My network’s grown faster than I could provide hardware.
The result is that I have one site that I need to tidy up.
The site’s got an RB433AH with an R52H and an R5H.
The R52H is connected to our backbone via a grid antenna.
The R5H was originally set up with a sectoral antenna to provide internet access to geographic area A. Since then I’ve built a hotspot and a small NOC with terrestrial internet connectivity in area A.
I’ve connected these two sites to the AP and use PPTP connections to transfer IP to and from these two sites while other clients are connected direct to the AP without tunnels.
So what happens is that a client’s CPE (RB411 or UBNT NS5 / Bullet5) is connected to the AP, so traffic goes from the CPE to the AP and then through the same link down to the NOC and to the outside world. It works in reverse for traffic going to the CPE.
Some guy connecting to the hotspot routes to the hotspot, then up the tunnel to the AP, then down another tunnel to the NOC and out to the internet. Again the reverse works for incoming traffic.
All the extra work that the radio’s doing is using power. A lot of power. When it’s dark (like now) and clients start with P2P or torrents, the R5H starts working very hard and the RB433AH starts chewing a lot of power.
So now I’m wondering whether I should add one extra R5H with a sectoral to the RB433AH and set up the two PPTP links on that or whether I should set up one R5H with a grid on the existing RB433AH and then get a RB4333AUH and set up a R5H with a grid on that so that the hotspot and the NOC can each have a dedicated link.
Please share your thoughts with me.
Thank you.