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parfait02
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Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:53 pm

Hello dear Mikrotik gurus
We are looking to deploy a small WISP in a small town in Africa for a 5 km radius around the access point and we would like your advice on the ideal choice of Mikrotik equipments for a satisfactory service at an optimal cost.
The terrain is relatively flat with some building but nothing taller than 8 meters.
We expect to support up to 50 subscribers.
The bandwidth per customer will be 5Mb/s maximum with an average of 1Mb/s.
The access point will be connected to the internet by fiber optic with a bandwidth of 100Mb/s.
What would be the best equipment for the hotspot and at the CPE side?
We plan installing 3 "mANT 19S" (to cover 360°) mounted on a 10 meters pole for the hotspot, and at the customer's site, installing a SXTsq Lite5 backed by a hAP ac lite TC.
Will this do the trick?
 
Cablenut9
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:11 am

I would swap out the hAP lites with hAP minis since your speeds are so slow. They are cheaper and have the same specs except for 1 fewer ethernet port and no 802.11ac. To help make up for routing speed, I would use the SXTsq as the actual router and the hAP is just a WiFi access point. If a customer just wants ethernet, then you can get regular ethernet switches for even cheaper. The mANTs would be overkill for speed, but good for reliability. I actually set one up on a beach and I could get a good signal with my phone from over a mile away!

Also, if your tower is 10 meters tall but there are 8 meter buildings, then that's not good.
 
parfait02
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:55 am

Thank you for these helpful tips,
The mANTs would be overkill for speed, but good for reliability. I actually set one up on a beach and I could get a good signal with my phone from over a mile away!
So, according to you, what would be the cheapest (but reliable) antenna for this setup?
Also, if your tower is 10 meters tall but there are 8 meter buildings, then that's not good.
I see,
There are at most 5 such buildings in the area. So we will deal with it on the ground (case-by-case basis).
Thanks!
 
Cablenut9
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 2:05 am

The closest thing that would be cheaper is the mANT 15s, although that might not be enough to hold a good link at the very edges of the village. Another even cheaper alternative is to get a Netmetal 5SHP and connect that to a single omnidirectional antenna like this one: https://multilink.us/ubiquiti-airmax-om ... -amo-5g13/ The problem is, I can't tell you how good the link will be out far away.

How much rain do you get? I know Africa can be the driest place around (Sahara) or one of the wettest. 5GHz is more impacted by rain than 2GHz, so consider using 2 instead. If you decide on that, I would get the mANT 12s and use the ultra-cheap SXTsq 2. That would be the cheapest possible, and with your 100 Mbps link, it would be fast enough.

I just checked a fresnel zone calculator and it might not actually be good to use 2.4GHz. If your tower was higher then it would work, but at 10 meters it's not high enough. So, the best option might be to use the mANT 15s or 19s.
 
parfait02
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:13 pm

The closest thing that would be cheaper is the mANT 15s, although that might not be enough to hold a good link at the very edges of the village. Another even cheaper alternative is to get a Netmetal 5SHP and connect that to a single omnidirectional antenna like this one: https://multilink.us/ubiquiti-airmax-om ... -amo-5g13/ The problem is, I can't tell you how good the link will be out far away.
Okay,
How much rain do you get? I know Africa can be the driest place around (Sahara) or one of the wettest. 5GHz is more impacted by rain than 2GHz, so consider using 2 instead. If you decide on that, I would get the mANT 12s and use the ultra-cheap SXTsq 2. That would be the cheapest possible, and with your 100 Mbps link, it would be fast enough.
It rains about sixty days a year, the maximum rainfall is 200mm in one month (June). The other days remain totally sunny. But We expect more customers to be connected when it rains. So the solution may then be to use the 2GHz and raise the antenna higher, about 20 meters.
Thanks again for taking your time to explain.
 
Cablenut9
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 2:42 pm

Watch out, because raising the tower to 20 meters might make the project more expensive overall.
 
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IPAsupport
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Re: Mikrotik equipments to deploy small WISP

Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:49 pm

As you continue looking at options for starting your WISP don't forget about routing architectures. Here is a small guide we wrote to help with some considerations.

https://stubarea51.net/2020/03/03/start ... hitecture/

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