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Ubiquiti

60 GHz is an unlicensed band that now has some cheap gigabit point to point (p2p) antennas that we are using.

60 GHz is extremely susceptible to "rain-fade", which is why it is not used in licensed spectrum

Often these radios come with a 5GHz backup, which isn't really useful for bandwidth but it will keep your link online during rain.

Ubiquiti

There's a very confusing range of Ubiquiti 60GHz. Basically there's dishes and enclosed headlight looking ones

Ubiquiti Gigabeam

  • Price: $260 pair
  • no quoted range! (assume it's meant for neighboring buildings)
  • 5GHz backup: yes but not usable

Ubiquiti Gigabeam Plus GBE-Plus

This is a well-designed router that is small and reliable. We have a couple of these at our Rivington hub

  • Price: $360 pair
  • Range: "up to 1.5km"
  • 5GHz backup: no

Ubiquiti Gigabeam GBE-LR

  • Price: $400 pair
  • Range: "long range"? probably means "up to 2km" like the af60
  • 5GHz backup: no

Ubiquiti airFiber 60

  • Price: $600 pair
  • Range: "Long range, up to 2 km"
  • 5GHz backup: yes

Ubiquiti airFiber 60 LR (dish)

  • Price: $800 pair (sold as pair)
  • Range: "Long Range, Up to 12 km" (hard to believe!)
  • 5GHz backup: no

We are currently running two links with these. Grand to Navy Yard, and PH to 5283

The Navy Yard link:

  • 2km and bandwidth decreases in the rain
  • "1751" capacity (they are adding up and down capacity together)

The 5283 link:

  • 2.2km and works ok in rain
  • "1951" capacity
  • 5GHz: no

MikroTik LHG 60G

  • Price $300 pair
  • Range 200m
  • 5GHs backup: no
  • Tested speed: 700 Mbps

We originally installed these for 800m links but they will go down every time in heavy rain. 200m seems a good distance for them. It's a cheap way to connect neighboring buildings. We use these between the Grand St towers.

IgniteNet Metrolinq One 60-19

  • Price: $500 pair
  • Range: 200m?
  • 5GHz backup: yes
  • Tested speed: 300

We use these between Henry and Grand. It never got over 300 Mbps

  • The mount is extremely heavy and obviously designed for the larger antenna
  • The lights on the back aren't visible due to the mount
  • It is possible to mount on horizontal pipe but you only have ~15 degrees of movement
  • Bandwidth is about half of the cheaper Mikrotik 60Ghz
  • Maybe we should have used the larger 60 – 35
  • The backup 5GHz is strangely very low bandwidth (~20 Mbps)
  • The telescope is very good, and great for aligning
  • Everything is very well built and feels like a scientific instrument
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