Hi All,
I am looking at a project to provide Wifi to 3 Ferries within a zone 5 kms long and coverage area over the sea that would be contained within a 60/90 degree sector from a shore based base station. The system would be required to...
- support 3 ferries running concurrently
- support 30/40 concurrent users per boat
- support an average data rate of 1-2 megabit/s useable per client
- provide internal boat coverage in 4 separate areas with 2 large areas of up to 200 square meters each. minimum wiring.
- provide 24x7 availability and reliability
- a main router/ AP in ferry terminal connected to ISP - possible with cable uplink (rates by design) or maybe multiple feeds.
- remote network management
- possible provision of a hotspot based system with paid access - but probably a free network for ferry clients
- low maintenance
- sensible budget consistent with robust component quality and equipment for this environment
My question relates to the best MT hardware provision for this system including base station equipment including routers, cards, antennas, enclosures etc. and the per boat provision for an onboard network with minimum wiring needed and a suitable external CPE arrangement with antenna. Use of separate omni's is essential here. Possible use of Metal 5SHPn as CPE radio.
My thoughts on network layout and link protocols to use for shore based AP's. Either 3 separate PTP links for better redundancy and capacity planning in preference to just one PTMP setup. I am thinking 3 AP's on 5Ghz on different channel frequencies with 3 separate but overlapping external sector antennas mounted on same mast. But thoughts and potential problems arising most welcome.
I would like to think I can get MCS7 throughput per boat link and will need an estimate of the uplink capacity of the ISP link.
So all you clever guys out there what designs and equipments would you suggest.