I've been SUPER-AMPED about this, as we have come so close many times to pulling the trigger on IngiteNet 60Ghz PtMP. However, I just don't think these little MikroTik 60Ghz units are going to cut it! They're SO small, and the distance is no longer than what you can run with Cat5e. Finally some good news on the larger LH-60 dishes, BUT those are only for PtP... I suppose you could throw one of these small AP's on a tower and use the PtP dishes, but still, its not NEAR as good as the IgniteNet PtMP beamforming OMNI AP.
The LH-60 can be no doubt used on the small AP's. As long as the signals reaches both sides with enough strength. The units themselves have no idea what the size of their antenna is....... (I don't know if this rule goes unlimited. Would a 100 Watt 60Ghz radio paired with a 20 meter dia dish reach tenths of kilometers? Don't think so to be honest)
Comparing IgniteNet with Mikrotik is comparing nikkels with diamonds. We are not talking the looks now, we talk cash...
One new 10G triple play Omni would cost 1000€ (estimate, they don't sell them in Europe yet, at least I can't find prices)
One 60º Mikrotik wAP 60G AP cost 85€. For a full sectorn you need 6, so that makes 510€
Each ML client cost 421€ or 476€ depending on the small versus bigger model. Say you want to serve 20 clients on your ML AP tower. 1000 + (20 x 421) = 9.420€
Each MT client cost I'll guess (not for sale as such yet) 85€. 20 of these would therefore cost 1700. + the cost of the 6 AP's that would make 2210€ for the same 20 clients.
That is a factor 4! IgniteNet is thus 4 times more expensive!
What are the differences in usage? Is it worth the extra?
1. The real life distance reach of the ML 19dbi versions is hardly any better then the Mikrotik units. Only with the more expensive 35dBi models you get 2 to 3 times the range. But that is also 55€ extra per client! We have 4 ML backhaul links and after many, many hours of aligning and testing the range is not by far as what is promised.
2. Cells bigger then 200-300 meters are not very interesting anyway if you have regular rain. Anything above that range goes down in any serious rain. So the advance of the bigger cells with ML is not that much.
3. The ML series have 5Ghz backup to overcome for instance point 2. Well:
a. Did we not move to 60Ghz to stay out of the 5ghz interference issues? So if 60Ghz drops in bad weather we go back to a situation we know already doesn't work so good...?
b. The fallback 5Ghz radio's are always 'on'. So if the goal in going to 60Ghz was to free some 5Ghz spectrum for your other stuff... you haven't done anything....
c. The standard 5Ghz channels are 802.11 protocol only. Without any proper RTS/CTS to be configured probably not working very well in noisy environment or with many 'hidden nodes' in your network.
d. The build in small 5Ghz gain antennas produce weak signals, and thus S/N ratio's are low. We don't even use it as backup for the PtP links. We'd use Mikrotik and Jirious to have a spare backhaul link if needed.)
e. For the price difference between a ML setup with build-in 5Ghz failover you can easy buy good antenna and some Netmetal to do that same job, but better..... (nstream/NV2, more power, better antenna, ROS)
I am one of the first buyers in Europe of ML products because we were desperate to get out of the full 5Ghz spectrum for our short backhauls. Almost 2 years ago we bought in total 4 links and we even have been given one of the new 2.5G links later on.
After endless problems that couldn't be solved by ML in new fws and their assistance in the end the original 8 units purchased some 2 years ago where all RMA'd on request of them since they then acknowledged all my units had hardware issues.....
(And then their supplier in Spain refused me the costs or shipping back so that was another setback. Since I am not a regular shipper it cost me 500€ to send them all back to them!
ML made me then a dearly appreciated gesture in sending one of the first new ML2.5-60-35 links (two devices) to me to try. It took us some time to find a use for them but then we tried them we found one out of the box not to work...... that has to be replaced.yet again....pffff
We still have issues on several of our ML backhaul links. The new fw made signals better (weird, that software can make the signals better?) and the links seems to be more persistent.
But one of the link running the new fw was so bad that now they wanted us to send these units back for RMA!
So all in all, although ML helpes us out and have been very kind to us we are not that happy with their product line as we would expected in the beginning. They costed us a lot of money, a lot of work and grieve and irritation and thus time.....
Since two months I purchased now 10 units of the Mikrotik 60Ghz units. The work out of the box, held in the hand at 150 meters distance bandwidth test 1.8Gb aggregated. 5 mins setup..... (The time it take to walk 150 meters and hook your laptop up and battery to the unit.)
We have now some links running 80 to 145 meters with these tiny small units and we are over the top. They work perfect. Simple (ROS!) and reliable.
The ML 10G Tri-band Omni though appealed to me. With its capacity and the 3 bands it can perform several functions at the same time as we now need several units for. (Backhauls, P2MP, 2,4Ghz hotspot)
Anyway, for 1000€ (which in itself is a very good price for such a multi tasking unit) you still need to work with the expensive client units. If you need to compete with fiber that's not an advantage.
Actually, in putting this successful 60Ghz product lne in the market by MT I hope other 60Ghz providers are forced to drop their prices considerably.
And if they then also make a stable product as MT they might see me again as buyer. But for the moment I hold my money in my pocket and rather spend it on MT stuff....