[170391] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: WISP or other options
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Warren Bailey)
Thu Mar 27 01:09:41 2014
From: Warren Bailey <wbailey@satelliteintelligencegroup.com>
To: Alex Howells <alex@howells.me>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:09:05 +0000
In-Reply-To: <CAMDZRgyEV6vVhY-mDFQafT=Db=NvKGjHUsk-Y4PBmd8Brcvgmw@mail.gmail.com>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
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 ki=
nds of COOL solutions together, but do you think the (UK Version) LEC is go=
ing to run DSL/fiber/blah for a two day event? And who bears that cost burd=
en?
If this was an office, sure .. Go for it. A two day event, find something c=
heap 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 c=
ellular) 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 an=
d 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.. Cel=
lular is not 802.11.. 5ghz is not 802.11. They all act differently, and nee=
d 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.. Microw=
ave??" or "We'll use AT&T 4G for disaster recovery" and when you get into i=
t 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 thes=
e.. 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 y=
ou are doing.. I don't know if you've ever pointed something with that narr=
ow 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 fl=
ashing or a pretty decent path analysis (which can cost upwards of 10k in s=
ome cases).
My .02 :)
From: Alex Howells <alex@howells.me<mailto:alex@howells.me>>
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 9:41 PM
To: Warren Bailey <wbailey@satelliteintelligencegroup.com<mailto:wbailey@sa=
telliteintelligencegroup.com>>
Cc: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net<mailto:mfidelman@meetinghous=
e.net>>, "nanog@nanog.org<mailto:nanog@nanog.org>" <nanog@nanog.org<mailto:=
nanog@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 p=
ermitting, and is a bit more complex than just a DSL line.
It's usually possible to bond multiple DSL connections, and it's not imposs=
ible 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 sup=
posed to have gotten BT FTTC capability from 1st March and some LLU (O2, Ta=
lkTalk, Sky) has happened, so again, talk to someone who specialises in thi=
s stuff and they'll be able to navigate "What is the least fucked up way to=
solve this for the event?".
HTH,
-Alex
