Replacing MP Deployment

[T Gillett]

Hi Tad

As well as Ubiquiti, you might also look at products from Open Mesh (openmesh.com) and Mikrotik (mikrotik.com). No doubt there are also other manufacturers as well.

If you can get suitable OpenWrt based routers you can set them up to mesh fairly easily.

GL.iNet (gl-inet.com) have a range of small OpenWrt based routers and have recently released a meshable dual band router GL-B1300.

Dragino (dragino.com) have manufactured VT hardware in the past and offer several meshable OpenWrt based routers.

Be aware that manufacturers of APs using proprietary firmware have introduced measures to prevent installation of third party firmware like OpenWrt, so you need to be able to use the OEM firmware for your deployment.

One of the challenges you may face is the power consumption of typical commercial devices, particularly if they are using 5GHz as well as 2.4GHz.

Regards

Terry

On Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 2:40 PM, DE 'Tad' Heckaman III <doug...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've got an old MP deployment that needs fixing/replacement (it's on the other side of the planet so I don't know what's wrong with it, local resources suspect a power issue or a lightning strike). Regardless, I'd like to upgrade to something more modern. This is literally in a jungle with just Solar/batteries to power it (not full time), so looking for a power efficient outdoor ready unit that can mesh, and take unregulated input voltages. Doesn't need any phone support. What's the best hardware kit for this role? I'm familiar with Ubiquiti equipment, and we don't have very high speed internet at all, so don't really need super-high performance. I'm considering just deploying a Unifi Mesh, since it's a pretty small deployment, but I'm concerned about how the mesh would work long term without a controller to arrange the mesh between the individual units.