If you end up needing more than one or two hops or you end up deciding to become a wireless ISP for your neighborhood, you might want to check out the mesh products from Skypilot (http://www.skypilot.net). The root node (i.e. "SkyGateway, the one connected to the backhaul) cost about $2500, but the repeater nodes (SkyExtender) are $500 each. The repeater nodes can act as CPE also (ethernet drop) or you can have a leaf node CPE (SkyConnector, no repeater mode) for about $350.
The Skypilot system uses 802.11a (5.8Ghz band) for the mesh and has built in 8 sector 18dBi antennas in a NEMA enclosure. They have enhanced the 802.11a into a syncronous mode so that the mesh units do not self interfere and they coordinate which of the sector antennas are being used at any moment. Considering what it contains its relatively compact. Rob On 1/19/05 3:49 PM, "Russell Nelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Okay, my ISP is dropping all their frame relay lines, including mine. > Cable Internet is not an option because they refuse to run cable TV > down my road. I'm 5.5 miles from the CO, so DSL won't work. > Point-to-point leased line is horrifically expensive. Satellite > Internet is a last option. I might even be able to afford fiber, but > that's a research project, not a reality. Reality is that I need to > get from my house either to my ISP or else to some place that has > Cable Internet. Reality is also that I lack line of sight to either. > > So, I'm looking at having to provision a multi-hop network. What is > the current state of the art? Should I buy pairs of WRT54G, > cross-connect their Ethernets, and throw them into plastic buckets on > rooftops, one with an onmi and the other with a directional pointing > at the next hop? -- Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC. Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868 http://www.ibd.com _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
