MikroTik

Is anyone here installing long range (30KM+) MikroTik wifi based links? If you are, share your setup, pictures are very welcome. Tower height, distance, which equipment you used. The longer, the better, let's see the most impressive setups.

To make it more fun, everyone with photos will get MikroTik merch coupons (verification will be needed that this is actually link run or installed by yourself).

I have run a link for 2km+500m for quite a few years now, consisting of 2+2 dynadish.
The goal was to provide internet to a public hut in the forest.

Both "isp" and the hut have clear line of sight to a big radio mast I got access to. So the link is going to that mast, with a netpower to provide connectivity and POE to the dishes.

It has been rock stable, except for a PSU failure (probably lightning) destroying both dishes AND the switch. Now I have backup equipment.

What is the maximum throughput?

height: 3M
distance:4km
Antenna: LGH5

He said 30km or longer, guys.

I had a pair of dual-band LHG XL's at 32km, from the valley floor to a mountain top, but both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz links were pretty weak and we only got about 10-20Mbps out of it after maxing everything that we could (for US region). I don't think the noise floor helped (lots of WiFi around the valley).

41 Km here!

RB912UAG-5HPnD on one side, NetMetal 5 on the other side. mANT30 with radome, NV2. ~ 100megabit link. One side is on a church at 340m asl, other side is on a 30m tower at 0m asl.
Mauro

This brings back some good memories !


I am excited to see what people are able to do with the new WiFi 6 outdoor equipment.

Well.. I don't know how to prove that we installed these guys..but ok no problem. and here is all the Mikrotik Gold devices that conected to this column -( from other sites also)-..sorry but really I can't provide more info.

What about the distance of the longest links?

For me the Longest Distnace is 26.6 Km.

For me the Longest Distnace is 26.6 Km.

Please, for all of you, if someone wonders about this 26.6 km distance, I want to inform you that the speed is less than 40 Mbps. But it's okay for us -at least- for this specific location, so don't take this info as a standard to install LHG-5nD and expected a 500 Mbps at this distance.

For me the Longest Distnace is 26.6 Km.

Please, for all of you, if someone wonders about this 26.6 km distance, I want to inform you that the speed is less than 40 Mbps. But it's okay for us -at least- for this specific location, so don't take this info as a standard to install LHG-5nD and expected a 500 Mbps at this distance.

Can you share more technical stats? Like rx signal on both sides, modulations and how well are they holding etc.

Hi!

Not long range, ~ 4km link Netmetal-5 both 450 Mbps@5Ghz at peak,
planning to replace to 60Ghz Radio (no Mikrotik), but We keep CCR for routing.

The 5Ghz range is too noisy, usable spectrum is small, time to move to 60Ghz.

Hi,

a pair of "LHG XL 52 ac" in Austria in the 5GHz band and compliant unlicensed automatic power levels.
Distance is 45 km
RouterOS 7.12
Between a 50m high building and the remote on a hill.
Signal strength is roughly -87 dBmW

And the phy rate is variable between 12Mbits up to 28.8Mbps-20Mhz/2S/SGI
Mostly it is in between.

Using a different protocol than nv2 produced problems,
and some older firmware did too.

But in this current configuration the link is very stable even with bad weather.
Let me know if you have questions!

HAMNET in Germany 160km on 5 GHz
Link: https://hamnetdb.net/map.cgi

So according to your experience, It means that Mikrotik can't afford or does not have hardware that can establish the 30Km link as like the Capacity of Ubnt Airfiber or other products
Regards

miankamran7100 what are you talking about? see above posts

miankamran7100 probably means that while 30km+ is possible, it comes with very poor throughput compared to the competition.

He mentioned a 60GHz device, which is a different category. If you have poor performance on long range links, make a separate topic about it and we can help fine tune it.

Now I don't know what you are talking about. The only "device" he mentioned was "Ubnt Airfiber". A quick google tells me this is a 5ghz device.

Regardless, OP asked about 30km+ wireless connections. Any frequency range works - as long as it's MikroTik.

I did a quick google search and it says 60GHz 1Gbit device. Sorry I'm not an expert in other brands, but in 5GHz you can't get 1Gbit over 30+ KM

P.S: I'm the OP

There seems to be e.g. "airFiber 5 Mid-Band" and Ubnt says: "5 GHz, high-band 100+ km link range".

but that speed only applies when 60ghz is used, that 5ghz interface is for backup. So it's not fair to say other brands have much better speed

miankamran7100 probably means that while 30km+ is possible, it comes with very poor throughput compared to the competition.

Yes, I have shifted my WISP from ubnt to Mikrotik. But on a long-range like 25 to 30 KM there is no ptp solution in MIkrotik.

What to do?

Well, it depends on the speed you're aiming for at that distance. You could always get a pair of AirFiber XRs for $2000 or explore some other point-to-point brands using licensed bands. Additionally, for a 30km connection, you'll probably need antenna towers aprox 250 feet in height. The bottom line is: don't expect a fast, long-range connection to be inexpensive.

Btw, have you checked the ptp link calculator? https://mikrotik.com/calculator

Mind you, other than non-standard illegal amateur work, you can't expect anything good in terms of bandwidth from a 30km 5GHz link.
This is why the maximum connection distance I make is less than 16km.

When I need more distance, I use licensed Ceragon products on 13 / 18 GHz.

PS: AF60-LR 5Km 1.9Gbps (but usable only 1Gbps for ethernet cable) // AF5XHD@60Mhz 16Km 1024QAM 500Mbps

Mind you, other than non-standard illegal amateur work, you can't expect anything good in terms of bandwidth from a 30km 5GHz link.
This is why the maximum connection distance I make is less than 16km.

My current 27km AirFiber 5XHD link on 3' (1m) 34dBi antennas and 100MHz of spectrum (US UNII-3 5800MHz, which allows full power) is getting 484 down 160 up. It's not the 500/500 that Ubiquiti's ISP Design Center projects I should be able to get, but I'm sure with 4', 6', or 10' antennas, I'd probably see higher modulation.

It would be interesting to see what a NetBox AX or NetMetal AX could do with that link. Just ordered two NB5AX's to see how they do.

I did a quick google search and it says 60GHz 1Gbit device. Sorry I'm not an expert in other brands, but in 5GHz you can't get 1Gbit over 30+ KM

AirFiber is a line of devices, in 4.9GHz, 5GHz, 11GHz, 24GHz, and 60GHz. The 4/5 GHz radios can get around 500-700Mbps aggregate, 11GHz about 550Mbps full duplex, 24 770-1G full duplex, and 60GHz from 1500 to 2700 aggregate.

MikroTik's AC/AX radios are comparable to the AF5/5X/5XHD models.

My current 27km AirFiber 5XHD link on 3' (1m) 34dBi antennas and 100MHz of spectrum ...

This setup hardly qualifies as "wifi based link". While it does use frequency from U-NII-3 band, it obviously doesn't use 802.11-compliant channel width (which would be either 80MHz or 160MHz) ... and quite possibly doesn't comply to usual WiFi country regulations (it seems that for US it should be around 30dB EIRP). With antenna gain of 34dBi, EIRP of your system is more likely around 55dB. I'm not US citizen so I'm not supposed/obliged to know the regulatory limits in US, so I may be very much wrong about allowed EIRP though ;-)

Yes, this topic should be about WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax in 2 or 5GHz

Remaining within European regulations,
a link made in a perfect way (no mind the producer), at 30km, would have a signal of around -79dB in good weather, -88 in light drizzle...
So unless you break the law, there's no point in expecting anything good.
I repeat: With any producer, remaining within the legality.

Outside legality, a 100Km link is possible with mANT30 and NetMetal 921UAGS-5SHPacD at -63 in good weather and -95 if it rains on all 100km at the same time.

There are some national regulations wider than standard ETSI. In my country we have a max of 200W eirp for PtP in 5.8GHz. Not available in ROS7, yet.

My current 27km AirFiber 5XHD link on 3' (1m) 34dBi antennas and 100MHz of spectrum ...

This setup hardly qualifies as "wifi based link". While it does use frequency from U-NII-3 band, it obviously doesn't use 802.11-compliant channel width (which would be either 80MHz or 160MHz) ... and quite possibly doesn't comply to usual WiFi country regulations (it seems that for US it should be around 30dB EIRP).

I think you guys missed the point of my AF5XHD post.

Normis asked for MikroTik Wifi-based links that are 30km or longer. The first few posts are people posting much shorter links. I posted about a 32km link I built with MikroTik gear, but it was pretty poor (and it was only in place to test some modifications we had made). Other >30km links posted likewise have unremarkable throughput results.

Subsequently, some posters suggested you can't do anything worthwhile in 5GHz at that range. Well, with 30dBm, you're right. But some regulatory bodies allow for more power in 5.2/5.8, and I posted about real world experience that suggests you can indeed get decent bandwidth out of 5GHz.

In the US, DFS range is limited to 30dBm. The FCC reconsidered rules for U-NII-1 (5150-5250) and U-NII-3 (5725-5850) a decade ago. Max conducted power is 1W out of the radio. While max PTMP in 5.2/5.8 is 4W (36dBm), for U-NII-1, max EIRP for PTP is 200W (53dBm), and for U-NII-3, there is no PTP gain limit (https://transition.fcc.gov/bureaus/oet/ ... 014-TN.pdf, https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-14-30A1.pdf).

My LTU-based AF5XHD's get a similar bits/Hz as 802.11ac gear. To be fair, I went ahead and put the Rocket Prism 5AC into the calculator using the same antennas my LTU radios are using, and it shows a theoretical aggregate throughput of 662Mbps across 80MHz (I'm getting 645 on 100MHz). 802.11ax is supposed to do better, and indeed, on the bench, I get up to 800Mbps over 80MHz with hAP AX3 to my phone or laptop. Other US-based WISPs have reported their Cambium 802.11ax-based deployments are pushing 400-700Mbps across long distances.

So, to bring it (mostly) back on topic, I've ordered two NetBox 5AX's I'll be testing at 27km (close to but not quite 30km) with 3' dishes. What I can do with those should easily translate to 30km with only a small degradation in performance.

So, to bring it (mostly) back on topic, I've ordered two NetBox 5AX's I'll be testing at 27km (close to but not quite 30km) with 3' dishes. What I can do with those should easily translate to 30km with only a small degradation in performance.

looking forward to see you results here.
if reasonable, i then also have some new tools from mikrotik for myself to deploy. (some far customer regions to upgrade to wireless to move away from old DSL lines with ~2mbit/s)

A pair of "LHG XL 52 ac" in Austria in the 5GHz band and compliant unlicensed automatic power levels.
Distance is 45 km

Here is a picture of one side of my 45km link:



@normis: Would be happy to take any Mikrotik merch voucher off your hands :D

A pair of "LHG XL 52 ac" in Austria in the 5GHz band and compliant unlicensed automatic power levels.
Distance is 45 km

Here is a picture of one side of my 45km link:

Show us the stats in Winbox :)

I haven't had the chance to set up a super long-range MikroTik link myself, but I've been fascinated by the setups I've seen. It's all about that clear line of sight and finding the perfect tower height to avoid any obstacles. I've heard high-gain antennas can really make a difference in extending the range.

OK, I received my two NetBox 5 AX's and installed them at 19.3km with 26dBi 2'/600mm antennas (Siklu dual-band 5GHz/80GHz). I expected to be able to get a decent amount of throughput based on MikroTik's link calculator, but with the way MikroTik "nerfs" the radio TX power, it's no wonder they aren't used in many long range PTP links.

No matter what channel you're using, if you select United States and put in the actual antenna gain, the radio drops TX power to where the system EIRP maxes out at 30dB, despite 36dB allowed in U-NII-1 and U-NII-3 for PTMP, and much higher for PTP. I've seen this on routers as well (hAP AC/AX series), so something is wrong/woefully out of date with the power level rules.

After some tweaking and fiddling and testing, I found I could get up to 300Mbps on this link, but not without breaking some rules.

These tests were conducted with 7.14.3 and 7.15rc4.

If anyone is serious about getting to 30km or more with MikroTik radios, you're going to need big dishes (1-2m, 3-6') and a jurisdiction that allows for high-power TX.

EDIT: With US selected, the radio acts like it's connected to a 13dB antenna, unless you specify an antenna larger than 7dB, at which points it starts throttling TX power (there's still 6dB left but I don't know the reasoning...). So you can't get maximum TX power as a PTMP AP in U-NII-2 and U-NII-3 unless you use a 13dBi antenna or larger.

Mk not a product to be used on ptp links ,use mimosa c5c of 30km +links or even the b5x very good preformance

Is Wifi 7 with 6GHz radio could help to avoid noisy 5Ghz channels, but will manufacturer will go to it ?

Same issue here as @sirbryan caught. The Netbox AX uses incorrect United States country rules, capping TX at 23dBm regardless of the set antenna gain - preventing us from being able to make use of our 15km PtP link on higher-end channels which would normally allow for much greater EIRP. The radios themselves are otherwise quite capable, and work well at short distances, but we need that fixed to be able to use them for any long distance links.

Same issue here as @sirbryan caught. The Netbox AX uses incorrect United States country rules, capping TX at 23dBm regardless of the set antenna gain - preventing us from being able to make use of our 15km PtP link on higher-end channels which would normally allow for much greater EIRP. The radios themselves are otherwise quite capable, and work well at short distances, but we need that fixed to be able to use them for any long distance links.

What’s the SUP for this so we can reference it? This seems like a critical bug that should hopefully be easy for them to address, hopefully in time for 7.15 if treated as urgently as it likely should be.

What’s the SUP for this so we can reference it? This seems like a critical bug that should hopefully be easy for them to address, hopefully in time for 7.15 if treated as urgently as it likely should be.

Not a bug. It's by design. See the FCC paperwork for these radios. They would have to get it certified again if they made changes. They did add full band support for the OmniTik's, which I use as backup AP's with the original dual-band Cube 60's with AC radios in them, and those are locked to U-NII-3, despite the whole band being available for years. It's really frustrating.

Now, if they release a US model of the NetBox/NetMetal 5AX's, like they have for the hAP's, then that would be acceptable, so long as maximum power levels are attainable.

hello guys
we have 57km ptp wireless link with netmetal5
is it longest ?

Post a picture of equipment. :)


Add the picture to the post using Attachments, not just a link to en external site.

Post a picture of equipment. :)

Add the picture to the post using Attachments, not just a link to en external site.

i didn't take picture and i dont have access to the area to take picture
furthermore i use 34db dish antena with netmetal5

i did , thanks

I think in my country with radio on full effect and 34db antenna the erpi will surpass the legal limit for use of some concession from the government.

Sup Normis. Couple years ago I was working with WISP in Kaluga, Russia, they were using 25-30 km 5 ghz links as well as 5-10-20 km. The best results was with netbox and mant with sleeve, but for the longest link we had to use cambium\ligowave. LHG was performing at 50-60% of announced capacity at 10-15 km link. 60 ghz LHG was good up to 2 km with great speed until rains came :D So yeah 5 ghz backup with cubes is a good idea.
But again such a long distance require proper placement and high grounds.

The record is more than 300Km...
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16548#p78102

Distance is 45 km
...
And the phy rate is variable between 12Mbits up to 28.8Mbps-20Mhz/2S/SGI

It is necessary to disable the short guard interval (SGI) when using the equipment in point-to-point mode.
guard-interval=long

I’ve got a 40km MikroTik link running with two SXT Lite5s. My towers are around 15 meters high, and the setup has been super reliable for a few months now. Here’s a shot of my setup—would love to see what others have going on!

Picture missing. Click Full Editor and use Attachements and put picture in the post. Do not use links.

Normis - you asked for greater than (30KM+) MikroTik wifi based links?

I recently posted my greater than 30KM Mikrotik link in the Mikrotik forum --> Solving 20km wireless link issues

This is a new 31km wireless link I configured yesterday. ( most of the link is over water !!! )
At both ends of the wireless link , I am using the following:
- RB922UAGS-5HPacD
- RF-Elements twist-port dish antennas
- Wireless-Protocol: nv2 ( 802.11 will not connect at this distance )
- NV2 TDMA-Period-Size: 4ms
- NV2 Cell-Radius: 32
- NV2 Downlink-Ratio: 80
- Hw-Retries: one side is 7 and other side is 15 ( I am still dialing this in for best reliable throughput ) ( now 15 & 15 )

-- Tower site elevation: 2973 feet + 80-foot level on a 120-foot tower
-- Remote site elevation: 2345 feet + 20-foot level on top of a house ( FYI - my house )
-- Lake level: 2142
-- Average signal height above ground near both ends of the link: 60+ feet

This link has not been properly aligned yet - initial aiming of antennas was best guess where to point the antennas.

The link appears somewhat stable and useable.


North Idaho Tom Jones

Here is long long long long range microwave link !!!

24 billion kilometers 15 billion miles

Voyager 1
A signal sent from Earth takes nearly 23 hours to reach Voyager 1.
When a ping is sent , you can expect a received ping reply in about 46 hours.

Voyager 1 transmit speed about 160 bit/s.
Voyager 1 maximum transmit power about 23-Watts.
Earth received signal strength about a billionth of a billionth of a watt ( .0000000000000000001 Watts aka -160 dBm )

To send a signal from Earth to voyager requires:
- about a 20 kw transmitter using the Deep Space Network dish antennas.
- If this Earth transmitter was powered using 24 Volts , it require an almost 900-Amp 24-Volt power supply ( just a tad bit larger than a Mikrotik 24-V power supply.

Not Mikrotik microwave hardware

Not Mikrotik microwave hardware

You sure?

Not Mikrotik microwave hardware

You sure?

I'm sure , just b4 posting , I pointed my mANT30 PA dish with a RB921UAGS-5SHPacT at Voyager 1 and performed a Wireless-Scan & Snooper , and I did not see any signals in the -160 db range that looked like it was a Mikrotik RB on Voyager 1.

I _think_ Voyager was already launched before anyone even thought about starting Mikrotik ... so pretty sure there is no RB on board

50km link ( 30-miles )

Today , I'm going to try and bring up a microwave ( mANT30 PA dish with a RB921UAGS-5SHPacT ) 50km link ( 30-miles ).
This link will eventually be my secondary ( somewhat out-of-band ) fall-back link after the fiber is connected in about 30-ish days.
After the microwave link is dialed in and properly aimed , I will post my setting and results.

During the Costa Concordia tragedy I had a temporary ~40km link to provide internet from the mainland to the company that was handling the recovery.
Now things have changed a bit and I always make links with licensed frequencies, because doing them (long distance) with any shared frequency device is ridiculous...
My personal record, just for fun, is 56Km.

The current "certified" record is ~300Km
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16548#p78102

I would love to play around with these types of links, and have plenty of good use for links in the 1-10km (I think in miles, but I'll adapt).

Problem is, I've got nothing but mountains and trees for miles in all directions, so unless I erect 200' towers, my line of sight is limited to 1/2 km.

I would love to play around with these types of links, and have plenty of good use for links in the 1-10km (I think in miles, but I'll adapt).

Problem is, I've got nothing but mountains and trees for miles in all directions, so unless I erect 200' towers, my line of sight is limited to 1/2 km.

Re: ... I've got nothing but mountains ...
Mountains can be a really good thing - providing you are not trying to do a Microwave shot though a mountain.
My 31-km ling and my new 51-km link are both have 1-half of the links on top of mountains. Otherwise I would need some really tall towers.
About my new 51-km link , I have it connected at -69 ( only one side is properly aimed so far .. ).

Thought I would post an update on the new 50-km link I turned up last Friday.

First try , it connected on nv2.
Only one side of this long-distance link is aimed for best signal. The other remote side has not been properly aimed in yet. (( The plan was to aim it today but it is snowing here right now and at the top of the 4200 mountain ( the not properly aimed yet side ) , it is snowing hard right now.

I thought I would share some information on this link. My speedtest measurements were made a few moments ago ( snowing ).
My image shows the link information and speedtest for nv2 and for nstream. This link was made using stock Mikrotik equipment.

Note that nstream has a higher CCQ but less UDP Upload speed. So for me the question is " Should I pick speed over CCQ ? "
Note - this link is intended as an out-of-band fall-back link if/when the fiber link ever goes down.

Back in October , I posted some information about a long-distance link I made from my tower to my home which was 31-km in distance.
Yesterday afternoon , we had some serious high winds ( 50+ mph ) and the winds pushed my home dish antenna so that it is now pointing straight up to the stars. The pipe mount hinged 90-degres , so now the microwave dish is a bird-bath.
The amazing part is I still have a link at 31-km , a really super weak link but it is still a link at -93-dBm with a CCQ of 5 to 10 and a throughput of almost 6-Meg.

North Idaho Tom Jones

Mikrotik's FT8 transmission precursor ... good job