What is Point-to-Point Wireless?

A point to point wireless network connects two remote locations using antennas on each end, pointing at each other, and only communicating between one another. 

Think of it like an invisible Ethernet Cable connecting your two networks that are separated by a road, field, city block, or small city in between.

It will provide speeds between 100 Mbps and 10 Gbps or more.  Some of the most common uses of this type of wireless connection include:

  • Connecting two or more buildings on to one network
  • Replacing leased lines for a lower cost option
  • Sharing Internet from your home to shop
  • Video surveillance setups
  • Disaster recovery links
  • Data and Voice Sharing across locations
  • IoT systems
Point to point Wireless

What are the different types of Point to Point Solutions?

This depends on multiple scenarios including your distance, speed requirements, and whether or not you have Line of Sight.  We provide short range 5 GHz for basic connectivity.  We also provide short range PTP solutions for high bandwidth, high throughput applications.  For longer range, we carry beam width specific 5 GHz packages that will give you 500 Mbps at up to 3 miles.  For longer distance applications, please email us your lat/long to support@gnswireless.com.  You can also call us directly at (516) 214-0321 and speak to a technical representative today.

Line of Sight.

This the most common type of scenario, where your two locations are less then 1 mile apart, have clear, unobstructed, line of sight, from building to building, and you need to connect them.  Line of sight means no trees, or other obstacles are in the way.  These wireless bridge kits can be used for anything from sharing Internet between two locations to sharing voice, video, files, or other data. Typically these wireless bridge packages use a 5 GHz Frequency which will avoid all 2.4 GHz traffic.  Recently, new 60 GHz packages are available for even faster connections.  Short range 5 GHz wireless Ethernet bridges, like the GNS-1153AC, are used to connect two homes or offices, share Internet or provide a temporary data link for any two locations at a short distance apart.  These packages include the most cost effective wireless bridge devices that are small in size, to long distance wireless bridge packages. We stock wireless N bridge, AC Wi-Fi bridge, and wired to wireless bridge equipment. 

Non-Line of Sight.

If you have 2 locations with trees, or other small obstacles in the way, GNS utilizes the 900 MHz frequency to create a reliable point to point link.  This frequency will allow you to establish a secure reliable connection between your two locations when you do not have clear, unobstructed line of sight.  Please note, that maximum distance is typically restricted to 1/4 mile or less when 100% trees are in the way.  The most popular 900 MHz point to point package is the GNS-1138HP.  The lower frequency will allow the communication to penetrate obstructions.  The downside is slower speed.  Typically a 900 MHz link will provide maximum of 20-30 Mbps.  The exact distance of your link, and how dense the trees are between the two sites will determine the exact speed of your wireless bridge. These 900MHz point to point wireless bridge kits range from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. For example, a 1000ft. PTP wireless link, with 50% trees blocking the path, using the GNS-1138HP, will yeild about a 20 Mbps throughput.  

Non Line of Sight Wireless

Need something fast, and ready to ship?

See below for our smallest, most cost effective, and ready to ship options that are quick and easy to mount, plug in, and are operational in minutes.  All of these pre-packaged point to point Ethernet bridges ship pre-configured for plug-n-play operation.  Still have questions?  Give us a call now.  (877) 209-5152

Short to Medium Range – Ready to Ship

GNS Wireless offers complete Point-to-Point Wireless Ethernet Bridge packages that are ready to ship and include EVERYTHING you need to connect your two locations together wirelessly. For a basic, short range, cost effective wireless bridge, less than 500ft. distance, use the GNS-1163AC.  For slightly further distance, maybe 1000ft. to 1/3 mile, use the GNS-1153AC.   For something with a little more throughtput, and higher speed, use the virtually interference free solution, operating at 60GHz, GNS-5460.  We also offer even higher speed, high reliability, full duplex solutions, which are still turn-key, pre-packaged solutions to meet the needs of your specific application.  These wireless to Ethernet bridges, or point to point wireless backhauls will enable you to share Internet between two or more locations, share files, video, voice or other data across your network. Our building to building wireless bridge packages offer 802.11AX speeds to create a building to building link, or wireless broadband connection between your two locations. For applications where trees, or other obstructions are in the way, we offer Non Line of Sight (NLOS) wireless bridge packages.

The following point to point wireless solutions are pre-packaged, and are license free.

These packages are in stock and ready to ship (Plug-N-Play). 

GNS-1163AC Point to Point

Part# GNS-1163AC 5 GHz, Integrated 15 dBi Panel Antenna, External LED’s.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Very Small form factor at only 3×5″.  Great for very short range, emergency point to point solution.

GNS-1153AC Point to Point Wireless

Part# GNS-1153AC 5 GHz, Integrated 20dBi Panel Antenna,  Longer Range.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Great for applications where you want a little faster speed and your distance is less than 1/4 mile.  This product also works well for shorter range, and when branches or light brush is blocking the path.

GNS-5460 PTP Wi-Fi

Part# GNS-5460 60 GHz, Integrated Panel Antenna, Very Low Latency, Interference Free Wireless.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Highly secure.  Requires clear, unobstructed line of sight.  The 60 GHz solutions provide super fast speeed, but do not work well when trees are present.

Installing your new wireless bridge is quick and easy as all of these pre-packaged point to point Ethernet bridges ship pre-configured for plug-n-play operation.  US Based Technical Support included.

Enterprise Grade Point to Point Wireless

For the commercial grade, or enterprise grade requirement, GNS Wireless stocks superior level point to point wireless Ethernet bridge packages. These point to point back-hauls provide higher packet per second processing, (PPS), high reliability, high speed, and enclosed inside ruggedized outdoor weatherproof boxes for the most extreme conditions.  Typically these point-to-point links provide wireless connectivity between locations that are handling voice/video, or large amounts of data.  They can also be used for temporary fiber replacement, or last mile point to point connectivity. Throughput will vary based on distance, and antenna type. Typical scenario for a full duplex point to point link will be where a customer has a very large amount of VoIP phones and/or data going across a link, where minimum latency and minimum downtime is required.  The wireless bridge setup and installation for full duplex GNS packages are just as fast and easy to install as the smaller kits.  These long-distance point to point wireless solutions will still include external LEDs for alignment assistance and also will allow you to log into the web based configuration for fine tuning and adjustments.

Here are some of the most popular long range, high speed, point to point packages:

GNS-1155AC

Part# GNS-1155AC 5 GHz, Integrated 23 dBi Panel Antenna, External LED’s.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Small form factor, antennas are only 15″ square.

Gigabit Wireless Bridge

Part# GNS-5423-HD 5 GHz, Connectorized 23dBi Dish Antenna, Low Latency, Long Range.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Great for long range, high speed applications.

Interference Free Gigabit Bridge

Part# GNS-5460-LR 60 GHz, Integrated Dish Antenna, Low Latency, Interference Free Wireless.  Includes Gigabit POE.  Highly secure, not as long range, but will not interfere with any other 2.4 or 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

What about Security?

A true point to point wireless bridge will be very close to having an invisible Ethernet Cable connected between your two networks.  They will operate as a layer 2 transparent bridge.  They will pass all VLAN tagged frames, and provide QOS and management options inside the web based GUI.

The basic 5 GHz point to point solutions, such as the GNS-1163AC or GNS-1153AC provide WPA2 Encryption, and MAC filtering.  You can hide the SSID, and the integrated directional antenna will only broadcast the signal within 10 degrees.

If you are looking for more security, the next step up would be to use a 60 GHz bridge.  These operate at an unlicensed, limited use spectrum.  The signal is virtually invisible, and interference free.  These units operate strictly in PTP mode, meaning the SSID is not broadcasted.  In addition, these units still use AES 128 bit encryption.

Beyond that, you move up to PTP Backhauls which utilize either WPA2 256 bit encryption, and/or FIPS 140-2.  For more information on these security levels, please contact us directly.

For building to building wireless solutions where the highest security is required, we also carry a licensed band of point-to-point applications.  Licensed point to point backhauls will provide the most successful, highly reliable, interference-free network connection between two networks. We offer short range point to point wireless solutions to long range point to point backhauls up to 30 miles. GNS Wireless now stocks licensed point to point radios from top manufactures such as Cambium, Proxim, Siklu and Bridgewave. Setting up a wireless bridge in the licensed band of broadband backhauls is the same as the unlicensed band, except that when registering the link with the FCC, you enter the type of frequency being used.  For public safety, 4.9GHz is used. Mesh networks can be utilized in the licensed band for the wireless backhaul, and 2.4 GHz can be used for the WiFi network, WiFi extender, WiFi signal booster, or wireless mesh range extenders.

Point to Point to Point

For applications where 2 locations do not have line of sight, however you have power access in between those locations…you can apply what is called point to point to point.  This is an extension often seen in point to point networks where multiple hops are used to connect multiple buildings, with dedicated links.  This is referred to as a point to point to point networks where these single connection networks are extended daisy chain style.  In these instances, latency is increased slightly, and the total capacity is limited to the slowest link in the chain.  For this application, you can use any point to point package, which supports your bandwidth requirements.  Latency toward the end of the hop, will be equal, or very close to the latency at the front end.  See our Siklu Etherhaul 614 Gigabit link for ultra low latency, ultra small form factor antennas.

point to point to point

The downside to simple point to point networks is that they are inefficient when it comes to connecting many nodes in a dense area. Each end point or customer access node needs a dedicated node at the other end.  This requires lots of installation time, possible issues with frequency cross talk, and becomes expensive as every end node has a corresponding “box” at the other end.  In such applications, a client might be more inclined to move toward a point-to-multipoint application.  This involves broadcasting from a single location, (Distribution Node) communicating to many Client Nodes.  Speed will suffer, however with the adoption of new 60 GHz distribution nodes from Cambium…Gigabit speeds are now possible.   

BRIDGEWAVE POINT-TO-POINT WIRELESS SOLUTION FOR EDUCATION

BridgeWave Communications produces ultra low cost gigabit speed wireless solutions from design to manufacturing, enabled by BridgeWave developed transceiver and modem technologies. BridgeWave solutions utilize high-frequency radio spectrum in the 60-90 GHz range, now being allocated by the FCC, enabling multi-gigabit per second wireless connectivity for point to point reliability over long distance. Click here for more information.

BRIDGEWAVE POINT-TO-POINT SOLUTION FOR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS

BridgeWave Communications produces ultra low cost gigabit speed wireless solutions from design to manufacturing, enabled by BridgeWave developed transceiver and modem technologies. BridgeWave solutions utilize high-frequency radio spectrum in the 60-90 GHz range, now being allocated by the FCC, enabling multi-gigabit per second wireless connectivity. Bridgewave gigabit wireless solutions can replace T1, provide for higher throughput of greater than 700Mbps, and are HIPAA compliant. Click here for more information.

CAMBIUM NETWORKS 4.9GHz PTP WIRELESS BACKHAUL SOLUTIONS

Cambium’s PTP 49400 Wireless Backhaul Solution is ideal for: Replacing T1 Links, Backhauling Video Surveillance Cameras on 4.9GHz, Connecting Remote Locations (public safety locations not easily reachable via wired connections), Backhauling a 4.9GHz MOTOMESH hot-spot or coverage network. 4.9GHz point to point wireless networks are also useful in high interference environments where high speed over the wireless backhaul is required. Click here for more information on Cambium Networks 4.9GHz solutions.

LONG DISTANCE POINT-TO-POINT WIRELESS BRIDGE

For any application where your two locations are greater then 3 miles apart, it is recommended to email our support department your lat/long, or GPS coordinates of the two locations. This will allow us to run a quick, path analysis to determine if a link is possible between your two locations, and what antenna height is recommended. For point to point wireless greater than 3 miles, clear, unobstructed, line of sight is required. If you are sure your two locations have line of sight, then the typical scenario of point to point wireless utilizes anywhere from a 2ft. to 6ft. dish antenna, attached to your high power, outdoor back haul radio.