I know this topic has come up before, but thought I would throw it out again to hear additional thoughts as products continue to evolve. We have been doing primarily 5 GHz backhaul using Mimosa products for the last couple of years. Their frequency reuse has really helped us, but we are starting to see more locations that have lots of noise. We'd like to make the jump to higher frequencies and are looking at 11 GHz and 24 GHz for that. The links we need are fairly short, 6-10 miles max, which pushes the limits of the 24 GHz solutions, but with a very clean line of site we think we are in range for the links we are looking at as far as the design tools tell us. For 11 GHz, we would likely stay with the Mimosa product line, we know it pretty well and have all the management tools in place for it. For 24 GHz we'd likely go with the Ubiquiti AF 24 or AF 24 HD. We have worked with Ubiquiti stuff here and there, and just don't have much familiarity with any other options outside of AirFiber. Here is where we see the Pros and Cons of the two options:
Mimosa 11 GHz Pros: 1. Licensed, should be clean spectrum for the full term of the license and require less babysitting for interference 2. Should support longer links, but that isn't a big consideration for us as it looks like everything we will need is under the limits of the HD for sure and likely the AF 24 as well 3. Little less susceptible to rain fade Cons: 1. Have to mess around with the license and there is a cost associated with it 2. Have to buy the dish separately, and know which to use before applying for the license 3. Not quite as much throughput (when compared to the AF 24 HD) 4. More expensive that the AF 24 (but likely a little less than the HD) Ubiquiti AF 24 Pros: 1. All in one unit, easy to figure out what to have on hand for all links 2. No messing around with licenses, making it much quicker to deploy 3. Higher throughput on the HD Cons: 1. Unlicensed. Might fight other noise out there, and even quiet links now might have noise later 2. Not as familiar with this tool set as we are with Mimosa, although this isn't a big consideration as we have worked with lots of Ubiquiti products 3. Cost of HD is pretty high for an unlicensed link Here are some questions we are hoping for help with: 1. How much room in the unlicensed band is there to move channels if you see other noise out there? We have been looking but are finding it tough to figure out if we run wide channels, and see noise, will we be able to move to other channels. 2. Is it reasonable to think you can push 1.2 aggregate IP traffic across any of the three options B11, AF24 or AF24HD? Seems like a well planned link with great line of site at 6 miles should be able to, but looking for some real world experience. 3. Any oddball items we should take into consideration other than the ones already mentioned here? Or are we missing some obvious questions? Thanks, David Coudron
