - Part 2: Equipment

Point M represents the point to multi-point omni-directional device to serve as the backbone. For this I chose the R5AC-LITE-US ($135 USD) with AMO-5G10 ($125 USD) antenna to operate in bridge mode. Each house will be equipped with a Loco5AC-US ($49 USD each). I believe this is an economical option which should allow speeds of up to 450Mbps between the locations.

 

I had originally planned on using three more Loco5AC-US as a bridge before exploring omni-directional options. I would have used a NanoSwitch to provide pass-through PoE and power all of the devices. Having found the N-SW, it looks like an awesome product and I was looking forward to using it. Maybe another time!

 

The Plan - Part 3: Power

A road running between points A and M prevents burying cable between them. A water well house, marked as point P, is the only way of getting power to our equipment at M. The well house sits just shy of 100m/330ft from our equipment, and while a CAT6 cable has a maximum distance of 100m/327ft, passive PoE (24v) is only good for 45m/150ft at best. Finding a way to use PoE for this would be a money saver, but burying 110v electric is also an option. The downside to this is the cost of electrical cable, outlet, and waterproofing needed at the bridge.

 

Review

My idea is to bring the family's Internet out of the 00's and plan for it stable enough to last the next decade. Reducing the overhead of the three Internet connections should cover the cost of equipment within the first year, even with a higher service fee.

 

TL;DR: Using wireless point to point to cut three Internet connections down to one. Burying 110v electrical across a field because PoE will probably not work. Estimated cost: less than $500 USD.

 

Equipment price list:

Model	Cost	Qty	Total Price
R5AC-LITE-US	89	1	135
AMO-5G10	125	1	125
Loco5AC-US	49	3	147
		Pre-tax	$407

 

Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions. I am also open to other brands of point to point equipment if anyone has had good experiences.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 hours ago, Sweet T said:

The Plan - Part 3: Power

A road running between points A and M prevents burying cable between them. A water well house, marked as point P, is the only way of getting power to our equipment at M. The well house sits just shy of 100m/330ft from our equipment, and while a CAT6 cable has a maximum distance of 100m/327ft, passive PoE (24v) is only good for 45m/150ft at best. Finding a way to use PoE for this would be a money saver, but burying 110v electric is also an option. The downside to this is the cost of electrical cable, outlet, and waterproofing needed at the bridge.

Like you said, passive is likely a no-go but can you not use active which IS rated to 100m?

 

I recently bought an active to passive adapter for my Ubiquiti Litebeam which comes in both indoors and outdoors varieties.  You'd just connect it inline somewhere at the well house.

 

Though I'd probably get something newer than the R5AC-LITE personally, I prefer to have everything integrated into the antenna so you don't have losses in the antenna cable, you lose a lot of signal over a short distance of coax though you are only needing short-range so probably fine.

[Sweet T]

5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Like you said, passive is likely a no-go but can you not use active which IS rated to 100m?

 

I recently bought an active to passive adapter for my Ubiquiti Litebeam which comes in both indoors and outdoors varieties.  You'd just connect it inline somewhere at the well house.

You are exactly right. It makes the most sense to use an INS-3AF-O-G ($21 USD) to convert 802.3af to passive PoE, and use the 15W U-POE-AF ($8 USD) since I only need 8.5W.

 

5 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Though I'd probably get something newer than the R5AC-LITE personally, I prefer to have everything integrated into the antenna so you don't have losses in the antenna cable, you lose a lot of signal over a short distance of coax though you are only needing short-range so probably fine.

In my research, I could not find another omni-directional option from Ubiquiti outside of the Rocket series. I will be using the 6" cables that come will the antenna, and I think the R5AC-LITE should suite fine since the specs match that of the Loco5AC.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, Sweet T said:

You are exactly right. It makes the most sense to use an INS-3AF-O-G ($21 USD) to convert 802.3af to passive PoE, and use the 15W U-POE-AF ($8 USD) since I only need 8.5W.

 

In my research, I could not find another omni-directional option from Ubiquiti outside of the Rocket series. I will be using the 6" cables that come will the antenna, and I think the R5AC-LITE should suite fine since the specs match that of the Loco5AC.

I think you're right, and you only need short range so should be fine.