I’m reading through here the last couple of days and I feel ready now to ask my first question
I’d like to “extend” a 1000/500 MBit fiber internet over 370m (clear sight, no obstructions) using a wireless bridge.
The fiber internet is terminated with an ONT. So usually from there you go with an Ethernet-cable (RJ45 1GBit duplex) to the WAN port of the ISPs router.
I need to use the wireless bridge between the ONT and the WAN port of the router. I’d like to (almost) keep my 1000/500 speed of course.
Both antennas are mounted outside on a roof. So they are torn by the elements like, sun, snow and ice… Location is Europe/Austria.
I used https://ispdesign.ui.com with two AF60-HD to simulate. There it says everything stays connected even in the heaviest rain condition.
As it is my first time using a wireless bridge - even I’m a network technician - I’d like to get your opinions if a stable connection under all weather conditions is even possible - doesn’t matter which product.
The issue is - I believe - your definition of “connection”.
Devices such as the Cube have built in - not so casually - a 5GHz “failover” radio, this means that the 60 GHz will - occasionally - fail, the 5 GHz is much less prone to issues with adverse climate (fog/heavy rain).
So the point is whether the (much lower) speed of the 5 GHz is acceptable when - for whatever reason - the 60 GHz will not deliver a valid (much faster) connection.
If you recall some years ago (likely something similar still happens with more modern ISP connections) there was, written in teeny tiny characters on the contract for the “new high speed DSL2+” advertised as 30 Gbps that what was “guaranteed” was a bandwidth of 128Kbps.
A couple of Cubes on a relatively short distance may well go in the 800/900+ Mbps range on 60 GHz BUT go down to only 200 Mbps or less if the 5 GHz is in use.
With connection I mean: Data able to flow over the bridge via 60GHz.
So when I read between your lines: A pure 60GHz connection, even for 370m, will fail/disconnect under fog/heavy rain.
So the nRay or LHG-60G is not what I’m looking for.
If it drops to 200MBit on heavy fog I can life with that. Even 100MBit! But no connection is a no-go.
EDIT: It seams the “Cube 60Pro ac” has everything (in PtP context) of the nRay & LHG-60G but in addition 5GHz fallback, correct?
Yep, there isn’t that much choice (within Mikrotik range of products) for a suitable single device with dual band 60/5GHz links, I believe only: https://mikrotik.com/product/wireless_wire_cube_pro
It is just a kit of two Cube Pro’s pre-configured, it is not cheaper than two separate Cube Pro’s but since they come pre-configured are easier to setup for a newcomer to the Mikrotik world.
Thanks, I was going for the kit, yes.
One more thing which I was not able to find any info about..
Lets say the weather conditions start with nice and sunny and get slowly worse and worse:
60GHz is operating at full speed
60GHz speed gets reduced
60GHz speed is at minimum
5GHz takes over at full speed
5GHz speed gets reduced
6GHz speed is at minimum
Connection lost
Is there any point in time where the data flow of the bridge is interrupted completely for … lets say 5 seconds or more?
I.e. if the Cube switches from 60GHz zo 5GHz?
Or is there anything else wrong with my list above (i.e. 60GHz is at full speed or not at all)?
I believe that the speed of the 60 GHz link degrades (decreases) if (say) the rain increases until connection is lost but the 5 GHz link replaces it immediately.
How long is the “immediately” I cannot really say.
Since the two interfaces are in a bonding, they are essentially a same interface with two channels, so the switching from the one to the other should be very fast, surely faster than the alternative (a “plain” LHG60 or similar coupled with a 5GHz link like the LHG5).
We can say that basically the 5GHz link is always active, but when the 60GHz is in use goes into a sort of “sleep” state, and when the 60GHz link fails, awakens.
It would be inte4resting to see actual configuration from one of LHG-60 devices … what I’d expect to see is either a bond (possibly active/backup mode) or simple RSTP hierarchy (which would switch over to 5GHz backup a little slower I guess).
Awesome, sounds good. Thanks for the link.
The only thing I’m worried about now is the water issue as the sealing of most cube pro are not done properly
It absolutely makes sense to have those wireless interfaces in bond. Default monitoring mode is mii which relies on undelying interface hardware to announce link failure. Additionally bond will introduce additional delay (default is 100ms) because links status monitoring is done regularly and the delay between link failure and bond noticing it can be up to the monitoring interval.
Then it still remains to find out how long does it take for 60GHz radio to notice link failure … I’d guess that discovery time is of similar magnitude (so less than a second).
Is the bonding the same as this guy talks about. I don’t speak dutch, but I’ve pointed the link to where he configures the bonding: https://youtu.be/Wa_mAT-yRaw?si=Z0-a4cxmz_5iQvk2&t=321
Is this the same as the default config?
EDIT: I thought about it again … maybe turning off the 60GHz in the software is something different than actual loss of connection in real life. As done by the software it knows immediately to fall back to 5GHz…
