G'Day,

Well after a week of trying and failing at getting my RB52Hn to work stably with my BR800 and allow PC's to connect at full speed I think I am going to give up on it.

I was looking at getting an SR71-A from UBNT. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if they have successfully had this working in an RB system? ideally on N and ideally working at full MCS 15 (aka 300mb connection speed)? 2.4 or 5GHz.. that bit doesn't really matter to me.

Thanks again,

Jake

I am just starting to play with N equipment. I've tried both SR71-A and SR71-15.

I have achieved a working MCS7 link on my 50km 1x1 link with the SR71-15s. I originally used the SR71-As and they did not work, but I am not sure I didn't have a bad card and/or know what I was doing. I originally was using XR5s on that link with 100% CCQ and -55dBm both ways. After going to SR71s the link went to 90% CCQ average and -65dBm. I did not achieve that much additional speed over what I was getting with my XR5s, at least not as much as I was hoping. I used the MPLS trick as well as just straight WDS.

The one thing I cannot get a straight answer from Mikrotik or Ubiquiti on is if RouterOS is using the correct power levels for the SR71s. Datasheet has 19dBm @ MCS7/MCS15 yet ROS shows 13dBm as the default. Granted, I should take a 3dBm hit for 1x1 but what happened to the other 3dBm?

I'm going to try the new R5nH and R52nH cards next and see what I get. I'm using RB600s on both sides. I also have some Rocket5Ms and Bullet5MHPs I'm going to play with as well.

I also have some shorter links I'm going to test out the SR71s with, too.

G'Day,

Thanks for the info. Currently I am running an RB800 with an R52Hn.. I am only running a client access point at the moment - once I have my tower build I will be running a few PtP links - but I think I will be using the Nanobridge for them.

I cant say I am having much luck with the R52Hn.. works great as a G card, but for client access - even in my own house, its bellow average with N. Can not get a single client to connect at a speed greater than 130, and some major bugs with locking out older clients if I manually specify the HT values. - Funny thing is the clients are using R52n cards... but from what you are saying the SR71 cards arnt much chop either... I don't suppose you have tried connecting a standard laptop client to it?

Cheers,

Jake

We're doing completely different things with our cards. I'm strictly long-distance PtP and you're trying to connect multiple clients. So I'm not sure how much help my findings are going to be. You probably should do what I'm doing... shell out for every possible solution (SR71A, SR71-15, R5nH, R52nH, Bullet5MHP, Rocket5M) and see what works best!

Hey Colebert have you found any luck with your situation? I just switched out 2 XR5's on a 12 mile link for 2 SR71-15. The "P Throughput" says 109226kbpx, yet when I push even just UDP tests between the 2, I only peak up to MAYBE 60Mbps. Signal went from -58 with XR5's to -67db with SR71-15's. CCQ 100/94%. In the office, I could push up to 90Mbps between the 2 with same signal strength. Only thing that's changed of course is the distance. So I gained a overhead 10Mbps going to N.

Hey Colebert have you found any luck with your situation? I just switched out 2 XR5's on a 12 mile link for 2 SR71-15. The "P Throughput" says 109226kbpx, yet when I push even just UDP tests between the 2, I only peak up to MAYBE 60Mbps. Signal went from -58 with XR5's to -67db with SR71-15's. CCQ 100/94%. In the office, I could push up to 90Mbps between the 2 with same signal strength. Only thing that's changed of course is the distance. So I gained a overhead 10Mbps going to N.

I saw similar results to your situation, too. XR5 vs an 802.11n solution yielded about an additional 10mbps of tcp each way, maybe less. I could get MCS7 @ 40mhz showing the same readings you did but ended up not getting all that much real-world improvement for the trade-off of going from a completely solid XR5 solution to a less reliable 802.11n solution. Best throughput I have gotten so far has been with the Bullet5M-HPs however the Airmax protocol is not great on latency, dropped packets, and wigs out my OSPF routing but the latter is probably an easy fix once I better unerstand how to compensate for the dropped packets. But nstreme w/ XR5 and even the 802.11n was golden.

I am still testing the R5Hn cards I got but I am so far not impressed. I ordered six and now have two working but I had to abort my testing because I have to focus on investigating whether or not I may have received bad cards based on some peculiar behavior a couple were exhibiting. I don't want to cast conclusive aspersions without a more rigourous investigation but this all fits with my general experience with mikrotik-based cards (R5H) vs Ubiquiti.

Also, I am not certain about the CCQ and power readings on the 802.11n stuff. It bounces around all over the place in RouterOS when data is transferring. Like rediculous numbers but the link works so I've gotten to the point of ignoring it.

I have not tested all my long distance links as I am a 1 man crew and it takes alot of time to drive to the sites and swap things out. Right now the most info I have on my link is the 26 mile one which is the one I referenced above.

I wonder if dual-pol, and dual chains would increase the N throughput over distance. I might try that soon, although with 1,000 customers on this backhaul, I may have to wait until an odd time to "play" with the link. Growing pains, right?

I wonder if dual-pol, and dual chains would increase the N throughput over distance. I might try that soon, although with 1,000 customers on this backhaul, I may have to wait until an odd time to "play" with the link. Growing pains, right?

I can do a long haul dual or triple pol test (if such a beast existed) on the ground. The problem is it's a pain to run such a test due to the driving and difficulty remote controlling the other station as the link also serves as the only control method.

I haven't done one yet as my extra waveguides have been defunct for years and I have to map them all out again and make sure they don't have decades of wasp nests inside them.