Equipment
P2P and P2MP Links
Radio transport between buildings and sites, where fibre is not feasible or not worth it.
When two points must be connected and the ground route crosses a street, a river or someone else’s land, a radio link is usually the fastest and cheapest answer. Point-to-point joins two sites; point-to-multipoint feeds several outlying sites from one hub.
The quality of a radio link is settled before any hardware is bought: by line of sight, by mast height and stability, by the band chosen, and by how much interference is already in the air there. Which is why every link starts with a site survey and a path study, not with a model number.
What to weigh up
- Distance, and whether there is clear line of sight.
- Required capacity, and whether the traffic is symmetric.
- Frequency band and the interference floor at the site.
- Weather exposure, mast requirements and lightning protection.