A point to point bridge can solve many problems, from sharing your internet connection with your neighbor to bridging buildings together many kilometres apart.
This blog has been made to run you through the process of configuring:
2x Cambium EPMP Force 300-16 Radios
Note: Basic knowledge of TCP/IP is required.
There are a wide range of models in the Force 300 Series, but this example is focused on a cost effective solution, that can offer decent throughput for a reasonable price for 5km or less Point to Point links with clear line of sight.
Whilst you could use this to do further than 5km there are better products in this range to suit this, ie Cambium Force 300-25
With Cambium EPMP radios, the default management IP addresses are 192.168.0.1 for Accesss Point Radios and 192.168.0.2 for Client/CPE Radios, the Force 300-16 is classed as a Client/CPE Radio, however is still ideal for PTP Links.
If you are configuring the device from a stand alone PC you will need to set a static IP address in the correct range, ie.
If you need help with setting a static IP Address, please see https://blog.gowifi.co.nz/2015/08/configuring-static-ip-address.html
The next step is to login to the radio via your web browser using the address 192.168.0.2
The default username and password is admin/admin, enter this in and click login.
We recommend upgrading the firmware before proceeding further.
Visit support.cambiumnetworks.com to obtain the latest firmware file.
Login to the radio and install the latest firmware image.
You will need to reboot the radio once the firmware file uploads.
Login back into the radio and navigate to Configuration - Radio.
Here you select Access Point, Country and an SSID of your choice (These need to be the same on both Radio).
20mhz channel width is suitable for most applications, if more throughput is required, set to 40mhz.
For the blog I have selected 5750mhz for the frequency, however ideally you should run a spectrum scan and choose the cleanest channel.
The Radio has a spectrum analyzer built in, under Tools, Spectrum Analyzer, once enabled give it a few minutes to generate the information.
Next is the System Tab:
You can select the time zone, give the radio a "Device Name"
More importantly at the bottom of this page you can change the Admin password and disable other accounts (By default there are 4 active accounts).
Network Tab:
Here you can set your management IP Address:
Also, within this network tab, set Management Access to Ethernet and Wireless.
Security Tab:
Set your WPA2 Pre-shared Key:
Now Save and Reboot:
You now need to login to the radio on its new IP address you specified.
It is now time to connect up the other radio for configuration.
You can leave the first radio powered up, so that when we set up the next radio, it can connect up and show that all is working well.
Once again, login and upgrade the firmware as shown above at the beginning of this blog.
Once this has been completed, navigate to Configuration - Radio.
It will be set to Subscriber Module, which for this 2nd radio is the correct option.
You only need to set the SSID, Wireless Security and WPA2 Pre-Shared Key that matches what you entered on the first radio.
System Tab: Same as the first radio.
Network Tab:
Assign your IP Address (Must be different to the First Radio)
Security Tab not needed on this Station Radio.
Once again, Save and Reboot.
Once this has rebooted, login with your chosen IP address and go to the Status Page.
It should look similar to this:
On this status page, on the bottom right we can see that Wireless Status is UP, which means we have a working Wireless Bridge.
You can now login to the First Radio and see the status on this too.
Wireless Status - UP and Registered Subscriber Modules: 1 Tells us that the bridge is working.
Further Information:
* 20mhz Channel width allows plenty of throughput for most applications without using up too much spectrum, typically this will give around 100MBPS on this radio.
* As these radios have the AC Chipset you get around 2x the data throughput of the older generation radios at the same channel width.
* There are other models in this EPMP Force 300 Range, some for longer link as an example.
* If you need advice on which products would suit your application, please contact us sales@gowifi.co.nz