Customer relay site POE injector

[jww]

We have several customer locations that are being used as relay sites.

We install small Mikrotik routers at these sites instead of a switch so that we can give the customer a wire that has DHCP from the router and rate limiting applied. The other ports handle the backhaul and relay access points with switched ports.

Usually these locations have power, sometimes we have to use solar or both. And we don't want to use an ordinary UPS, but would rather power everything from 24 VDC batteries. But the 24 volt charging voltage is too high for Ubiquiti radios.

The WS-8-250-DC does a great job with a wide power range, but we don't need a switch in this case. We'd like to know charge currents via GUI and SNMP so that we would know if power goes out or how solar is doing. And all of the usual POE controls and Gbit ports And it should send regulated 24 VDC to the MikroTik router.

Typical Customer Relay Station Router for Netonix.jpg (65.32 KiB) Viewed 33672 times

[rebelwireless]

But the 24 volt charging voltage is too high for Ubiquiti radios
what? Rockets, NSM, AFX all are very happy w/ up to about 28v.

Are you asking for a basic PoE injector here? or a PoE switch like the WS mini? You will still need a router to handle the scenario you describe...

I have many similar sites to this running mikrotik's and monitor the voltage supplied to the mikrotik to see if the power needs attention.

I've been switching from using a single device like an rb750UP to using ER-X-SFP as PoE switches a routerboard (like a rb750gr2 or rb850x2. Monitoring voltage on the mikrotik's input. I've been needing to get more than 100Mbps across the site which has been driving the need to change.

I'll by replacing the ER-X-SFP model for a netonix WS at sites that have 1 or more AF or B5 etc.

[ste]

Another option is to only install a WS-MINI at the site and use a seperate vlan to carry the customers port traffic to the next uplink hop and use the router at this site to do dhcp.

[jww]

Thanks for the replies, I'll study these ideas.

Ubiquiti says 24 volts and others on various forums say 24 volts and I don't need more variables so I'll stay with 24 volts. Most of my tower and relay station runs are short so I don't have cable losses to help me out... :) And battery equalization takes the voltage up to around 32 volts.

And I like the fact that with the boost DC - DC converters I can extend the useful life of old batteries.

Someday we may change to PPPoE and be able to do rate limiting upstream, but that's happening at the CPE now.

So I'd still buy the product I described...

[rebelwireless]

see here for a slightly dated chart with 'warranteeable' voltages
http://dl.ubnt.com/UBNT-AOS_prod-specs-gen_4.pdf

from this list you can see 10.5-25v for most all their radios. This holds true for the AC radios also.

That said, run a DCDC converter like the TP-DCDC-1224 or 1218
http://reseller.streakwave.com/itemdesc ... =&Tp=&o1=0
http://reseller.streakwave.com/itemdesc ... =&Tp=&o1=0

as your input to whatever injector (say toughswitch poe, er-x-sfp, rb260gsp ) and get a regulated 18 or 24VDC output from 9-36v input. I have a few sites running off of the 1224 unit because I have 30v in solar and/or wind and that's outside safe range on the radios.

you can run an AF5/AF24 off the 1248 unit too
http://reseller.streakwave.com/itemdesc ... =&Tp=&o1=0

My solar and multi-power sites are all 24v so these DCDC converters come in pretty handy for variable power like solar and wind.

These units are about 90% efficient until you load them heavy and they are as low as 75% efficient. Just run them at 1/2 the rated output and you get the ~90%.

If you have a nicer dual-power controller then they often have a regulated output built in.

[taytrho]

WS-8-250-DC and Vlans would be the best immediate solution. You would lose the local routing though. Depends on how much that is really necessary for every relay. I would think layer2 and vlans would be easier to manage than multiple routers as well. And you can get voltages from GUI and SNMP like you desire. It can even be setup to send alarms based on voltage levels as well. The greatest benefit do doing this through a managed devices is being able to get cable diagnostics and reboot equipment. Most devices that regulate voltage across multiple poe devices are for 48v. 24v is a bit less standard. I feel like Ubiquiti does it to try and be proprietary to their tough switches and unifi gear.

Ubiquiti makes an EdgeRouter POE which does 24v. It does require 48v to power, but with investigation to voltage regulation like rebelwireless mentioned, you may be able to find a solution to feed it 48v DC power, power two APs and a backhaul, a customer, and have a port still free for management of the voltage regulator, provided you can find one with an ethernet management interface.

If I were in this situation, I'd design my relay site on the network side to be handled by layer 2 and vlans, and use the ws-8-250-dc. With the exception of routing capabilities, it's the best all in one solution I know of for this task. A simple POE injector which does voltage regulation for 24 volts probably wont have enough market demand to develop. You would have to custom build something to fit your exact needs if this is your only option.

[rebelwireless]

Ubiquiti makes an EdgeRouter POE which does 24v. It does require 48v to power

just to correct this, no edgerouter takes 48v input. They are all 24v or 9-24v (ERL)

[lligetfa]

The ER-PoE can take 48V in.

http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/edgemax/EdgeRouter_DS.pdf

[rebelwireless]

The ER-PoE can take 48V in.

http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/edgemax/EdgeRouter_DS.pdf

can take, doesn't require.

[jww]

I've looked at the replies and thought about them, but still need my original request.