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- Jul 21, 2015
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Ok so I'm throwing this one out there to get some ideas about Ubiquiti, because I've never used them. A friend of mine just opened an RV campground (40 pads, he already has long term guests), and another friend who is his camp manager just spilled to me that whatever he did to provide wifi just sucks ass, because she can't even get a reliable signal on her pad - which is right across the road (about 100') from the office. So I want to go to him with a plan, and being as it's a business and I don't want to be at his tech support beck and call over it, I know you guys rave about Ubiquiti so maybe you can help me put something together. I found out about this today, so I haven't had a chance to look under the hood, but she sent me a pic and I can already see the problem... It's just a patch antenna on top of the office. The grounds are about 13 acres, so a single AP was never going to work anyway since even if the AP is strong enough, the radios in people's devices won't be able to reach back.
I will obviously have to install a multi-AP mesh setup but there is another issue.. Power. There are only two {private) power/light poles.. One is about 500' from the office LOS, the other about 700' (and about 700' from the other pole). The two poles and office form a triangle around the grounds. There is nothing in the middle though, and even three won't be enough to close the distance to be usable off the perimeter. I think I would need at least 8 (maybe an even 10) to get solid coverage with less than 150' between APs (many RVs have an aluminum shell, so probably best to figure for indoor range too instead of LOS).
I don't even want to think about what it would cost to plant power poles and run cables.. So has anyone run these off solar/battery? It has to be cheaper to plant a 15' steel pole and install a solar panel and a couple batteries than full size poles. What would I have to figure as far as wattage? This is in Kansas, with no trees around so plenty of peak sun hours.
I have not really played with mesh, only multi-AP roaming. Would I be able to get away with OOB backhauling to only the two utility powered units via bridge? More? What's the rule of thumb as far as backhaul to satellite ratio when dealing with mesh?
How does centralized control work? I've worked with Omada before but again, never with Ubiquiti. In skimming the documentation the cloudkey can act as the controller? How about the edgerouter?
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get farther into this.. The attached shows the property. Blue dots are where I have power available, red dots are where I am thinking additional APs would be needed.
I will obviously have to install a multi-AP mesh setup but there is another issue.. Power. There are only two {private) power/light poles.. One is about 500' from the office LOS, the other about 700' (and about 700' from the other pole). The two poles and office form a triangle around the grounds. There is nothing in the middle though, and even three won't be enough to close the distance to be usable off the perimeter. I think I would need at least 8 (maybe an even 10) to get solid coverage with less than 150' between APs (many RVs have an aluminum shell, so probably best to figure for indoor range too instead of LOS).
I don't even want to think about what it would cost to plant power poles and run cables.. So has anyone run these off solar/battery? It has to be cheaper to plant a 15' steel pole and install a solar panel and a couple batteries than full size poles. What would I have to figure as far as wattage? This is in Kansas, with no trees around so plenty of peak sun hours.
I have not really played with mesh, only multi-AP roaming. Would I be able to get away with OOB backhauling to only the two utility powered units via bridge? More? What's the rule of thumb as far as backhaul to satellite ratio when dealing with mesh?
How does centralized control work? I've worked with Omada before but again, never with Ubiquiti. In skimming the documentation the cloudkey can act as the controller? How about the edgerouter?
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get farther into this.. The attached shows the property. Blue dots are where I have power available, red dots are where I am thinking additional APs would be needed.
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