Comments inline Daniel White 3-dB Networks http://www.3dbnetworks.com
>-----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On >Behalf Of Paolo Di Francesco >Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 6:53 PM >To: WISPA General List >Subject: [WISPA] Ceragon, Dragonwave and whatelse? > >Dear All, > >we are considering to move to licensed frequencies for back hauling and >therefore some hints would be really appreciated. We are looking at 2 >main manufacturers (Ceragon/Dragonwave) so the problem is "which one >fits better for our needs"? Ceragon has a very good name, but is much more expensive than Dragonwave (and honestly I have a hard time finding the value proposition to Ceragon over Dragonwave... even though I sell Ceragon gear) >Just to summarize: > >a) links are around 20-25 miles >b) antennas: the smaller the better >c) robustness is very important >d) average life: 3 years Ceragon and Dragonwave will probably be equal on all three requirements for you. I'm sure many are going to mention Trango... Trango in general is going to require larger dishes (their output power is lower than Ceragon and Dragonwave), and robustness and average life are still questionable considering the gear has not been available for really more than a year and a half or so (and that would be the beta gear) >>From what I have read in the data sheets I have done the following >considerations: > >1) Dragonwave Horizon is nice but only if your site is well protected >from "sabotage and stealing". The "all outdoor" approach is nice but it >has the drawback that if somebody takes the whole unit they will have a >brand new unit working. With the IDU/ODU approach they will have only >half of the "banknote", so after the first or second time, they will not >spend time having something useless. Your going to have this concern with any radio system you purchase... you should look at the Horizon Duo from Dragonwave if you want the split architecture. Personally this wouldn't be something I would be overally concerned with (you could always figure out a way to lock the ODU to the dish or the tower) >2) Dragonwave Horizon can be a problem if you don't use fiber from the >unit down to your switch. In few words, we have sites with huge amount >or EM fields, so even using shielded cables (e.g. Belden 1300A) we get >only few ethernet megabits. So we should use fiber to go up the tower, >but maybe be IDU/ODU approach is more robust (comments welcome). In that case I would use the Horizon Duo for the split architecture. You can also get the Horizon Compact with the fiber interface... >3) All outdoor means that when you have to re-use the devices somewhere >else, you have to buy a whole new thing instead of just swapping the >ODU. True... but they are also cheaper. But if your buying 11GHz links you can always redeploy it on a shorter link or a link of similar size... you can even deploy them on a longer link you may just have to purchase a larger dish. >4) In any case the (all outdoor or IDU/ODU) when the tower is frozen >(and when I mean frozen I mean a whole block of ice) then it does not >change much, you have to wait the better season to work on that. No matter what gear is on a tower... if your tower is frozen in ice working on it is going to be difficult. >5) Performances look more or less the same. Between Dragonwave and Ceragon... yes they are. >6) I don't know much about prices, I have looked on some website, I am >still exploring this aspect If your interested hit me offlist and I can help you with some quotes >7) Is anybody using the software-switch capabilities on this devices or >just using them as transparent bridges for your router/switch? Do you >need to reset them often? I always view a bridge as a bridge... so I'm not of the opinion any radio bridge ought to do routing, etc. Let a router do it... and let a switch be a switch (for instance I would rather have a fully manageable switch than the four port deal on the Trango radios). We never had to reboot our Dragonwave radios... they only ever were rebooted when we lost power or something else happened... same goes for the two Ceragon links we had. >Comments are welcome. > >Am I missing some other good brand? Nera is popular in Europe... and Harris-Stratex is pretty popular (although pretty expensive too). Personally I would only buy Dragonwave (and I'm not just saying that because I sell Dragonwave... I sell Exalt, Dragonwave, Ceragon, Nera, Cielo... and heck I'm sure I'm forgetting some) > >Thank you. > >-- > > >Ing. Paolo Di Francesco > >Teleinform S.p.A. >Sede Legale: Via Francesco Paolo Di Blasi 1, 90144 Palermo >Unita' Operativa: Via Regione Siciliana 49, 90046 Monreale >Tel: +39-091-6408576, +39-091-6404501 >Fax: +39-091-6406200 > >http://www.wikitel.it >http://www.teleinform.com > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >-------- >WISPA Wants You! Join today! >http://signup.wispa.org/ >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >-------- > >WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > >Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > >Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! 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