Hello all,
I have a customer looking at 6 Ubiquiti AF-24 units vs. 3 Mikrotik RBLHGG-60adkit (Kits). The Price is radically different but his argument is they have a Network Controller? Is that a centralized management interface like a Cisco WLAN controller and what can I recommend for a Management interface for the Mikrotiks?
Thanks for your input!
The big difference is going to be distance - you can go 13km with the AF24, but only about a kilometer with the 60’s.
I believe there are only like one or two channels available with the 24’s so if they intend to use all of those in the same place they might run into interference issues. 60ghz has 5 channels available.
60ghz will give higher throughput for the price for links 1km or less. The AF24’s would be slower and more expensive for these links.
If you don’t have much precipitation you can do 2km out of a 60ghz, but in heavy rain it could drop.
The AF24’s have UNMS but that isn’t really a network controller like the unifi controller for instance, it is simply a monitoring and backup system for ubiquiti, so it will graph and back up the device and push down firmware updates but doesn’t really give you much more than that (although the interface looks nice).
What is the old saying “No one ever was fired for …” If they have it in their mind to spend the money for the pretty interface that doesn’t really offer anything more, then let them. I/We deploy both and work with people who do. Generally speaking, if they buy *isco, *ell, *S, *MWare, *WS and et al, then they will buy the one that has been marketed well. Physics not withstanding for 24GHz vs 60GHz, the MT RBLHGG-60ad is very cost effective, manageable and stable when used as prescribed. MT is also in general much more responsive than UBNT. Side note. UNMS is the cost the keeps on costing and they have recently and silently added a new “phone home” item to send telemetry back to UBNT.