dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA
edit:
July 3rd, @08:58AM
| 3 sectors, 1 mikrotik or 3?
I'm new to using Mikrotiks for wireless. Was wondering which is better. 3 radio cards on 1 433AH board, or 1 radio card per 411A board? Or maybe a different board? I suppose there are pros and cons to each. More boxes, more POE, etc. Just wondering what peoples experience was with putting up 3 sectors on one location.
Pros for one board:
1. Less hardware to buy (1 board, 1 box, 1 POE)
2. Less points of failure
3. Less ethernet ports required on switch
4. Less outlets required
5. Only one to program
Pros for 3 boards
1. If one AP goes down, you don't take down all 3.
2. Less power requirement for POE
3. Smaller case requirement.
4. Can upgrade and work with one without disturbing the others
5. Lighning may on not take out all sectors.
I was hoping to get some real world experience of the idea.
Tom |
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IntraLink
Premium,MVM
join:2002-08-14
Utah Valley
| After many years of trying to do multiple cards per box (and we WERE successfull to a degree) we eventually ended up one card per board.
They are relatively cheap so my recommendation would be to seperate them if possible and pay the extra $$$.
But it would probably work fine with three in one board if you are careful. Your pro's and Con's are good.
One more Pro to the seperate card/board combo is that you can upgrade and work on it without taking out the other sectors. |
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA | reply to dusty1300
Thanks for your recommendations. I have edited my list to reflect your comment.
Tom |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX
| reply to dusty1300
I still do 1 ea 333 or 433 board with 3 cards in it, but I am thinking about doing 1 board and 1 card per sector for a new deployment to experiment. I think that the pros outweigh the cons and the cons outweigh the pros. Yes you can use a smaller box for a single card and radio, but you need more of them to sectorize a site.
My current setups contain 1 or 2 boards with the radio cards that I need for that site. I also keep a brand new setup at each tower site pre-configured in an enclosure, so if there is a problem I go up and change out the whole unit and then do my troubleshooting at the shop. That way I disconnect 3 or 4 coax connectors and reconnect them, then the POE runs and I am done.
I think it probably comes down to personal preference. |
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sarpkaya
join:2008-03-04
Izmir, TR | reply to dusty1300
Money is important Start with one one 433AH board with 3 R52h or whatever u're gonna use, than you'll buy 2 more 433AH |
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA
| reply to slipstream1
said by slipstream1  :I think that the pros outweigh the cons and the cons outweigh the pros. You sound like a politician.  |
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cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| reply to dusty1300
Personally unless it's a small site I prefer everything separate, primarily for the reason you stated that you can work on one without disturbing the others. I'd rather only have 30-40 customers screaming at me than 120 or more.
--
CCNA, Comtrain Certified Tower Climber |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | reply to dusty1300
I have always been interested in politics.  |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
 ·WaveCrazy.Net
| said by slipstream1 :I have always been interested in politics. Me too!!!. I love debating things and trying NOT to offend the other person. It can be tricky at times, but interesting none the less.
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»www.wavecrazy.net
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX
| reply to dusty1300
Back to the main topic, I do not think you can go wrong either way you go. What works for me, might not work for you. Same for the other guys posting on here. We can give you examples of what works for us and you can take that and run with it. I don't think you can eliminate the trial and error completely, but can eliminate some of the pain and sleepless nights. |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
·WaveCrazy.Net
| said by slipstream1 :Back to the main topic Yes, Sorry!. I would also run 3 separate units for the same reasons everyone else mentioned. It also may be easier if you take a lightning hit, as you may only lose 1 or 2 instead of all 3?.
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»www.wavecrazy.net
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA
| reply to dusty1300
Thanks Superdog. I added that idea to my list.
I received an message from another board mentioning that it would be better from an arp table perspective, especially if we used the same ESSID on each sector. I'm not sure what that means, he didn't elaborate.
Tom |
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ponline
join:2004-03-04
presheva
edit:
July 3rd, @12:47PM
| I also vote for separated radio for each sector.
One more thing to consider on this setup which would save you money would be instead of 3 x RB+Mpci+pigtail+enclosure, you can deploy 3x outdoor form factor bridges (ubnt,deliberant, etc), and one MT router on the ground if you need the routing.
If you keep one radio per board I don't really see the advantages on the wireless side of Mikrotik (exept nstreeme for links). |
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA | reply to dusty1300
I'm doing this with Ubiquiti Xr3's. I have to put them in something. I like Mikrotiks a lot, so am leaning that way.
If I'm missing another way to do this, let me know.
Tom |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | reply to dusty1300
If you use XR3 then you are going to have to go the multiple board route. 3 XR3's will not fit in a RB433. You can fit 2, but the center one will not latch down. |
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA | reply to dusty1300
That kinda decides it for me then. I figured I could fit 3 on the 433ah board. If not, then I might as well go for 3 single boards/xr3's boxes. Maybe keep my 433ah for a 2 sector location.
Tom |
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slipstream1
Premium
join:2005-11-15
Jacksonville, TX | reply to dusty1300
That would be best. |
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ponline
join:2004-03-04
presheva | reply to dusty1300
With the price of the XR3 card, the clients CPE would be very expensive, very long ROI.
If i had that kind of bussinesplan that alows me for expensive CPEs I would go with a proprietary solution anytime. |
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dusty1300
join:2007-02-20
Mason City, IA
| reply to dusty1300
We are very used to high priced cpe's. We have been on Waveriders for years and their their high failure rates, we ended up buying many of them twice. At least with these, if the radio goes bad, you just replace the radio. If the ethernet goes bad, you just replace them routerboard.
I have also looked at more expensive 3650 options. I plan on putting up 18 sectors at different locations. At $ 10,000 per sector, that would be $ 180,000 with Airspan or some others. With this system, I can do it for about $ 36,000. The cpe cost for an XR3 radio will run about $ 400. That is about the same as the Airspan cpes and most of the others.
Yeh, I wish the cpe's were cheaper, but I can't use 2.4 around here, I'm already using up all the 900 freqs, and 5.8 is used up and I have lots of trees. Doesn't give me a lot of choices.
Since Waverider is EOL'ing the 4000 series, I have to do something pretty soon. I can't buy radios after July 30th, and they are still going bad and my customers need more speed.
Tom |
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superdog
I Need A Drink
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA
·WaveCrazy.Net
| said by dusty1300 :Yeh, I wish the cpe's were cheaper, but I can't use 2.4 around here, I'm already using up all the 900 freqs, and 5.8 is used up and I have lots of trees. Doesn't give me a lot of choices. Tom Tom, Why is all the spectrum wasted?. There are a total of 3 providers were I am working and we all seem to get along?.
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»www.wavecrazy.net
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