Hello everyone,
Any advice for connecting 3 sector antennas together to the mesh?
Do you need 3 Mikrotik hAPs or can you connect several antennas to the same router?
(the ac3 seems to offer the configuration of several DtD ports)
73 from Switzerland :-)
Orv W6BI
I will buy a POE switch. Do you think the Ubiquiti NanoSwitch is suitable for 3 antennas : https://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/NanoSwitch/NanoSwitch_DS.pdf ?
I have at least 4 N-SW in service.
73, Chuck
73 from the french speaking part of Switzerland
It's really easy to put multiple antennas on one switch and see if they cooperate. Just drop your mesh TX power really low and cable them up in a large room. Put one with DHCP on, turn the DHCP off on the others, and see if they all appear together as a mini mesh (all on different channels). If yes, then the switch works. For the simple test, you can use individual power injectors it doesn't matter.
That part is easy. What is harder is deciding the power distribution and making it weather tight. You either pay more $ for a POE capable switch and then run it that way (then the switch might need to be programmed even though it's NOT an AREDN device). Or leave a bunch of power connectors in a pile, your choice. The other part is figuring out what components are outside and need to be water tight, and how you will accomplish that. You can have part of your install indoors and part outdoors, or you can power the entire thing outdoors. You might think about local electrical codes when deciding how to do this, we often are required to have lightning arrestors on the Cat5/6 when it passes from outside to inside.
You can power an entire installation of three antennas by powering the outdoor Ubiquity N-SW from an outdoor rated power outlet, and then run ONE Cat5/6 up to the N-SW at the elevation of the nodes, then run three Cat5/6 to the nodes themselves. The N-SW is passive POE and so long as your POE injector at the bottom puts out enough power you have it all wired.
You can have a switch, POE or not, inside. Then you have to run the ethernet cable from the switch all the way up the tower/roof to your node locations (3 long runs instead of one long run). No problem so long as you are ready to run the cable. Remember ... "inside" can be inside a waterproof exterior connection cabinet.
Ed
Our installations are planned with part of the equipment inside, to connect to the HamNet. I will add a lightning protector.
I will also test without a hAP router, but to create a tunnel to extend the AREDN mesh through HamNet, I think you need a good processor, I was recommended the hAP ac3 for that. Probably using a radio for the "Tunnel Server" service is not efficient enough?
You do not need a hAP at all. One of the nodes that also has an antenna can run the entire DHCP.
Ed
True if a LAN is wanted/desired at an AREDN switch site.
It the site is only switching networks, as Ivo used a N-SW in his post,
there is no LAN access available on the nodes. This is when a
hAP, DtD connected to the N-SW nodes can provide LAN access to the site.
73, Chuck
2. Same site routers should [~must] be different [non overlapping] channels.
Many antennas are dual polarization, so are actually 2 antennas with different polarizations,
with the same radiation pattern.
73, Chuck
Now you need THREE networks, not one. LAN, VLAN for the mesh and another VLAN for the tunnel traffic. This is via a switch that can be programmed with three networks ... which is one of the reasons to use a hAP ... or another switch like on the list https://www.arednmesh.org/content/network-switch-configuration-files
Again, you do NOT need a hAP to run the tunnel but you could choose to build this setup with a hAP and then with another switch as well. What ever device that is running AREDN firmware in the dtd group, which is also running the DHCP is where you set the tunnel client etc up.
Ed