campus size wifi network

riverdusty

riverdusty

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Hey All

I've done loads of networking with antenna and range boosters and all the rest. What I'm looking for is something to simplify the task for companies or organizations that have large premises.

I'm looking for a single piece of wireless hardware that can cover an area approx 1sq kilometer (about the size of a small school).

They have this kind of hardware on university campuses in USA and UK. UK have even gone as far as to set up small towns with this kind of system.

What I would like to know is what kind of hardware they are using and where can i get such hardware from?

Regards
 
Best wireless hardware out there is with out a doubt Mikrotik routerboards. For info regarding such a type of system you are talking about get in touch with the guys from Neology. They did a similiar system in tswana that covers the city.
 
riverdusty said:
I'm looking for a single piece of wireless hardware that can cover an area approx 1sq kilometer (about the size of a small school).
Click to expand...
1sq KM??? :confused: that aint small - thats the size of the entire main campus of Wits University!

And you are not going to get a wifi device that is able to provide that kind of coverage to consumer devices like laptops and PDA's using a single AP even if you are using amps.

riverdusty said:
They have this kind of hardware on university campuses in USA and UK. UK have even gone as far as to set up small towns with this kind of system.
Click to expand...
Where have you seen this?
 
I think its smoking crack and stuff like this.

Universities in the US and the UK that have campus wide wireless networks have LOTS of APs and very complicated networks.
 
ToxicBunny said:
I think its smoking crack and stuff like this.

Universities in the US and the UK that have campus wide wireless networks have LOTS of APs and very complicated networks.
Click to expand...

Apologies. I'd be at the MOST 250 000sq/m (1/4 of a sq km)
Thats the biggest area that'd need to be covered. Which includes open field, so probably far less than that.

Thanks for the info, I'll certainty research the aforementioned information.

ToxicBunny, not smocking crack. Just making mistakes :o
 
If i may ask where would you like to deploy this network? To put it simple there is no way that you gonna accomplish this with only 1 AP, your best bet would be a routerboard with a couple of sectors. That is if you have 360deg LOS from where you want to distribute the signal.
 
riverdusty said:
They have this kind of hardware on university campuses in USA and UK. UK have even gone as far as to set up small towns with this kind of system.

What I would like to know is what kind of hardware they are using and where can i get such hardware from?

Regards
Click to expand...

i dont think one single AP would do it, but the likes of the above mentioned setup is probably a large number of APs say 50 or so connecting back to a central controller that will make it easy to admin the APs. not cheap to do
 
skydog said:
i dont think one single AP would do it, but the likes of the above mentioned setup is probably a large number of APs say 50 or so connecting back to a central controller that will make it easy to admin the APs. not cheap to do
Click to expand...

Don't you just need 1AP/building and just use them to bridge connections? Surely the buildings should already have an internal network to which the AP for that building can plug into. Just an idea.
 
riverdusty said:
Hey All

I've done loads of networking with antenna and range boosters and all the rest. What I'm looking for is something to simplify the task for companies or organizations that have large premises.

I'm looking for a single piece of wireless hardware that can cover an area approx 1sq kilometer (about the size of a small school).

They have this kind of hardware on university campuses in USA and UK. UK have even gone as far as to set up small towns with this kind of system.

What I would like to know is what kind of hardware they are using and where can i get such hardware from?

Regards
Click to expand...

The peddlers of mikrotik gear around here have no idea what they are talking about. You need to create multiple mini-hotspots that all connect on a single underground HDPE or above ground telephone pole network running the length of any high density user base such as residences or campuses. Low density users would obviously opt for a wireless only solution. It is all about applying proper spectrum management by combining Wi-Fi with DSLAM for high density users.
The reason why Neotel has to cut the road lengthwise instead of laying their backbone orthogonally across the center road in the North-South direction is purely because they need to maintain physical control over the network. This means it will cost upto 5x more to connect each home in a community block network to the backbone.

We need to build exchanges from the proper engineering perspective that will allow the network to scale to any size for additional bandwidth.
See this http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/TelephoneNetworkRollout#Wi-Fi_and_DSLAM_combination
where I worked out the costs of providing 400 homes in a http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CommunityBlockNetwork with 1600megs
between them for R500/home. Each residence will have a Wi-Fi antenna aimed at the center house which in turn is physically connected to the HDPE backbone. Thus I worked out a way of enabling 400 Wi-Fi devices to be used without wrecking the spectrum.
 
ToxicBunny said:
I think its smoking crack and stuff like this.

Universities in the US and the UK that have campus wide wireless networks have LOTS of APs and very complicated networks.
Click to expand...

There is nothing complicated about it. The universities have a HDPE backbone filled with fiber and copper from which they bring out a line and connect to an AP. Here is where I explained how we can do this in SA in our
residential areas:
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/TelephoneNetworkRollout#Wi-Fi_and_DSLAM_combination
 
acidrain said:
Don't you just need 1AP/building and just use them to bridge connections? Surely the buildings should already have an internal network to which the AP for that building can plug into. Just an idea.
Click to expand...

yip. how you get it connected back it irrelevant. like you say connect them to the existing network through a VLAN and like you say 1AP per building depending what you are covering you may have a 5 story building and want good coverage on all the floors
 
I tried to read that post but all I could read was blah blah blah DLSAM blah blah cutting up roads.
 
blah blah wikipedia blah blah 021778934 blah blah phone blah town blah blah council
 
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