I've been browsing the forums and docs and haven't found much around what drives supported hardware. I have a batch of older hardware and radios such as RB433AHs and anything from SR9s to XR5s. It seems I can't use these for AREDN, though honestly, I haven't found anything that would even begin to persuade me to do so anyway. Other than a single channel in 2.4, there seems to be no rational reason to use AREDN. What am I missing?
For context, I come from a world where 802.11 is used for WISP, mobile services, and PtP. Can someone provide the Aha as to what AREDN delivers, on a tiny percentage of hardware, that one can't get on unlicensed/ISM bands?
For context, I come from a world where 802.11 is used for WISP, mobile services, and PtP. Can someone provide the Aha as to what AREDN delivers, on a tiny percentage of hardware, that one can't get on unlicensed/ISM bands?
Joe AE6XE will supply a much better answer, but the quick reply is:
1. Hardware must be supported by OpenWRT, since AREDN is based on it.
2. Only certain chip sets and their drivers (Atheros ATH9k for 802.11n and ATH10K for 802.11ac) are able to be controlled in a way that gives AREDN the capabilities it has.
3. We are working on supporting the newer 802.11ac devices and have a few of them mostly working. Again, the challenging area is working with the radio chip drivers.
Other than a single channel in 2.4, there seems to be no rational reason to use AREDN. What am I missing?
With older (<2015) equipment:
(Other than a single, part 97 only, channel in 2.4, there seems to be no rational reason to use AREDN. What am I missing?)
There are other channels.
With AREDN:
There are, currently, about 80 devices that can be loaded with AREDN firmwre.
Many are not 2.4 GHz devices, are on other bands, ergo there are other channels.
Other bands have multiple channels.
Chuck
In my world, I deploy connectivity in 700, 900, 2.4, formerly 3.5, and 5-6.4, with plans to deploy into 6.4-7 later this year. Other than the secondary allocation in 3.5, I'm not aware of additional spectrum that amateurs have access to. And given the sparse 3ghz equipment availability, deploying there is a challenge anyway. (I have an unused stack of XR3 radios, but AREDN doesn't run on the hardware they use, so that is a deadend.)
I'm simply trying to determine what AREDN delivers that would drive me to invest in a very shallow equipment pool running in what I perceive as a subset of available U-NII/ISM spectrum.
Hi, Matt:
Code of Federal Regulations, title 47, part 97.
Amateur Radio allocations include 902-928, 2390-2450, 3300-3500, 5650-5925 MHz.
On this web site's default page, (1) and (2) show frequencies/channels.
...
In my world, I deploy connectivity in 5650-5925 MHz.
I have tried and used 900, 2400, and 3400 MHz.
Our group has a multi-county high-speed intranet providing multiple services;
PBXs, cameras, audio-video-chat-file collaboration service,...
What is your pleasure?
-----
Please elaborate on your comment in your 1st post: "Other than a single channel in 2.4"
There is not a single channel in 2.4 GHz, for the Radio Amateur, there is one 10 MHz, two 20 MHz bandwidth channels, and
there are bands other than 2.4 GHz.
I hope this helps, Chuck