In the bustling Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, businesses, organizations and municipal entities often have a need to connect multiple locations or facilities over long distances. While fiber optic cabling can provide a high-bandwidth wired solution, the infrastructure costs and construction disruption make it impractical in many scenarios.
This is where point-to-point wireless bridges come into play – providing a cost-effective, high-speed wireless alternative for joining local area networks (LANs) between buildings, campuses or remote sites. The DFW region’s relatively flat terrain and spacing between locations make it an ideal area for deploying wireless bridging technology.
What is a Wireless Bridge?
A point-to-point wireless bridge consists of two radio transceivers installed at separate physical locations, establishing a wireless backhaul link between the two LANs. The bridges operate in unlicensed or lightly-licensed frequencies like 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz, or even higher frequencies into the millimeter wave spectrum.
By utilizing optimized directional antennas and wireless radio technologies like MIMO and QAM, these bridges can achieve extremely high bandwidth throughputs of multiple Gbps over distances of several miles in point-to-point clear line-of-sight applications. Advanced bridges also incorporate mechanisms to maintain high reliability and throughput in the face of environmental interference or obstruction.
Some common point-to-point wireless bridge use cases in the DFW region include:
– Connecting branch office locations to corporate data centers
– Linking industrial/manufacturing facilities to operations centers
– Establishing campus internet/network connectivity between buildings
– Providing backup wireless links in lieu of redundant cabled connectivity
– Enabling temporary high-bandwidth connectivity for events or locations
Deploying P2P Wireless in DFW
Installing a point-to-point wireless bridge link requires careful planning, execution and professional expertise. Some key factors that must be evaluated include:
Path Analysis
Using specialized software and mapping tools, Metro Tech Solutions will analyze the topography and existing structures between the two locations. This allows them to properly calculate line-of-sight clearances, required antenna heights, potential interference sources and signal strength projections to determine feasibility.
Equipment Selection
With path viability confirmed, the next step is selecting wireless bridge models and components suited for the application’s specific bandwidth needs, distance requirements, and environmental conditions. Factors like radio technology, frequency bands, throughput capacity, PoE support and ruggedization are all important considerations.
Regulatory Compliance
Many wireless bridge links operate in unlicensed frequencies, but certain higher frequencies or EIRP power levels may require licensing from the FCC depending on application specifics. Metro Tech Solutions ensures compliance with all federal, state and local regulations.
Antenna Configuration
The type of directional antennas and their configuration play a crucial role in ensuring reliable connectivity over long wireless bridge spans. Metro Tech Solutions carefully calculates and installs antennas to achieve optimal alignment and polarization for mitigating interference and multi-path signal issues.
Cabling & Grounding
While the bridge link itself is wireless, each radio endpoint requires proper cabling and grounding for data, PoE power and surge suppression. This cabling infrastructure must be installed according to industry standards and manufacturer requirements, including cable types, lengths and terminations.
Physical Installation
At each endpoint location, the bridges and antennas need to be securely mounted and grounded on rooftops, towers or poles with proper enclosures to protect against the elements. This may involve leasing space, permits and structural assessments depending on the site.
System Configuration
Once the hardware is in place, the wireless bridge endpoints must be configured and optimized through software for attributes like frequencies, bandwidth, QoS, authentication, VLANs and more. Performance needs to be validated through end-to-end throughput testing.
Monitoring & Maintenance
Like any wireless infrastructure, point-to-point bridges require ongoing monitoring, maintenance and potential realignment over time. Environmental factors like severe weather, new construction or interference can degrade performance. Metro Tech Solutions provides monitoring services to proactively detect issues.
Why Utilize Metro Tech Solutions?
Given the complexities involved with deploying a reliable point-to-point wireless bridge, it’s highly advisable to work with Metro Tech Solutions that specializes in this technology versus attempting self-installation.
Not only does Metro Tech Solutions have deep expertise in areas like path analysis, antenna configuration and regulatory aspects – we also provide value through comprehensive site assessments, turnkey solutions and stand-behind guarantees on performance.
In the dynamic DFW metro, where construction and interference are constantly evolving, Metro Tech Solutions knows how to design and deploy wireless bridges optimized for long-term stability. We can also assist with expansion, redundancy planning, periodic realignments and more as your connectivity needs grow.
For rapidly connecting remote sites, temporary locations or establishing reliable backhaul links – point-to-point wireless bridges provide an extremely flexible and cost-effective networking solution. With Metro Tech Solutions’ installation services, businesses and organizations throughout DFW can implement high-bandwidth wireless connectivity to enhance productivity, operations and opportunity.