Sharing WiMax Antenna

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Johnn0

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Hey Guys,

Quick question, i live in a complex and my copper line has gone for a ball, Telkom refuse to fix the problem and are now offering me WiMax.

My question pertains to sharing a WiMax antenna, as the body corporate is having a hissy about the whole antenna on the outside thing and they want to know of 4 units can share the antenna (like we do with the satellite dish).

Is this possible, and will it hamper performance?
 
I would think the only way would be for you to share the connection via LAN. I haven't seen the Wimax device - but sharing the antenna over multiple receiving radios sounds impracticle, if not impossible.
 
I had a site where I put up one 2.4GHz HGA (high gain antenna) that went via a splitter to two devices that worked just fine and dandy, thank you. Bottom line, it should work fine and dandy but there's nothing for nothing in this world: inserting a splitter causes some measure of insertion loss (say 3-6 dB, to take a reasonable guesstimate) that your link budget (HGA & co-ax) has to be able to absorb and still give you sufficient signal.
 
If you share the connection via lan, it will influence speed and latencies. Regarding sharing the antenna, if it is possible, I would think it will also influence speeds and latencies as the wireless frequency determines the speed of the connection.
 
As I understand it part of the WiMax solution's intelligence lives in the antenna unit so it will not be able to share that. But you should be able to install an external antenna, split it and connect it to each of the WiMax antenna units which obviously would have to placed in the ceiling void to hide them.
 
Well, technically speaking, you should be able to share it, cause it connects to the IDU with RJ45, so you can plug that into a switch and connect all the IDUs to the same switch, but if it will work, I don't know.
 
SharkBait said:
Well, technically speaking, you should be able to share it, cause it connects to the IDU with RJ45, so you can plug that into a switch and connect all the IDUs to the same switch, but if it will work, I don't know.
Click to expand...

Agreed but I think Johnn0 is looking at one external unit instead of 4. Unless I understood him wrong.

PS: Keeping in mind the IDU supplies power to the external unit.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the response.

yeah, the body corporate people want to know if it can be shared (i.e: 1 antenna for 4 units), they are full of **** and are giving me hell about the antenna as they do look a bit untidy and if all 4 units have one it won't look great.

But if it is going to impact my performance then the answer i am going to give them is a big NO :)

Thanks again for the response.
 
So what does this kit look like anyway? I mean, if there's an antenna it *HAS* to go into a connector on the electronics box ..which is where, if it's doable, you futz with things by splitting the feed from the HGA into the separate boxes/IDU (from reading above). So, anyone got product pics we can look at?
 
There should be pics here around somewhere. Before I got mine, i saw pics here. You have an aerial pole, like the normal one, with a 15cm x15cm dish-a-ma-thing :p at the top. There is a network cable running from it to the IDU inside your house somewhere, a small 7cm x 10cm x 5cm box. It needs a normal power cable, kettle cable, and then you have another network cable that goes to your pc or a switch...

Edit: please note that the sizes are all estimates. :D
 
SharkBait said:
There should be pics here around somewhere. Before I got mine, i saw pics here. You have an aerial pole, like the normal one, with a 15cm x15cm dish-a-ma-thing :p at the top. There is a network cable running from it to the IDU inside your house somewhere, a small 7cm x 10cm x 5cm box. It needs a normal power cable, kettle cable, and then you have another network cable that goes to your pc or a switch...

Edit: please note that the sizes are all estimates. :D
Click to expand...
Seems I found the likely pic ..and puppy in the antenna image is a highly integrated CPE device that comprises the antenna and some electronics in one unit which is why it can take an Ethernet cable inside. This image
 may (or may not) be true but either way this route pretty much puts the kibosh on having one braai-grid up in the air with antenna cable going down to separate units ..at least looking at it superficially. :cool:
 
Quick answer - It will not work - one CPE = one IDU - to split you will need a router (maybe wireless) and split signal there

Hope that helps
 
Kicker said:
Quick answer - It will not work - one CPE = one IDU - to split you will need a router (maybe wireless) and split signal there

Hope that helps
Click to expand...

What Kicker says is correct. What you need to bear in mind however is that you can share the connection by using the router but it is still one account so you will not be able to check who is using what bandwidth.

If the only problem is the external antennae then we (Screamer Telecoms) do supply a self install unit which does not require an external antennae.
 
Any pics of this equipment? There's nothing on the Screamer website...
 
SharkBait said:
How is the signal then? Won't the latencies be worse then?
Click to expand...

From our experience there has not been any degradation in the latencies when using the self install unit.

Obviously the self install is not suitable where the signal is weak and we then recommend an external anatennae.
 
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