Reliable and non-problematic solutions for long distance links at 2x2 802.11n standard

The solution is made using the high-gained dual polarity antenna (25 dBi). PowerBridge M5 works at the standard of 802.11n MIMO (can work in regular 802.11a also), so using 2 chains on MCS15 is able to get maximum 300Mbps (in theory of course). The maximum Tx power is 27dBm, which in combination with high antenna gain gives really great final performances. The device looks very well, but… there are some problems with availability of the solution and relative high price of the final solution. The disadvantage is also that PowerBridge is „closed” solution which can’t be maintained or repaired by the user, and no modifications are possible. Take a look how much you can loose using PowerBridge M5 product.

The greatest competitor of Ubiquiti company is MikroTik which can offers comparable solutions with greater performances at comparable or even lower price. I will describe the calculations on the end of this brochure. The main difference between these 2 systems (UBNT and MT) is that MT has embeded solutions to be configured and use with any compatible antenna, when UBNT offers the solution ready to be used. RouterOS (MT) offered in few funcionality levels is said to be wider and more complex radio system than AirMax (UBNT).

I’d like to present the set based on MikroTik embeded products which can give the performances comparable with PowerBridge M5. UBNT product contains of high-gained dual polarity 5 GHz antenna, the antenna is connected with the device which is build of the mainboard + radio module + poe adapter + pigtails etc. The same set can be built by MikroTik with a good antenna, to make compact solution in one box I propose to use some antenna box. This work will be based on the new generation of the high-quality antenna-boxes (WISP friendly) manufactured by Wireless Instruments company, the series is named WiBOX. In general the solution is based on 4 different plastic antenna boxes (for electronic equipment installation) with antennas integrated (all about the solution WiBoxSeries) .

Take a look on the solution shown below (Pic. 1)

Wireless Instruments launched the dual polarity 5 GHz antenna with a gain of 24-25dBi. The antenna is designed using low-loss teflon substrate, which gives ability to get good performances, same technology as in PowerStation M5 device. Please don’t consider WiBOX solution as ideal and the solution that would solve all your problems, you need to configure RouterOS which is more complex than AirMax, but have much wider configuration options. Our proposition is based on the mainboard of RouterBoard 711GA-5HnD, 24V 1A power supply, and RBGPOE. The MikroTik mainboard has more configuration possibilities than UBNT product, it has an USB port available and GigaBit Ethernet port.

The antenna of WiBOX PA M5-24HV offers the gain of 24dBi in both polarizations, the RB711GA-5HnD embeded device gives the max. Tx power of 25 dBm and the max Rx sensitivity of -92dBm. RB711GA-5Hnd as PowerBridge M5 it is fully compatible with 802.11n standard, so can work with MCS15 on dual chained transmission level. It offers the maximal speed of 300Mbps. It’s theoretical throughput on single transmission set, which looks a bit different in practice. To get the maximum throughput you need to separate the radio chains (or streams) when there are no reflecting surfaces or objects to differentiate received streams. The highest level of the separation between polarizations is definately required. WiBOX comes with 40dB separation level (between polarizations).

Price calculation ?... Remember, the price isn’t the most important factor, the most important factor is satisfaction comes from non-problematic network. The network that can be easily configured, maintained or rebuilt.

175 EUR	135 EUR
For complete PowerBridge M5 ready to use device.	For completed WiBOX PA M5-24HV antennabox, RB711GA-5HnD, poe supply 24V 1A, RBGPOE.

In 135 EUR you can get the solution which operates at the frequency range of 5,1 – 5,9 GHz (not 5,470 – 5,825GHz as PowerBridge M5), with much better separation between polarization (in logarithmic scale 3dB is 2x J, you get 12 dB better), 1Gbit LAN port (PB M5 offers 100Mbit), USB port additionally. Both solutions comes with 400MHz Atheros CPU and 64MB of memory. More information ? Please contact us info@wireless-instruments.com .

I don’t want to mention about the possibility of upgrade the set based on WiBOX antennas. For the more demanded users we propose to use more powerful mainboards which can give much more better performances than UBNT provides with. The WiBOX system offers a lot of advanteges for WISPs, for example, when you change the mainboard you don’t need to unmount antenna and align it from the beginning then, just unmount the front shield. The inbuilt nut inserts allows for many times mount and unmount the system without risk to destroy the plastic nut socket.

I wrote this text because of many complains on UBNT come from our customers. The complains are not because of low quality product of PowerBridge M5, we regard UBNT effort to create good-looking and easy to use solution. The biggest problem was with the availability of PB M5 and the final price. The customers are looking for more flexible devices and we provided them with this solution.