Hardware

Base Station

A Router
An Upconverter (in-built in some Routers)
A -48 Volt Power Supply Unit
A Wireless Transceiver with its integrated antenna

A separate transceiver is usually required for each azimuth sector, although multiple transceivers can be installed if the capacity requirements are high in any particular direction. Conversely, in rural systems, a single transceiver can feed two back-to-back 90 degree sectors. In this way, only two transceivers are required for the full 360 degree coverage.

A single router can provide the data processing for up to 8 transceivers serving up to 8,000 subscribers. At the opposite extreme, low cost "pizza box" solutions may be more appropriate for smaller systems. Two RG6 coax cables and one power supply cable connect each transceiver to the router, upconverter and power supply respectively.

Subscriber

The standard Customer Premises Equipment comprises a wireless module, a wall-plug power supply/dc injector and a cable modem. The units are connected by a single low loss CT100 or RG6 coax cable. An additional power splitter and set-top box is required if TV is also provided.

The dimensions of the wireless access module are only 22 x 21 x 5 cm. It is designed for all-weather operation on simple wall or pole installations. It requires a line of sight and alignment to the base station, but the beams at 3.5 and 10 GHz are sufficiently wide to allow the alignment to be performed by eye in all but the most critical cases.

Safety