Wifi network in a big area

Hi there

Thanks for the info, and I hope the question was not too direct.

I was trying to understand if you had a business plan for rolling out a service which is essentially a wireless ISP.

I am pretty new to contributing to these forums, but I think this may not be the right place for you to help build your network.

Given the goals of your design, I think I would be looking to different venues and wireless technologies to address this.

(note - I researched this a year ago so things may have changed as well as products updated. Note also, I dont not work for any of these companies I mention below)

Here are some random thoughts

1- Join a like minded group.

I think you should seek out groups and organisations whos experience and expertise you can lean on. They can give you help which will hopefully avoid the pitfalls which you are bound to run into

One such group here in the USA is wispa.org

There are very small ISPs to very large and all share info , experience with each other.

Again, I am not sure of similar groups in europe, but I would recommend searching

2- Technology selection-

I am open to correction but given your requirements and the area you wish to cover, I m not convinced  2.5 or 5GHz would be of use here.

The larger the network, the more the interfance. The more devices the worse the problem.

In addition I think you will have range issues and connecting all end devices.

Again, If I was you, I would consider other wireless solutions.

Breaking your network down, you should have

A- a design for your backend (billing, accounting, NOC, monitoring, provisioning etc)

B- Capacity injection - You mention you have a Wimax link, which - if it aint broke dont fix, but If I had the money , I would replace with a high capacity E Band long range link (eg Siklu KiloHaul) , its pricey so this is probably out of your range  given your budget

C- Backahul transmission- I would consider using an unlicensed band such as 60GHz - 60Ghz has 6 channels in the USA each 2.1Ghz wide and capabile of many Gbps per sector. At 40dBm EIRP you would expect and internode range of about 300meters depedning on rain fade and availability

This would extend your fiber or wimax connection around the town using mesh nodes. 

One big caveat is 60GHz is a line of sight technology, so you would need to see the other end device.

There were three companies I looked at before

1- Ignite net -  Pros- Easy to install base station and APs, Cheap- Cons- Cheap, big / bulky, I have heard config and planning are poor, small number of channels - The FIAT of 60GHz

2- Siklu Etherhaul -   Pros- Large install base, reasonable pricing, solid-  Cons - supports 3 channels, sectors are 90 degrees currently, 8 CPE her sector, 4 required to cover 360 degrees antenna alignmnet needed- The landrover of 60GHz

3- CCSL.com -    Pros- beautiful small form  with 300 degree view, self organising/healing and channel selection, interference avoidance,

No antenna alignment, fiber and relay nodes can be dynamically added without redisgn of network - Cons- Small install base, units as a year ago were more expensive, SON algorithm as of a year ago was work in progress. The Tesla of 60GHz

D- End devices

Residential-  Each sub on 60GHz could use a 60GHz CPE from the respective company.

Siklu CPE is a beautiful device the size of slightly larger then a pack of cigarettes, it is capable of 100mbps but requires a key for 1gbps and is very reasonable

The CCS CPE is again small, but a bit larger and a little more expensive then the Siklu CPE.

Each of these claim 300-400 meters range from the node

Care must be given to all these products to dimension the network correctly and ensure the correct number of devices are on each sector

(usually 8 cpe per sector for Ignitenet and Siklu, CCS support 32 over 4 antenna arrays.)

WiFi

With your 60GHz backhaul network, you can also attach devices to the nodes deployed.

For example if you connect a bunch of users from their 60GHz CPE to a backhaul node, you could also connect a WiFi ap to that node and provide Wifi service from that location.

You could also connect anything using ethernet - municiple cameras, traffic sensors, small cells, etc

3- Network design

Once you decide on the technology, I would consider using a company that will help you design the network.

THese companies would give you an idea of where to place the devices and what you can expect from them.

The problem with most of these vendors is they deal only with their product and not the whole network-

I will say that CCS and Siklu work with Adtran in the USA and globally, so Adtran may be a good one stop shop for design, product  as well as a suite of products to help build your network.

I will say that even though I mentioned only 3, there are others out there, but these were the ones I focused on.

In Closing-

I would take a good bit of time planning a network and doing a lot of research and selecting bands which will provide what you are looking for, instead of looking for a baindaid or installing the same solution from a different vendor.

I think if you do that, you will be back in the same spot pretty soon.

Looking at pricing as your only guide is misleading , for example, Siklu is cheaper then CCS , but You would need 4 Siklu units to cover a CCS unit- so you will need to do the math,

Again, if I had to pick one from all, I like CCS product.

It allows me to start small , covering a wide field of vision and to incrementally grow the network without continous replans and realignments which is very appealing.

Hopefully what I mentioned above will help you consider other alternatives

As the old saying goes,

Fail to plan, plan to fail

Best of Luck