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Linking buildings using WiFi
Setting up a point-to-point link
• Are you looking to get WiFi to the summerhouse at the bottom of the garden?
• Do you have a barn on your farm where you want to hook up some IP cameras to keep an eye on stock?
• Do you work from home with an office space separate from the main home and need to hook up your computer and a VoIP phone?
• Is your business expanding and you now have portable buildings on site with workers that require network access?
But what do you do when the wireless connection from the home router just doesn’t quite reach your outbuilding?
A WiFi ‘bridge’ in the answer!
In this modern online world, there are many reasons why you may need to extend a network connection near or far from your main building.
Whether it’s getting internet to a Ring Video Doorbell at the bottom of your drive, linking to an IP camera inside a barn or just granting network access to a new outbuilding which lacks physical infrastructure.
Wireless links can be a great quick and easy way of getting network connections to these kinds of distant areas without needing to do things like run Ethernet cable across large distances.
Conversely, one of the key issues many people run into with WiFi is that the range can be quite lacking, often struggling to reach beyond 100m and with data speeds diminishing the further they get away from the source. Ordinarily this would make wireless equipment a poor choice for long-range network links, but our EnGenius WiFi bridging equipment – The ENH500-AX and the ENSTATION6 – are designed perfectly for it!
They achieve this by containing very high-gain directional antennas that transmit wireless signals across a very narrow range, more of a precise beam rather than a wide cone. This makes them ill-suited for broadcasting WiFi across a wide local area but very specialised for long-range links to a single point, capable of reaching distances of several kilometres (so long as there is unobstructed line-of-sight).
These wireless bridging units work best as a point-to-point link, with the device at each end directed to point at the other. The further the distance, the more precisely aligned the two ends of a point-to-point link need to be in order to maintain a reliable, high-speed connection. Care must also be taken to minimise any physical obstructions – even small things like leaves in a tree can reflect the directional beam out of alignment with the device you’re trying to link it with.
Take care if you’re establishing the equipment in winter that leaves don’t grow to block the connection in spring!
When it comes to atmospheric interference, the only real consideration is water, as when moisture builds up on leaves or surfaces, this disrupts or weakens the radio waves, causing poor performance or dropping the connection.
See how you can achieve this set-up in your own home by watching our video - "Linking Buildings with WiFi".
Our video is set on a farm for linking up the farm office, but this is exactly the same solution you can use at your home. The video explains how you can create a "bridge" by simply attaching a pair of outdoor WiFi access points, one on the home and the other on the office.
PoE injectors are included with all our EnGenius outdoor equipment, making them easy to power.
PoE (Power over Ethernet) is a way of providing power to devices via a single Ethernet cable that can run up to lengths of 40m. This also reduces the overall number of cables that are needed to run from inside to outside, to just one singular Ethernet cable! Then simply run a normal LAN cable from the PoE injector inside to a router or switch.
It is possible to link multiple of these directional bridging units to one omni-directional EnGenius Access Point, such as the EWS850-FIT, which can be much more efficient when needing to connect multiple remote locations to one central point, rather than having multiple individual point-to-point pairs, just bear in mind it will mean more traffic across the whole of the wireless link.
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Useful Videos & Articles
The Solwise Podcast
Video - What is antenna gain?
Video - Antenna Radiating Patterns explained
Ingress Protection Ratings Explained_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________