>We have successfuly used ubiquiti nano and power stations as injection >radios for numerous tripod and cisco mesh systems. No problems. Of >course I have used canopy for it too- no real difference in the end >performance.
But there's a huge difference between "using a few here and there" and "relying on things as a platform for wide-scale operations" Let's go back to the original thread -- we were talking about how Ubiquiti was "changing the game" with their new $75 AP that does 150 Mb or something (as compared to the Alvarion/Motorolas/WiMAX guys of the world who still don't "get it" with their $3/5/10k APs) -- up until now, it's been my experience that this is an "apples to oranges" debate (heck, couldn't I make the same argument that belkin or dlink has had a super-N mimo AP for $69 at Best Buy for some time now?) The last guy I know who tried this (actually a WISP with ~5k customers who might be reading this thread =) decided to go "all-out" with Mikrotik -- sure, the APs cost $200 or something, but he found that contention limited him to 20-30 customers / AP, while an "slower and 5x more expensive" Canopy system allowed him to put 100+ customer / AP -- in his case, one of the things that factored into the decision was tower rent Now, this was probably a year ago and things may have changed... I am not saying that ubiquity / mikrotik aren't good solutions -- we see nice applications for such units to "fill in gaps" or "extend the network" where terrain is challenging and there are "pockets" of small density (e.g., a neighborhood cul-de-sac or something similar with 3 or 4 additional people) -- and I'd probably wager that almost every WISP - Canopy/Alvarion/WiMAX/etc has deployed a few nanos/locos/etc in such a manner fashion, but that's a far different cry than using it as a primary platform of choice for delivering service to thousands of subscribers That being said, if someone has built such a system, please pipe up and share your experiences -- I'm always interested in learning how to do things better/faster/cheaper... -Charles On Dec 30, 2009, at 7:05 PM, Charles Wu <c...@cticonnect.com> wrote: > I find these comparisons of products like Ubiquiti / Mikrotik vs. > Motorola / WiMAX products to be somewhat unrealistic -- it seems to > me that it's like comparing something that's hypothetical and "looks > good on paper" and "hoping" that it will actually work > > Here's my question; sure, on paper, the new Ubiquiti WHATEVER will > give me a Gazillion Mbps with Beamforming and everything for $10 -- > but has anyone actually made this stuff work and scaled it into a > profitable business? > > Many of the WISPs that I've talked to who gone down this path have > had to upgrade / replace / retool their networks due to the fact > that these systems don't scale > > The one WISP that I know using Ubiquiti / Mikrotik with several > thousand customers is only using them as endpoints on a Bel-Air > Network Mesh infrastructure that they spent almost $1 million > building out > > It reminds me of the Asterisk vs. Broadsoft / Metaswitch VoIP > debates from a couple of years back -- sure, Asterisk was "free" > while a Broadsoft platform had an entry cost of $250k, but I know of > tons of Broadsoft providers who support tens of thousands of > customers for hosted PBX, and the only guy I know doing it on > Asterisk ended up spending over $500k hiring a custom programming > team in Russia to rebuild the system for him from scratch (he was > joking to me that in hindsight, it would've been cheaper and a lot > easier to just buy a Broadsoft) > > I would like to be proven wrong here...so shoot =) > > -Charles > > > > --- > --- > --- > --- > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > --- > --- > --- > --- > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
