UniFi Building Bridge

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A look at the UniFi Building Bridge (model UBB-US). The UBB-US is a pair of pre-configured 60GHz radios with 5GHz backup.
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Twitter: @CrosstalkSol
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KZbin: goo.gl/g4G58M

[@NiklasRooms]

The great thing is we finally have a wireless brige we can connect into our Unifi Controller! I hope they include other models too!

[@futurecactus]

Love this packaging because I don't get attached to it, I hate throwing out nice packaging.

[@sasantarom]

Throwing away packagings help you more than what you find in them.

[@goyadressunofficial]

Chris would just fling it onto the floor if it was nice.

[@hainesk967]

The color changing LEDs would be useful if there are several on the same pole, like when connecting a main building to 2 or more other buildings so you know which antenna is for which building without having to eyeball it.

[@Infesteringmole]

"I feel a tingle" - Chris 2019

[@AB-om4ls]

The GPS receiver is used to gather a timing reference for the modulator and demodulator on the antenna. They have their own local oscillator but each oscillator from the opposing antennas need to by synchronized.

[@johnheller2311]

I have eight sets of these installed at a hotel complex, linking accommodation blocks back to the reception block. They have been very effective so far for the last 6 months. One thing to note though is to install the links in a zig jag pattern to avoid overthrow, have at least 50cm between UBB units (on the same pole) to avoid interface. Do a channel plan so that adjacent links don't use the same 60 GHz channels. You won't get 100 percent link quality unless you follow these steps, but rather 66 percent or less, and have weird issues like dropouts.

[@rabihnaser7945]

Will be better to use different channels

[@ArticulatedHypernova]

7:18 It is not just you. There's a noticeable "fuzz" when I stick my hand between them.

[@jevonsmith505]

Great review...Would love to see a maximum distance test at 60Ghz

[@CrosstalkSolutions]

Thanks!

[@johnheller9405]

To be a valid throughput test, you should test a direct wire connection between your workstation and the linux server. YOu will propably find that even with a direct connection, you can't get any more data throughput. You would need several workstations talking to several iperf servers to saturate the link

[@jerryjerry3045]

I think one installation upgrade on this setup is the shielded CAT6 they recommend. I've done a 3 mile point to point with Air Fiber 5XHD and the grounding , surge protectors and shielded CAT6 has a noticeable effect. I actually am deploying one of these UBB-US on a 400ft building to building span in a few weeks. Computer LAB on receiver side is going to push the limits and put this thing to the test. Let us know if you find the tweaks to push a full asynchronous Gigabit link!

[@flcusat]

Jerry, did you finish this project? How did it go?

[@brandonmartin9564]

pour one out for Jerry@@flcusat

[@nkojima]

the force is strong with 60ghz, can feel it in my head too

[@MrKirkSaywell]

You can use the -R switch on iperf3 to reverse the data transmission without having to switch between consoles

[@CrosstalkSolutions]

Great tip - thanks!

[@kukulcantw]

@@CrosstalkSolutions Can you run iperf3 -P 4 ?

[@patrickbuswell]

I used to with as a news cameraman and whenever we had to set an microwave uplink to the station, we could totally feel the heat when passing or waving our hands in front of it. We sometimes had to bounce the signal off a building and if someone was by the window, he could also feel some heat hehe.

[@Mark_The_Mayven]

I’m wondering if the degradation of signal strength was poor alignment on the narrower freq?? If so, re-alignment would increase the bandwidth.

[@BoguschMedia]

Can you compare this to nanostations, nanobeams and/or litebeams?

[@annettehanshaw8005]

If you have 2 or more bridges, changing led color can be used to identify each bridge without use "Identify" option in Unifi Controller.

[@rjtumble]

The 14 year old version of me really digs the label on that box. :)

[@jerryjerry3045]

LOL took me asec but I get it ha ha

[@webluke]

We use the Mikrotik Wireless Wire 60Ghz pairs in our WISP, they work good for short distances. Actually hooked up some today. The 60 and 24 Ghz radios when in our office when setting them up, I do feel a little strange after sitting around them. I do think we may use the Unifi Building Bridge because it would hook into our ISP Unifi network easy, so the extra cost for easy of setup may be worth it.

[@MikePowlas]

I think that the CH width will come in play when the link is long-range. As for the color picking, I feel it will be a good thing to have when you have more than one on the tower and able to ID each one by color.

[@nappingnomads]

You used channel 2, but did it have channel 3,4,5? What kind of beam width? Was it beamforming? Did it have a signal meter to help point it ? Most 60ghz is extremely sensitive to the aim. Generally channel two is in the worst part of the spectrum with max O2 attenuation, it may have hit a gig in 64mghz or higher if it has it. Tik can do 66ghz and cambium wave and siklu are pushing higher freq with next releases so it would be interesting if UBnt follows with upper 60 bands too.

[@glasshalfempty1984]

This information is very useful, thank you! Trying to get a wireless 60 Ghz solution and I need the HIGHEST throughput possible. It's frustrating trying to figure out what will be best to buy :\

[@johnheller9405]

I just deployed my first set. They work really nice, but be patient when trying to set them up. They take a long time to update and adopt

[@itsupport8857]

So it's the "Giga Beam", UniFi version. I was so close to ordering this package but decided on the AirMax Giga Beams since I knew for definite I could run VLAN's over the bridge with the conventional UI in AirOS. Now, with that said, can you manually allow these to pass VLAN's over the bridge? I don't see why they wouldn't allow this feature, along with a management VLAN but I didn't want to gamble with a 50/50 chance in ordering these for nearly twice the money and that not be a ready feature possibly.

[@dariantel]

i like that it is unifi, nice to have everything in one controller

[@EdwardDrachenbergJr]

The one time they didn't provide a quick start guide that Chris normally throws away, he notices lol.

[@DaveLucre]

When it says 1.75Gbps, it's referring to total. E.g. a 1Gbps ethernet interface is actually 2Gbps, 1Gbps each direction. Right?

[@JamesHaitch]

Dave Lucre correct. He doesn't understand full and half duplex networking well in the video.

[@glasshalfempty1984]

10:29 This kind of stuff is always confusing because the ethernet controller is 1 Gigabit, but that's 1 Gigabit both ways simultaneously or 2 Gbps throughput. So maybe it's saying it's 1.75 Gbps total capacity as in the equivalent of if it were full duplex. So it can send and receive at the same time at rates of about 800-ish Mbps. That's what I would assume anyway. Which would be absolutely fantastic.

[@andrewlangley2221]

I could see the RGB led being useful if you have multiple links and color coding them.

[@davidg1838]

Nice to have PtP in the Unifi range but still over-priced, given the 60GHz GigaBeam is way cheaper.

[@cdoublejj]

what awesome packaging, plain borwn boxes always have the best gear

[@xVertigo101]

My home Unifi addiction resulted in Two Nano beam M5's then Nanobeam Gen2 5Ghz followed by two Building to Building bridges -_- 4 Acres of full Wifi with UAP-AC-M and Uap-Ac-Pro. so much fun!

[@glasshalfempty1984]

17:03 You should have run both tests simultaneously when you changed the channel width. Capacity SHOULD increase with a bigger channel width just as it does for 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz so I'm surprised it didn't look like it was any faster....but maybe if you run them both at the same time it would show an increase in capacity? I'm trying to buy a 60 Ghz bridge right now and want to make sure I make the right choice and effective bandwidth is a big factor for me and the speeds you are showing simply aren't going to be enough. :(

[@RavenDRB]

Would have been a good test to run the iperf with a Hard-wire first to see if there are any speed issues that are not related to the link.

[@johnheller9405]

I have seven sets on order for a large set I am setting up. Can't wait for them to get here in early March

[@precisioncomputer8407]

What is the ping response? (Latency) as we have old software that hates anything over 1ms (and will be super slow). If you ping local device or gateway for few minutes, does it go above 1ms?

[@pobertubbesing]

I do get a headache too whenever I am configuring these Wireless Bridges.

[@stili774]

Are you configuring Cisco? I also always have headache when config Cisco devices

[@anthonyjeffries90]

I feel that "Buzz" when setting up high powered UBNT gear all the time.

[@domzzz1244]

You can feel the waves

[@FernandoC]

Do you have to use a Unifi controller for this or can they work directly into an existing network setup?

[@MrGeoffMorgan]

2:42 does the Chris Box fling part 1 - 2:59 part 2 = BRILLIANT

[@dyno2007]

How would these compare to using the nanostation types for a similar situation?

[@johnlubben4980]

Does do PTmP by chance? I have 3 buildings that could use this actually.

[@lklein25]

Another great video Chris. I liked at the end of your UDM video you gave your opinion on who this device is for. I think you should add your opinion to more of your videos for example why would you want to purchase this device over the Nano station you reviewed in the past.

[@ColbyPerry]

The price doesn't seem steep to me. When you're setting up another office, say across an alley, do you really want to pay for another business internet service or use a bridge like this to utilize the existing internet connection? I might need to use something like this in the near future.

[@CrosstalkSolutions]

Yes - very good point.

[@tornadotj2059]

A pair of Nanobeams will do the same thing for under $200, and if you can get by with Locos, even less.

[@jasonklems8584]

@@tornadotj2059 Agreed, but the Nanobeams scream at each other for buildings that might only be 50, 100, 200 feet apart (thats with the radio turned -4db). I use Nanostaion M5s and those seem to work pretty well for low bandwidth applications. But I like the fact that these are part of the Unifi ecosystem vs the UNMS , which makes it a good option. Certainly a cheaper option than Trenching between buildings and running CAT6 via conduit.

[@MikePowlas]

@@jasonklems8584 I agree these are good for an HOP and as to the Nano, M5 is for Jumping.

[@tornadotj2059]

@@jasonklems8584 Oh I agree, there are cheaper bridges from AirMAX for short distances. And I never run copper between buildings, did that in the early 90s before I knew better and had constant issues with stuff getting blown.

[@nicholaslayton6199]

Would really be nice to start seeing 10gb ports on newer wifi equipment. 1gb has been the standard for almost 2 decades now

[@JacksonCampbell]

Your wish has been granted.

[@miovee4]

How about latency test result? Want to know p2p ping test result.

[@lepoarro1]

Mikrotik has a much cheaper kit version of these 60GHz devices (RBLHGG-60adkit). They are already preconfigured, just point to one another, power on and it works. Distance between devices can be 1500m and more, but on long distances, on 60GHz WiFi spectrum, even the weather (rain, fog, snow) affects the signal quality and data throughput. I'm running this link on 300m and it works like charm. Recommend!

[@gigatec916]

I use these too. I wish they had the same mount as NanoBeams.

[@johannesschneider3154]

Will you be doing a review on the Gigabeam?

[@CesarLopezBestNetworksInc]

In the process of deploying my first set - so far my testing is very promising! I am getting 1.6GB access between radios. I will be installing this one this weekend and I will be able to see the actual results between two buildings with a road between them. The interesting part of this was that I had to make sure there is a password set in the AP and in the client unit. After I set the password the result was 1.6GB before the password the units were transmitting at about 300MB using the 5Gh channel. It was not clear but to turn the one unit to be the client all had to do was to turn off the AP check ... Other than that I have great expectations for these Gigabeat units!

[@robwheels]

@@CesarLopezBestNetworksInc I am trying to decide between the UBB and the GBE Gigabeam for a 120m building-to-building connection. I initially purchased the UBB and although the units were super easy to setup, I did not like the Unifi management. I prefer the Gigabeam web interface management. It seems that the specs of the UBB and GBE are slightly different. It seems that the UBB may be slightly more modern. What kind of throughput have you been able to get with the Gigabeams?

[@jimmyplannett2517]

I wonder how well VOIP will go over this, prioritized over all other traffic. I also wonder what the latency is like.

[@WouterSamaey]

Been wondering the exact same thing. No one seams to mention latency? Been searching online quite a bit.

[@thomasblueschke6938]

60 ghz i don't know but with 2,4 ghz you warm up water and/or meet. You can read this on the back of your microwave in the kitchen

[@jasoncherry2508]

I have had issues with wireless network connections not allowing for full throughput potential when only using 1 concurrent stream. I use the iperf3 command -P and usually at least 3 - 10 simultaneous streams and typically walk down from 10 to see how many streams it takes to hit a limit on throughput. I would be curious to know if the throughput shows faster running multiple simultaneous streams with the -P option.

[@joshparrish8923]

Have you tried to break the pair? if the far side of the bridge gets struck by lightening, have you tried to take a new pair and only install 1 new device to the existing other device?

[@Magic-Enlightenment]

Can you enable WDS and hence have dot1q VLANs / Trunks propagating across the bridge?

[@asvedlund]

Love your vids man! The tickle is real haha.. I felt it too when I tested the nanobeams in my office.. I even get the weird feeling when setting up access points like the nanohd right next to me.. can’t be good to sit next to them for a longer period..

[@NCHydroseeding]

Chris, what is the benefit of this setup vs the Backyard PTMP? I currently have a wireless bridge using 3 UAP-AC-PRO's to go from building 1 to building 2. I'm getting ready to add a 3rd building and am trying to determine how to best approach it. All buildings are around 50 meters away from the "home station". All buildings have a direct line of sight to the "home station". Thanks in advance and great videos.

[@JacksonCampbell]

Don't use mesh to hook up buildings unless you're just hooking up a simple AP for something not too important.

[@rollover36]

I'm installing this next week, hope it works as expected.

[@matthewsummers6545]

So based on the info on the site and this, you can put a switch and AP on the other side of these and it will all share the same subnet and it just acts like a wireless feeding the other side. Am I correct on this?

[@mikecook7530]

@Matthew Summers - Yes

[@user-ej8xl2fd2d]

Great! Thank you! Keep it up!!

[@mikesamyn7054]

Thanks for the video. I have a couple of questions. (1) I have a line of sight between two buildings 450 feet apart. In building 1 I need to deploy 2 to 4 G4 or G4-pro quality cameras. Can I put the Unifi Protect NVR (mostly likely a Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus) in Building 2 using the Unifi Building to Building Bridge? (2) Would I better be served with the Nano Beam Wi-Fi Bridge, and again can I have the NVR reside in Building 2 where the ethernet modem connection resides? Your comments or recommendations are greatly appreciated. Love all your KZbins. You're truly helping out us small volunteer DYI guys.

[@andrewwood6554]

Don't worry Chris. You went picture in picture mode and your face turned bright green. The tingling is normally the first sign of somethings not quite right..

[@ruraltech101]

I know access to fiber ISP may not be present in your area, but I'd love to see you both review the UF-WiFi for range and see what bridge/repeater options there are should one want to extend the range of these little devices.

[@brandonbarr2784]

They are not lined up completely. 60ghz does not propagate like lower freq. use a laser to fine tune them

[@kylinblue]

Temperature: 66C at 16:57

[@trubshaw3369]

Guest star appearance at 3:34

[@newellslab]

When I was setting up some cpe gear i felt that same tickle

[@Trident_Euclid]

60 GHz won't have any noticeable (or un-noticeable) effects on living tissues. Unless you have one with thousands of watts or on very concentrated beam (laser).

[@PlaymobitTV]

We have 2 buildings and the distance between them is around 400-500m. Do you know if they will work properly or we should consider Ubiquiti airMAX GigaBeam Long-Range 60/5 GHz Radio or Ubiquiti AF5?

[@nickgraziose3409]

I am thinking of setting up a building to building bridge for 2 apartment buildings. Currently I have separate wifi networks for each unit. Currently I have 6. If I install the bridge can I add another 6 wifi networks on the other side of the bridge. Each unit has their own AP. Thank you in advance!

[@JNHEscapes]

Love the videos. I use so much ubiquiti it’s fun to hear someone else go through jt and give opinions. I will agree their link “speeds” are typically just plain wrong. I would love to hear their engineer explain why.

[@Legendary_UA]

Before you die of cancer, what is the range of these?

[@InformedGlobe]

Hello everyone. Does anyone know which devices goes where? The UBB XG US comes with Station and Access Point, what's the difference?

[@user-dd4sc6pv8d]

I have both antennas plugged in to the same switch and it bring the network down. Did you have both devices plugged in to the same switch?

[@TheDouklias]

Great information. Thanks. I have installed UISP products such as airMax which are less expensive that the building-to-building and very satisfied. Wonder if you had a chance to compare them?

[@MichaelSmith-fg8xh]

Can you join 802.11AD clients (eg Snapdragon 855 smartphone) to one of these APs (not bridge mode)?

[@vic-zu8iq]

I am having trouble with the setup I’m trying to do. The cloud key I’m using is remote and connected to our network via the VPN. I can’t figure out how to adopt this device via ssh or the web interface since it likes to have both transmitter and receiver in the same network..

[@Thevinylhouse]

I assume that you can change the color of the LED ring for identification purposes on a tower... Can you shut the led ring off altogether?

[@connclissmann6514]

Set to black?

[@harbselectronicslab3551]

So you dont need a switch on the station end......do you have to have one on the AP end ?........or can you just treat it like a piece of network cable.....

[@sagebrother]

Maybe the color change is helpful for people who are fully or partially color blind.

[@mrmiz2547]

just found this video. Can you do more than 2? I'm guessing not since you can't buy them in 3 or just 1. I have 2 out buildings I would like to connect to my main network.

[@beger658]

Question about this product. Is it possible to wirelessly uplink the bridge from an existing unifi AP? Specifically one of the new Dream Machines? For example, if I have the dream machine in a house and the first part of the bridge on a pole outside the house, would it be possible to wirelessly uplink to the Dream Machine without having to run a wire to the pole outside the house?

[@davidg4512]

Iperf has a bidirectional mode so a server can be a client and a client can be a server

[@keithasche]

The first time I setup my UAP-AC-Lite I got a metallic taste in my mouth. I also get it with the UAP-AC-Pro's that I setup for a client.

[@jean-claudebalics5272]

on the Ubiquiti Building Bridge UBB can you disable the 60 ghz range and only use 5 ghz?

[@FrankQCMTL]

Portable signal jammers ;)

[@sleepingcattv]

Imagine having some of those on your building at night with the RGB-LEDs.

[@DonTheCavalier]

you have symmetric internet from Rogers? I've only got 1.5 Gbps down and 50Mbps up... :/ I'm considering these Building to building bridges to connect my (unconnected garage at the back of my property) to my home to add some security cameras and Wifi to the garage

[@markviars2940]

Does the access point of this system also have wifi for devices to connect to the network that are near it or do I still need an access point for it as well

[@Maescool]

it could be they using the gps for signal synchronization

[@man005pak]

Hello. Thanks for the excellent video. To ensure proper functionality, is it necessary to have both a Unifi switch and a Unifi controller, or can we simply connect the ubb-xg-us to any switch? Currently, we have several UniFi APs in use, and we manage them through the UniFi administration portal, which is installed on a server.

[@pazz0987]

What ist der difference between this devices (UBB) and the (GBE)? Of course there is no LED ring.

[@MoritzLerch]

Hey, do you think the could be any problems using two of those building to building bridges at the same time?

[@cousinwiggly]

Does the receiver side have 2 Ethernet ports? Is a unifi switch required on the receiving side?

[@jasonklems8584]

Great video. Has anyone been able to get these to work using Hostifi or another hosted controller platform other than a UDM-Pro ?

[@virtuatony]

Hi Chris, Is there encryption on the networks config for the 60Ghz and 5Ghz radios? Can you set your own keys?

[@johnmoroianu]

Were you able to find out? I'm curious myself.

[@emvaldz6635]

Do you know if we can used two litebeams M5 to extend a unifi Mesh network for public hotspot? the litebeams will be ptp, then the unifi ac m connected to the litebeams m5 will it ever work? what happen is that a lot of time the satellites ac M go isolated and disconnect, and it takes long time to reconnect to the network. it frequently happens when using the Wireless Uplink function.

[@ChapelHillElectric]

Thanks, you're as interessting as a Geek can get. ;)

[@zapityzapzap]

Try the IgniteNet MetroLinq ML1-60-19. 5 GHz failover is included. Also MikroTik will has teased us with a SXT variant called the Cube which will have 5 GHz failover as well (they just announced the Cube Lite which is a longer range variant of the SXTsq60 Lite).

[@toysareforboys1]

Love the IgniteNet 60ghz. Deployed it lots, impresses me every single time!

[@zapityzapzap]

toysareforboys I just officially deployed my fist IgniteNet link a few days ago. It’s hot for what it is (only about 100 yds though I tested out to 500 yds and still saw gig throughput).

[@toysareforboys1]

@@zapityzapzap Sweeeeeet! My first deployment was on a free standing 40ft antenna tower, had lots of sway and twist which of course IgniteNet 60ghz didn't like. When mounted to structure it worked flawless.

[@chrisfloyd1014]

Hey Chris and the Crosstalk team. I am considering purchasing a set of airfiber units I am wondering if I could paint them? I would be more that willing to explain my reasoning if warranted. Wanting to hear what y’all think.

[@SuperViagraman]

Took the UBB-US kit out of the box and have been unable to even start setting it up. Very frustrating. Even pulled in the owner of our consultant firm who bounced ideas off all his engineers. Bought a new gen 2 cloud key also. We already use Unify APs and switches as well as the 1st gen cloud key controllers. Unable to get to 192.168.1.20 no matter what. Nothing is working. Any ideas?

[@lordcarnorjax8599]

I think just for the management functionality being in UniFi the extra cash is worth it. For a business $500 is that much.

[@jason3fc]

Lord Carnor Jax yes nice to see something like this work in UniFi instead of UNMS

[@VineetAgarwal1]

Would this device be a good tool to connect a network from a main house to a guest house wirelessly? The price point seems high for this application, wondering if you could recommend any other solutions.