Proper way(s) to setting up a new WISP service [Archive]

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rbolduc

12-09-2002, 07:59 AM

Hello All !
I have been working with 2.4ghz wireless for 2 years now for fun and I now am hooked :D I am taking the plunge and starting a WISP and was looking for some input about on items. I am located in maine so LOS can be fun.

1. Should I use routing and have each AP and assoaited clients on there own ip range i.e ap1=192.168.1.0 ap2=192.168.2.0 ect ?

2. Should I stick with a 15 dbi omni or go out and and invest in 2-180* sectors or 3-120* sectors to help cut down on noise and improve signal?

3. Should all the AP have the same ESSID as long as there on different channels?

4. I will be using star-os for my ap on a soekris net-4521 (2 soekris if I am going to have 3 sectors) and I know Tony and Lonnie like Orinoco but how about power, the new Senao 200mw card has nice specs but I do not want to blast everyone with 2.4ghz in town?

I am only asking these questions because I want to have a good jump on things with out causing trouble and not having to "rebuild" :( the whole network in 5 months because I didn't know any better..Thanks for your Input

Reed
www.mewireless.net

bobbyc

12-09-2002, 08:09 AM

The most powerful card isn't always needed. We just lit up a new tower with 16dB radiowaves horinzontal sectors, and agere cards. about 60' of LMR600 with polyphaser between the 600 and the pigtail to the agere card. The signal at 5 miles is 15dB, good enough!
Bob C

bobbyc

12-09-2002, 08:11 AM

Furthermore, what's cool with star-OS is that you can experiment with the higher powered cards with no additional cost except for the card itself. You can just pull out a card and throw in another one... without even shutting down the system. Just keep in mind that you can't swap in a high powered card if you designed your system with an amp, or else you'd be overdriving the amp.

lonnie

12-09-2002, 09:16 AM

Good luck with the WISP venture. You are asking the right questions, which leads me to believe you have learned a bit.

#1 Definitely use a subnet per AP. Every "physical" segment should be a logical segment as well.
#2 Take good look at the map for your town and especially the location of your tower and where the customers live. Don't just blindly provide 360 coverage. If you can locate the repeater at one end of town you might have excellent coverage with a single 90 degree sector. If you are unlucky enough to in the middle of a round town, then you'll want three 120 degree units.
#3 Every AP gets its own channel and ESSID. Every ESSID is assignewd its own subnet.
#4 Power determines how far you can reach. We use YDI amplifiers on 9 dB 120 sectorals and we get 10 miles, easy. The Senao with 12 dB would be the same. If you don't need 10 miles then you could scale back the power. We like Lucent cards because we get the best information on how to use them, so they end up working better.
#5 You didn't ask this, but here goes - use DHCP to assign customer addresses. It is so much easier to use all server assigned on their TCP settings and you have the benefit of being able to quickly and easily redo your IP design if you have a brilliant idea later.

rbolduc

12-09-2002, 09:38 AM

bobbyc

12-09-2002, 02:07 PM

Lonnie, OT, but what does the noise floor of the APs with YDI amps average out to? Ours is -84 to -87... a little better at night. Usually on the client end, Partner SNR is about half of Station SNR.
Bob C

rbolduc

12-09-2002, 02:32 PM

Hi Bobbyc,
My noise floor is roughly -84 to -87 at best using a hyperlink amp that is why I would like to go to a sectored system at I think it will help out a lot

Reed

lonnie

12-09-2002, 10:58 PM

The noise floor is from -82 to -88 with YDI or RFLinx amps. With TT the noise is from -79 to -84 and the signal is about 4 to 5 dB lower. We have one right now that is -72 noise. We just have to get up the mountain and put in the RFLinx. I used the TT because it was handy. Big mistake. From now on they go where they are easy to get at.

lonnie

12-09-2002, 11:03 PM

Lonnie, Thanks for the information ! but I have a question ? If I use DHCP how can I eaisly do bandwidth/qos without using a static IP, can star-os limit by mac address, if so I would be set :)

Thanks

We do bandwidth control based on IP address. If we did it based on MAC then it would only work for the same subnet which is not all that handy. Why this love affair with MAC based control? All you have to is make sure that a particular MAC always gets the same IP and it is just the same, except it works in a routed environment. You do that with Static DHCP. I realize that the cheap home gateways don't route and and only support dynamic DHCP assignment, but we have the full tools.

rbolduc

12-10-2002, 08:10 AM

Sorry Lonnie, totally goofed on that one I forgot all about setting up Static DHCP, I was using that on my NTbox awhile ago.. A big DUHHH :? for me.. Thanks for the great support !!

Reed