MikroTik

Hi - I'm thinking of switching from a "flat" network (using smartbridges and all backhaul and access points using 2.4) to using a "routed" mikrotik network - by mounting the routerboard (I think I'll use the new 500 series) on the tower and using 5.8 mini-pci cards for backhaul and 2.4 mini-pci cards (for now) for access points.

Does anyone have experience with two 5.8 cards and a 2.4 card on the same routerboard. I'll make sure that the antennas have as much seperation as possible, and I'll choose different channels for each of the backhauls. Do the units run hot?

The limitation here will be the amount of current that the RB500 can deliver. There have been lots of posts about this in the wireless section. Add up the total maximum current draw or power consumption of the cards you want to use and then check what the RB500 can deliver to the slots. IIRC this is not documentated well in the RB500 specs so you may need to check with support@mikrotik.com

The RB500 can deliver full mpci spec power (2W per mpci slot) to all slots -- up to six with the daughterboard installed.

John

Since the SR-5 card draws a maximum 4.62W as detailed here:

http://www.ubnt.com/sr5/sr5_datasheet.pdf

Then the card is not compatible with RB500 which can deliver only 2W per mpci slot. This is contrary to what is stated here:

http://www.mikrotik.com/

Please clarify.

you can use one SR5 card plus two 100mW cards in a RB500 + daughterboard. apparently they have even tested two SR5's in RB500 in it's onboard miniPCI slots.

You should be able to use two SR5 cards on the onboard slots but then you should not install any other minipci cards. You should also be able to use all 6 standard minipci cards that consume not more than 2W. You can also try to combine something.

So, the RB500 is not limited to 2w per mpci slot? But there is a total power that can be drawn by all mpci slots combined? What is this total power?

14W I believe, according to the specs for the board, and the board itself uses 2-3W without any cards installed. The specs are available at routerboard.com the last time I checked.

erikturk: Why deploy a routed network instead of flat? I ask becuase I am looking at simular solutions.

-Tom

I think for two reasons (Some one tell me if I'm correct....)

1. At some point, the cross-network broadcasts get too "much" and would start to impact my back-haul bandwidth.

2. I would imagine that there would be security issues if all the traffic from each end of the network were visible to each customer. This way I can segment the traffic by access point, take out all the non-routable traffic (which wouldn't get past the mikrotik at my gateway anyway, and keep all the traffic local to a pop that should stay local to a pop.

Erik

http://www.roamad.com are using mikrotik equipments to support their own os, and they mention someting like they can actually support up to 8 radio per node.
so i think it will be ok just to support 3 radios

regards

http://www.roamad.com are using mikrotik equipments to support their own os, and they mention someting like they can actually support up to 8 radio per node.
so i think it will be ok just to support 3 radios

regards

Can anyone confirm this?