Re: Ubiquti NanobridgeM

[Scott Brown/Clack/ESD <SBrown () clackesd k12 or us>]

"Todd Mueller" <todd () velocitytelephone com> wrote on 03/04/2010 10:44:01
AM:

> From: "Todd Mueller" <todd () velocitytelephone com>
> To: <>
> Date: 03/04/2010 10:44 AM
> Subject: Ubiquti NanobridgeM
>
> Anyone have any real-world experience with Ubiquti's MIMO PTP equipment?
> We're looking to shoot data at distances of a few hundred feet up to 2-3
> miles. Reliability? Latency? Other issues? Any feedback is appreciated.
>
> http://www.ubnt.com/nanobridge
>
> Thanks!
>
> Todd

At my previous job we had around 300 different Ubiquiti devices in use --
mainly as client devices for our CISCO 1522 mesh network, but some as
bridges.
For distances of a few hundred feet I would not use the NanoBridge, even
with a reduced output power you would like overpower the receiver. The
NanoStationM would work better for that.

Reliability and latency... oiy. Well - these are plastic radios that are
realllllly inexpensive. It takes forever and a day to get a RMA, so they
suggest you just "buy spares" -- when the Airmax/MIMO series first shipped,
it had buggy software. To this day the 5.1.x code is not as stable as most
would like. Some have no issues, others are having tons of issues.

To be honest, for critical links or links where reliability and performance
are required 100% of the time, I'd look at RAD Airmux-400 (50Mbps FDX, they
now have an asymmetrical version so you can do 80/20, 50/50, 90/10, etc --
but TDMoIP if you wish) -- complete link (integrated antennas) will be in
sub-$5k range. But we are talking about carrier grade hardware. (China
Telecom is a huge RAD customer, I believe Time Warner Telecom also uses
them (according to the RAD site)
Other brands, depending on throughput and distance requirements, are the
Motorola PTP-500, 600, and 800 series. Dragonwave Horizon, and then
Bridgewave. All of those provide carrier class performance, reliability,
and support.

Ubiquiti ---- they provide cheap radios that work well most of the time. My
house is fed from a Powerstation2 bridge -- 12Mbps up, 12Mbps down - over 3
miles away. That tower site is fed by a RAD Airmux-400 though... 50Mbps at
6 miles. In my tests with traffic generators, the Airmux and Motorola
radios handled more PPS than the Ubiquiti . Mbps isn't the only thing to
look at. So if you are interested in shooting a lot of VoIP or video across
the link, I can't say how well the Ubiquiti will work. I have an Asterisk
PBX at home using SIP trunks from Vitelity and that works over the Ubiquiti
radios - but that is 3 channels at most...

If you want to give me a call sometime, send me an email directly and I'll
shoot you my phone number -- I've worked with a lot of different radios
ranging from cheap to "I could buy a car for that" and links from 100 feet
to 30 miles.

Scott Brown