Subscriber Discussion

How Well Will Long Range 900 Mhz Industrial Radio For Camera Transmission Work?

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Lynn Harold
Mar 27, 2018

Has anyone used products from Digi or other manufacturers for long range RF transmissions at 900 MHz?  I am designing a project for a number of cameras to be installed in county parks where only power is available.  I was considering using LTE but that can be expensive and bandwidth may be insufficient.  The industrial radio I am considering (Digi XLR Pro, model XL9-UA) claims up to 3.2Mbps throughput @ 1 Watt, but if I constrain the cameras to 2Mbps, I might be OK.  This solution doesn't solve a backhaul problem for recording or viewing multiple cameras live since the head-end would have the same radio.  I have no line of sight, cannot erect towers, and according to Google, the worst-case straight-line distance is almost 5 miles.  I've advised the client that local recording would be best, with an NVR at each park but remote access may still be a challenge.

I am sure I can solve the recording/streaming issue, just looking for alternatives where WiFi may not be possible (distances) and LTE is not practical.  Thanks.

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Ethan Ace
Mar 27, 2018

Ubiquiti claims 20km range using their 2x2 900MHz Yagi with a Rocket M radio. That is a LOS spec, I'm sure. They are much higher throughput, though (they claim 90 Mb/s usable at that range). I have personally seen at least ~25 Mb/s through them without issues. But a lot is going to depend on just how many obstructions you have. 

Also, you may want to consider white space wireless. It uses much lower frequencies which were freed up when TV went digital (between 54 and 806 MHz) which leads to much better penetration. That update is old, but Carlson Wireless has increased speeds significantly, and are claiming 24 Mb/s on clients, now. There are a few other providers but they were one of the first and seem to have progressed most.

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Undisclosed Integrator #2
Mar 28, 2018

It is definitely worth testing this equipment but I have used the Ubiquiti M Radios with those 900MHz yagis. Three different installs about 1,200 - 2,000 feet. Non line of site on all of them and each had about 700 feet of tree foliage to get through, no terrain though. Got ~70 - 90 Mbps through put on  them and they are very reliable. Links have been up for 3-4 years with 2 outages on one link due to very wet and heavy snow. My guess is that the weight of the snow bowed the antenna's down so that the rf energy was aiming too far down.

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Michael Miller
Mar 27, 2018

 I would deffently test this before you deploy.  Lots of interference in the 900Mhz that you might have to deal with depending on the area. 

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Chad Rohde
Mar 28, 2018

I agree with Mr. Ace and Mr. Miller. And would say the interference or lack of spectrum available in the unlicensed 900Mhz being your biggest problem.

Even if you test before you deploy, I wouldn't bet on the noise floor to stay the same. And keep in mind if you need multiple APs you need to test with multiple APs.

If your tests go well, and you plan on using equipment like Ubiquiti, then you have to worry about the upper and lower channels bleeding over into the licensed spectrum. Which basically means you will lose a 10Mhz channel on the lower or upper end if there is somebody using the licensed band. 

I would recommend avoiding unlicensed 900 and use it as a last resort. 5 miles no line of site isn't doable in the unlicensed band anyway. 

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Ralph Azzi
Mar 28, 2018
IPVMU Certified

Take a look on the ComNet NWK1 P2P radios with up to 95Mbps and lifetime warranty.

Up to 2 miles P2P  distance , industrially hardened 5 Ghz wireless kit radios

 

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Undisclosed End User #1
Mar 28, 2018

I have strong doubts about getting a signal with no LOS, even with 900mhz.  It's possible, but tough.  This might end up being a mesh job if one site can see another, that can see another.  Mesh is a lot more expensive and complex to set up though.  I'll echo what everyone else said,  test the radios at the sites beforehand.

 

You're probably going to end up going to LTE.  Be real careful on that though. As you mentioned, it's expensive and data caps make it more expensive.

 

You mentioned it's at a park. If it's a state park and you are working with a state agency, see if they have a contract with ATT or Verizion and see what sort of deal they can get you on data cards. Most gov't contracts have very good data rates and can get you things like static IP addresses and priority service.  A camera on a pole with a hardened LTE router is going to be a lot faster and easier to set up than trying to mess with a wireless access point with no LOS. 

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Jeffrey Hinckley
Mar 28, 2018

In this instance, I would probably use an edge based recording method (Exacq Edge) with sdxc storage along with a lower resolution rtsp or tcp back to the headend.  Reduce the maximum modulation on the radios.  You could even use Exacq Edge archiving for activity events back to NAS at the headend.  900 Mhz is actually classified as a radio wave, not a microwave.  700-800 Mhz PCS and 2-way use quite a bit of power, which could cause continuous or occasional interference.

You may also be better served with lower bandwidth FHSS (mds) for better reliability for client access, archiving, or low resolution streams. I would not rely on Non-line of site links for H.264, but may be successful with JPEG TCP transmissions 1-2 fps.  (I would not count on getting all of the frames).  You could slowly buffer and access edge storage at a high framerate h.264/h.265 recording.

Note:At one stage of my career, I was an RF Engineer.  Nowadays, I use mainly Ubiquiti for security applications.

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