Freenet Antennas

1. The 29 km link
   
2. The 48 km Link Test
   
3. The WDS Mobile Repeater
   
4. 7.7 Mbps ftp over 17.8 km
   
5. 30cm thick walls and UltraWAP-N
   

Success Story 1 - The 29 km link

This long-distance link is the longest (as of this writing) in the

See this map.

The performance has been outstanding.

• Ping loss very low.
  See the image below, that shows the % ping loss on the link over a full week. Most of the time, there is zero, or near zero loss. The high-loss events (Friday and Monday) were not caused by the Minitar, but rather excessive noise/traffic at the Martin Mast end.
  

  
  
  

• System Uptime very high.

  The image is taken from the Minitar AP at the North Fremantle end of the link. This AP is mounted in a weatherproof enclosure, on the antenna mounting pole. That is; the AP is mounted outside. As you can see - the AP has been continuously 'up' for more than 1 month. When I took this image, it was 33 days since I last changed the AP configuration, at which time it reset its clock to '0:00:00'. A point to note, Perth had some extreme temperatures over this time (All of Feb 2004), including maxima over 40 deg C. I would imagine the temperature of the Minitar AP exceeded 50 deg C at times.

Success Story 2 - The 48 km Link Test

Having seen the possibility of modifying a Satellite-TV dish to become a WiFi antenna (http://trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm), I decided to do it myself.

The results were solid, 10-15 dB (SNR) link from Rottnest Island off the West Australian coast, to a number of APs on the escarpment east of Perth; a distance of 48 km (30 miles).

Map showing Link to Hills Hub	Details of the 4 APs Stumbled from Rottnest
	AP Distance to Rottnest test point (km (miles)) Line Of Sight SNR Activity NetStumbler file HillsHub 48 (30) Yes 10 Got DHCP address. Got WWW page at 10.60.0.2. Left message in 'Guestbook'. Download forrestfield.net 47 (29.4) Yes 10 none MartinMast 47 (29.4) Yes 15 Got DHCP address. Surfed WWW pages. BICTON-AP 23 (14.4) No 9-10 Got admin WWW page from AP

Details of the Rottnest end are:

Success Story 3 - The WDS Mobile Repeater

The objective was to create network with these objectives:

• Accessable from a car.
• Use mobile, temporary 'repeaters' to provide good coverage for laptops are more distant locations.

The design is as in this drawing (click to enlarge).

Both APs are in WDS mode. That means that the APs operate both as a local AP, and as a point-to-point bridge. Both APs are operating on the same channel, and with the same SSID. This means a laptop can automatically roam from one site to the other without reconfiguration. It will simply connect to the AP with the strongest signal.

The elements of the design are:

Element	Comments
Access Points (APs)	Minitar MNWABP. Chosen for their excellent performance, and feature set. While these APs only operate in 802.11b/11Mbps mode, that is not a disadvantage as 802.11b/11 Mbps mode has longer range and better suited to networks with possible reflections (ie. between the two omni antennas) than 802.11g/54 Mbps
Amplifiers	Two different models were used. The Base Station (15 dBi antenna) used an outdoor version - custom built to provide maximum legal TX power (36 dBm) after compensation for a 25m Low-Loss cable run. The Mobile station used an indoor amplifier.
Antennas	Both ends used omni directional colinear antennas. The Base Station used a high gain 15 dBi antenna. The Mobile 8 dBi antenna was mounted on a magnetic base, with a decoupling spring.
Inverter	Although both the mobile AP and Amplifier only require 12VDC/Unregulated, it was simply convienient to provide a 100W 12VDC-to-240VAC inverter, than include a spike-safe DC supply from the car battery.

Success Story 4 - 7.7 Mbps ftp over 17.8 km

These tests were conducted with a pair of

Distance	17.8 km
Line of Sight	Clear
Antennas	2 x 24 dBi
APs	2 x UltraWAP
Mode	1 x AP and 1 x Client ('Station Infrastructure')
End stations	1 x Pentium 300 PC running Debian and ftpd 1 x 2 Ghz WinXP Laptop
Connect speed	18 Mbps (802.11g mode)
Firmware version	1.16
Net file transfer speed	7.7 Mbps as reported by ftp client
File size	9 Mbyte
File transfer mode	Binary

Distance	1 m (same room)
Line of Sight	Clear
Antennas	2 x factory provided 2 dBi
APs	2 x UltraWAP
Mode	1 x AP and 1 x Client ('Station Infrastructure')
End stations	1 x Pentium 300 PC running Debian and ftpd 1 x 2 Ghz WinXP Laptop
Connect speed	54 Mbps (802.11g mode)
Firmware version	1.16
Net file transfer speed	21 Mbps as reported by ftp client
File size	9 Mbyte
File transfer mode	Binary

Success Story 5 - 30cm thick walls and UltraWAP-N

HI Guys, Just wanted to drop a note to thank you for enabling me to provide one of my clients with a successful outcome.

Their building was once a Convent and now is a Conservatorium of Music. It is 2 storey brick with walls around 30cm thick throughout, and is like a rabbit warren with rooms scattered. The location is difficult to work with wirelessly as signals vary so much. I joked with the client that it was like the Bermuda Triangle!!!. You could be in the room next door and not get a signal from their existing WAP.

I took a gamble and purchased the UltraWAP-N and installed it for them. It works, I don’t know how, and frankly don’t care why, I am just glad it has resolved a difficult location.

Thanks again for a brilliant result.

Shane

PS Other brands tried were Linksys, DLink and Netgear

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Published on: 2004-12-01 (27064 reads)