this is my firs post here. I have home LAN1 connected to WAN via firewall (RB850) and remote LAN2 behind high hill. On the top of the hill I have HAM (radioamateur) shack with mains supply and access to the antenna tower. I connected LAN1 and LAN2 with two pairs of mikrotik wireless links:
homelan-current.JPG
There are some issues I would like to overcome:
data rate between mountain station and LAN2
Technical security issues on the mountain top.
With 8km LOS and SXT Lite5 I got about 2-3Mbps upload / 4-6Mbps download rate on 5,8GHz and about 5-6Mbps upload and 10Mbps download on 5,2GHz. I moved router at LAN2 location around to different locations without significant improvement. The 20km LOS link between LAN1 and mountain top with 24dBi antennas works great.
Another issue are exposed LAN cables and easy access to SXT ethernet connector. I would like to move all LAN cables inside locked cabinet. I have one on the antenna mast and I would like to have only coaxial cables going out from this cabinet, no UTP cables. I marked public access area with orange and locked cabinet with green.
My idea is to replace second link from the mountain top to LAN2, remove SXT and place one RB with WiFi cards on the top of the mountain. I can place the RB inside cabinet and have only N connectors on the cabinet wall. Here is the photo of the cabinet:
homelan-gorj.JPG
My idea for new setup:
homelan-new.JPG
Is this OK? Do I need additional R11E-2hpnd attached to RB912 or is it possible to feed both antennas on the moutain top with only onboard WiFi on the RB912?
I wouldn’t use rb + card + pigtails + external coax + external antenna… too many points of possible failure. And people also know how to unscrew an N connector or cut a coax cable. And you would be introducing loss.
Why 2.4GHz? I’d stay away from 2,4GHz…
For your LAN2 scenario (8km) you don’t need external antenna + radio either, and by keeping everything on an integrated device you’ll avoid even another point of possible failure and save money.
8km is not optimal for a SXT lite though it looks your link isn’t optimal either (could you post wireless > registration-tables > signal on the station?)
If you intend to replace them, I’d use an integrated device like a SEXTANT, QRT, DynaDish…if spectrum allows you will be able to at least double LAN 1 troughput rather easily.
If I were to make this people-proof, I would use a mast or a trestle tower with a folding assembly on its base, protected with anti-tamper screws.
Metal structures surrounded with cables is often enough to deter occasional people from even touching it; if you want to protect the cables you could route them inside a hollow mast.
Today I checked the route for LAN2. It is actually around 6km with some nasty forrest growing near fresnel zone at the mountain top. I will try first to rise the SXT few meters.
Short of seeing signals data, I’m almost sure with proper fresnel clearance you should be able to attain a similar LAN1 throughput with the already in place SXT5 Lites.
However your thermal fade margin will be rather small, meaning that metereological conditions can impact your PTP stability/throughput.