Point to Point
A simple point to point link is used to connect two buildings together.
But it doesn’t have to apply to buildings. It can be to connect at CCTV camera to the network or any remote devices including access control, sensors etc. Point to point links, or bridges, join one IP based network to another.
The type of link we specify will depend ultimately on two factors:
- What are you using it for? Is it a high speed, mission critical network connection, or is to share internet to your man cave in the shed?
- How far are are we going? There is a big difference between 100Mbps at 10m and 100Mbps at 100km.
Point to Multipoint
Where you need to connect more than one building to your network. But it doesn’t have to be only buildings and networks, it can be CCTV cameras, remote monitoring devices, or any IP based equipment.
Most equipment shares the available bandwidth between the end points which can sometimes affect critical applications like voice or video.
The type of equipment we specify will depend ultimately on three factors:
- What are you using it for? Is it a high speed, mission critical network connection, or is to share internet to your man cave in the shed?
- How far are are we going? There is a big difference between 100Mbps at 10m and 100Mbps at 100km.
- How far apart are the remote buildings? Are they within a 90deg arc, or are they 180deg opposed from each other?
Mesh Networking
Mesh networking means different things to different manufacturers so it is imporant to clarify what they mean.
To some, Mesh is a self healing outdoor network, where each device can talk to multiple other devices and choses where to send the traffic based on connection speeds and interference. These networks are used widely for outdoor CCTV and Ad-hoc temporary installations where connectivity is more important than speed.
Lower cost Mesh network equipment simply repeats what is on the network on the same channel, limiting the amount of nodes and reducing the available bandwidth for every additional hop.
Others simply call their point to point or point to multipoint offerings as mesh. Where they perform simply as network connections.
Wireless Technology used:
802.11 Standards Based Radios
Asside from licensed microwave links, predominately all outdoor wireless networks leverage off radios developed for the 802.11 standards. Some are even able to be configured as an outdoor link (or bridge/ mesh) or as an Access Point (AP).
These links generally sit in the lower price bracket but perform very well for short, lower speed links and are often used by WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers).
Mostly all of them operate with a single radio which uses TDD, Time Division Duplexing which dynamically manages the single channel to send and receive data. For general networking, internet and VoiP, they work very well. Using the single channel makes the link a half duplex link.
Because they operate in the WiFi frequency ISM bands (Industrial Scientific Medical), they can be prone to interference and performance issues when there are other nearby links on the same channel. This can be mittigated by changing channels away from the interference.
LICENSED MICROWAVE
Licensed microwave is very different to 802.11 based wireless links. These links operate with 2 sets of radios per end, one to send data and one to receive data. This means they are capable of providing full duplex operation, they can send and receive data at the same time. They do this using FDD, or Frequency Division Duplexing.
Licensed microwave, as the title suggests, operate in frequencies that are assigned to you by the ACMA, Australian Communications Media Authority. The ACMA manage all the radio spectrum in Australia including all mobile phone and two way channels.
Having the frequency assigned to you specifically for you link path guarantees that you will not be interfered with by any other operator.
They are also capable of much higher throughput (speeds) by combing multiple units together on a single antenna (up to 4). They are also capable of far greater distances due to higher radio output power, antenna size and the use of spatial diversity, where two sets of antennas are used to provide the required receive signal levels.
