Mimosa Networks Podcast #2: Making WISPs Great Again - How to Start a WISP

[@mmutlugun]

Definitely very helpful content. Thank you guys, keep up the show.

[@CraigMullins1]

How do I know how much front to back spacing we need between the sectors? Do we use the same SSID for all sectors? What wireless channels would we use say for 2.4 GHz? If a customer is on the edge of signal between 2 sectors and they keep switching between sectors, how do we keep them from losing their connection (disconnects to Netflix or FTP)? In your example at 16:13 minutes, you have 6 sectors, how do you choose what channel to use for each sector? What happens if someone else you don’t know or can’t control uses the same channel that one of your sectors is on and it’s causing interference & they have auto channel selection and they keep swapping channels?

[@dustinstock9556]

Hi Craig! Thanks for the questions. 1. Front to Back spacing: So Mimosa recommends that you have at least 10 feet of spacing between your radios. We also realize that is almost impossible, so as much spacing as possible. 2. Same SSIDs: I would never recommend using the same SSID for sectors on a tower. You run the risk of clients swapping back and forth causing slowed speeds or disconnects. 3. We don't have any 2.4GHz equipment - we only use 2.4GHz for management WIFI on some of our radios (B24, B5, B5c, A5, and A5c.) If you're referring to 5GHz WIFI, then you should use "Standard WIFI Channels" to help mitigate any interference and to not cause interference for others. 4. Edge of Sector Clients: This won't be an issue as long as you don't use the same SSID for each sector. We do not have a "Lock MAC" feature which would lock your client to a certain AP. The only reason you would want to use the same SSID for all sectors if when you lose a sector, your clients would connect to another sector. 5. 6 Sector Spectrum: When you are co-locating 6 sectors on a tower, you would want to use an "A, B, C" type channel plan. Each sector A would be back to back to one another, while each B and C sectors would also be back to back to each other. So lets say Sector 1 (A) and Sector 4 (A) are on 5810, Sector 2 (B) and Sector 5 (B) are 5150, and Sector 3 (C) and Sector 6 (C) are on 5750. If you would like a drawing for this, please email me at [e-mail] and I'll draw something out. Sometimes it's easier to understand when you see it on paper. 6. Interference from Someone else: One strategy would be to put your affected sector(s) on Auto-channel as well, but I personally dislike auto-channel. If the competition has a radio on auto-channel, hopefully it's smart enough to park on a frequency that doesn't have interference (from your sector). I have seen some radio vendors have poor auto-channel features, so their radios don't care. At this point, you should try selecting another clean channel. If the problem persists, you might want to change the downtilt of your antenna (or to a different type of antenna) to help combat the interference coming in. The more downtilt you apply to your antenna, the less distance your signal will travel. If you have identified the tower/location that this interference is coming from, the better you can plan what you need to do. Also it would be good to talk to the interferer and see if you two can work out a channel plan together. Ultimately you and they are interfering with each other and causing customers on both sides to be affected. The customer should always be top priority of either provider!

[@quickslogenbotswana9032]

Super helpful!

[@fairsitetechnologies9813]

Eric’s audio level fluctuates a lot, but I’m loving the show!

[@dustinstock9556]

Yeah working on trying to get him to sit still some!

[@saveround]

will centurylink lease you a gigabit line if you intend to offer internet in their area and be competitive with them?

[@dustinstock9556]

Yes. They are still making money off of you and those customers.

[@alexcurtis2023]

Ya they will, they still make money off you and depending on the deal you make with them they might make more money than what they would off the customers. We have a couple peers and 1 of the peers (cogent) we pay .25cents per m and then we also sell a connection to another ISP for $14.00....way above market value but we do also help them with a ton of stuff.

[@saeedhaghighiurmia6481]

Hi thanks for the video but i cant get more than 400mbps simultaneous throughput on 1.5 mile link with 27dbi dish. What could be the problem??

[@MimosaCo]

Hello Saeed! Please reach out to our support team here: mimosa.co/support

[@setbit-servicosformacao9117]

I am trying to become a wisp also....can you recommend some simple applicatios to authenticate user and billing them....also something yo regulate bandwidth/speed for the subscribers Thanks in advance

[@MimosaCo]

Take a look at Sonar (sonar.software) or Powercode for billing. As for regulating bandwidth, you can do that in our product GUI's.

[@michaelprince5255]

Your explanation of SLAs and 5 9s is not quite right, it does not measure how much packet loss you might incurr but how much outage time you will have. For a SLA of 99.999 you will have less than 5.26 minutes of downtime in a years time. The SLA agreement addresses compensation for service outages as well. I had a client down for an entire month (2 bonded T1s) had them on a broadband failover while provider rebuilt the circuit to their premise. The SLA aggreement only gave them back 50% of the MRC.

[@alexcurtis2023]

Ya our SLAs are for outage time, we also have to hold a 99.999

[@parteeksharma4193]

Maybe I am talking lame. But How does the new ISP able provide gbps of speed to their customers? How much bandwidth do they need to do that? I don't know how's this badwidth purchase and distribution system actually works and generate money for tier 3 wisps

[@MimosaCo]

It all depends on the number of subscribers or customers you have, and the package you provide to them. It could be 1 Mbps or 50 Mbps. Your backbone internet connection needs to be able to support your entire network.

[@alexcurtis2023]

Just to give you a picture, we have two 10Gb backbone links, we only use one and the other is for failover, we have 20 thousand subscribers and we have over 1500 customers with 1Gb to their home, at the peak hours our backbone link only hits about 6Gb. This is ok because no one is able to fully utilize the bandwidth at their home and not everyone is using a lot of bandwidth at once. Traffic engineering comes into play also. I wish I could post pictures on here, so I can show you our network map and a couple of the configs on our links

[@silviomhula5837]

Does Mimos offers online training?

[@MimosaCo]

Not at the moment, but a lot of our distributors and resellers offer it. Locate one near you by visiting mimosa.co/how-to-buy

[@apricotcomputers3943]

HELLO

[@vk2ycj]

Go WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter - for HAM Radio)

[@FredGarvin-gr3vx]

Hello VK2YCJ and Fairsite- Thanks for the feedback! I'm still learning the ropes with this crazy video stuff. And, will look for you on 20m WSJT modes. 73, Eric n6spp

[@ericthompson3172]

Just testing my new KZbin subscription, Eric n6spp