WLAN with 2 mile radius

I have a farming operation that requires I have a WLAN reach out a 2 mile radius from my house. I have been looking at products such as the Bullet or Rocket AC/M from Ubiquiti Networks, but I am unsure what else I would need. Would these products require some kind of WISP client appliance on the other end or would the other devices just pickup the SSID and start communicating. I am leaning toward the Rocket AC because of throughput capability. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

jcroskey05

Posted 2016-05-20T04:11:31.523

Reputation: 23

Be careful as this kind of setup is extremely complex (so you could waste lots of money and efforts for something flaky), and also involves health worries since these devices produce harming radiations for anyone or anything nearby. – Julie Pelletier – 2016-05-20T05:08:35.663

@JuliePelletier: Do they? Wi-Fi is non-ionizing radiation. At this strength, it's no worse than a wireless router at your home or a cell phone tower nearby. (Or for that matter, TV.) I'm assuming the links will be set up between roofs or such, anyway.

– user1686 – 2016-05-20T05:12:06.950

I looked at the Rocket manual and they say to put it at least 9 meters from people. – Julie Pelletier – 2016-05-20T05:21:11.473

1I think that's mainly because having the AP surrounded by radio-absorbing humans would significantly degrade the link quality... Long-distance directional links might be powerful enough to do some harm, but I doubt that's the case at 2 miles. – user1686 – 2016-05-20T06:23:26.083

3The real question in all long-range wireless setups is whether the stations are mobile of fixed. Mobile stations can’t really use directional antennas. – Daniel B – 2016-05-20T06:27:24.283

Assuming that you want to use run-of-the mill WLAN devices in the clients (farming machines?), the standard approach is to distribute enough access points (APs) in the area you want to cover that at least one AP is reachable from everywhere. Then you have to connect the APs to your house, either with a directional wireless link if they can get power elsewhere, or with a cable for both power and data. For a single AP at your house you'll likely need custom wireless devices in your clients, and a custom non-standard frequency etc. – dirkt – 2019-12-31T06:59:02.843

Answers

Ubiquiti products run regular Wi-Fi with some extensions. Any standard Wi-Fi client device should work, after you turn off "AirMAX" (their proprietary TDMA mode) in the AP's control panel. (Also, make sure to only choose frequencies corresponding to standard Wi-Fi channels, since at least their 5 GHz devices offer many choices in between.)

That said, even if your client devices can receive the signal from 2 miles away, doesn't mean they're powerful enough to send a signal back. I'm rather clueless when it comes to this part... I guess, depending on how sensitive the Rocket is, everything might just work fine, or the clients might need one of the WISP products like NanoStation (or at least something like a directional antenna on the roof).

user1686

Posted 2016-05-20T04:11:31.523

Reputation: 283 655

You will need high-gain antennas, probably directional antennas, to boost WiFi range that much. You should be able to find some to suit your needs that are compatible with whatever WAP you go with (search Google, Amazon, wherever), and keep in mind that you will probably need high-gain antennas on the client devices as well, since your typical client device won't be capable of sending signal back to the WAP over that distance, without help.

HopelessN00b

Posted 2016-05-20T04:11:31.523

Reputation: 1 869