Anyone deployed this radio in production in the US? I’m curious to hear from people who are using it, looking at replacing some UBNT hardware with it on some PTP links, going from the M-series class devices to something more modern.
Thanks,
- Jared
Best place to ask this question would be the WISPA list (public one or Member's list).
Plus you can ask ask this question on Facebook, WISPA Pictures or Mimosa Group ! Lots of good info there.
Like all fixed wireless, in unlicensed freq...there are if's and's or but's....
Depending on your particular link, and what problem you are trying to solve, the Mimosa's would be a logical and good upgrade path from Ubiquiti M5 radios....
Weather you use B5-lite or B5's would depend on a few factors.
Regards
Faisal Imtiaz
Snappy Internet & Telecom
7266 SW 48 Street
Miami, FL 33155
Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232
Help-desk: (305)663-5518 Option 2 or Email: Support@Snappytelecom.net
B5c is the only product that I've had much success with from Mimosa.
The B5Lite is a cheap plastic shell and, and it performs like it too.
If you have UBNT gear now, Mimosa is a good next step, but I'd strongly recommend that you stear away from the lite and go with the B5c. We use them with rocket dishes. You just need the RP-SMA to N cables.
Eric Miller, CCNP
Network Engineering Consultant
Jared - why not go to Ubiquiti AC gear if you need some more speed and something more modern?
We've deployed 2 B5 links into production, the newer firmware seems to have fixed the issues we saw in the links when we first tested them.
We have a very rural customer where two hops are needed around the site. We're lucky in that we had two 80MHz channels free. We see around 350Mbps both ways actual throughput on both links.
However, these links are short est. 200mtrs when we had tested these on longer links their performance was awful, on a 40MHz channel we saw 20Mbps.
For our longer links that need a bit more throughput than a Rocket M5 we either use Licensed radios or the AF5X which works very well.
Regards,
Hal Ponton
Senior Network Engineer
Buzcom / FibreWiFi
Ouch. Was also looking at b5 but $1400 for a pair is a bit steep if your effective range won't support a "short" 3-4km link.
Trying to bridge the gap, and UBNT has their pluses and minuses. Maybe AF5X instead I guess.
Thanks!
Jared Mauch
AF5X is hard to beat and cheaper...
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL JOSH LUTHMAN?!
I didn't think the AF5 was much cheaper than an AF24 and I'd much rather be
up in the 24GHz band and out of any contention in 5GHz.
*Spencer Ryan* | Senior Systems Administrator | sryan@arbor.net
*Arbor Networks*
+1.734.794.5033 (d) | +1.734.846.2053 (m)
www.arbornetworks.com
AF5X. The AF5 is not all that good (integrated small dishes for fdx, yuck).
The real Josh is still waiting on UbntChuck to do a ptmp sync product. At
least we're 2/3 of the way there
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
If it is 3-4KM, I would definitely use the AF24 (24GHz) because it gives you 750M/750M Full duplex. For longer, or a backup link, I would use the AF5X (not AF5) instead of the B5. That way you have 750M full duplex during most days with the AF24, and on a strong rain if you use OSPF, the AF5X (5GHz) can at least carry 100Mish across until the rain stops.
Eric Rogers
PDS Connect
www.pdsconnect.me
(317) 831-3000 x200
AF24HD can do full duplex 1Gbps
Concern is with the UBNT AC 500mm dish and wind loading on the tower even with radome.
b5 is ~450mm and b5-lite is 260mm.
The link is 4.88km (3mi) so keeping bandwidth and link up are key.
- Jared
For that distance link you could use to 300m 45 degree slant AF5x antenna
Regards,
Hal Ponton
Senior Network Engineer
Buzcom / FibreWiFi
I think there is some information missing on your longer link. Did you still have appropriate signal? Was there noise?
I have a B5 link that's about 2 miles that's rocking full data rate and a B5c one that's going about 4 miles at full data rate. My 8 mile B5c link is less than full data rate due to interference.
I’m seeing -61 (63/67 V/H) with floor at -101 right now with the XW PowerBeam 400 w/ 40mhz. The speeds are “Ok” but getting beyond 60Mb/s is hard as the CPU maxes in a bridged setup. Doesn’t seem to have any issues with the wireless rate during load, so perhaps it’s not doing offload to the chipset right? The goal is to improve capacity in the interim while some strategic fiber is deployed for some areas. A pair of B5s or AF5X would likely work out but would rather spend that on fiber.
- Jared
I know it'll result in the air interface coming down on the M series, but verify your noise with the AirView tool. I've grown to not trust the noise floor measurement. 40 MHz at that supposed amount of SNR should be rocking almost double what you're getting. With the V and H chains that far apart, alignment might be off. What are your CCQ, AMC and AMQ numbers?
Hi Mike,
We had the target signal as per the B5's GUI indicated we should have, there is a fair bit of noise in the area, however, the UBNT PowerBridge that was doing the link at 30MHz channel bandwidth was passing 70-80Mbps.
Our engineers spent as much time possible aligning the link, we had a team at each end assisting in this.
We reviewed with Mimosa and our Distributor, but there's only so much time we could spend on this link. Once the newer firmware was released (I think v1.2.0) we tested again and got better performance so this may have been an early problem that has been ironed out now, but for me I would only use them on smaller distance links. YMMV