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| Melbourne Wireless |
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| Node GHO upgrade project |
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The view from the site to the west. (Melbourne city 33km on right)
Node GHO is the Melbourne Wireless community network's premier site. It is located on Mt Dandenong near the TV Transmission towers at 550 metres elevation.
We have used different equipment with varied success, including a PC with a wireless AMP that both died over time.
Although we could have used a PC with mini-pci adapters, we now wanted a device that was:
- mast mountable to eliminate cable loss
- capable of handling the power required to run the Ubiquiti wireless cards
- able to run standard Linux
- had built in POE
The solution needed to be flexible and upgradable to change with the evolving needs of the network and new wireless technologies.
The system we chose is the WRAP 1-1 platform, with its dual mini-pci slots and support for 2 x Ubiquiti high performance wireless cards.
Our equipment list for the WRAP 1-1 platform:
For us this device is the ideal solution.
Each WRAP 1-1 was set up with 1 x 5.8GHz and 1 x 2.4GHz Ubiquiti wireless card.
The WRAPs have been housed in RFShop supplied 2.4GHz horizontal pole boxtennas. I mounted the N-type bulkheads on the back of the boxtenna's to connect to the 5.8GHz wave guides. I used self adhesive velcro tape from Bunnings to attach the wraps to the back of the panel in the boxtenna.
Installing the new system on site went well, although the rain set in for 3 hours when we were finishing, making it a late night before we completed. Yep Melbourne Weather at high altitude extremes...
Testing of the system proved we made the right choice, with vastly improved performance over the Senao AP's they replaced, with even greater throughput on the 50km link from Mt Dandenong to Taylors Lakes! This was achieved on the North Sector 2.4GHz Boxtenna.
At this time we have also started testing the 5.8GHz and have had great results to a test node 21km away.
We recently completed an audit of the power usage at the site and with:
• 2 x WRAP 1-1's
• 1 x 1500VA UPS
• 1 x Netgear 8-port switch
• 1 x Linksys WRT54GS router / web server
• 1 x Axis 213 PTZ camera
• 1 x Canopy 5.8GHz AP
the total load was measured at mere 85W!
Further information on the configuration is available at the node's page, http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/maps/view?id=gho
the evolving WIKI Pages at
http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?NodeGHO
http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?GHO-Wrap
and we also have detailed info on the WRAPs with Voyage at
http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?VoyageLinux
Thanks to Paul from Yawarra and Peter from RFShop for their support of the club.
- Peter Buncle, Vice President, Melbourne Wireless Inc; Senior Network Engineer, NMC Consulting Group -
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