Portable 4G Wifi Setup

[jonathanroberts1988]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking for a solution for providing wifi to up to 100 people at various locations around the UK using 4G.

 

I currently use the ZyXEL LTE4506 to provide wifi for me and a few others but it only runs on O2 and signal isn't reliable.

 

I've seen other solutions around which take several sim cards from different networks.

 

Ideally this needs to be a simple setup solution so that when I'm onsite I can get everyone working quickly.

 

Any advice?

[ImagineerTom]

100 people on 4G is some serious bandwidth - you're already firmly in to the realms of professional network setup and admin required to run that reliably and consistently. Doing it over cellular also isn't going to be viable because you'd struggle to get that sort of bandwidth in a completely deserted area where you are the only user; since presumably most of the people on site will have a phone that's trying to hook up to the cell system you've now got 200+ devices trying to connect to the cellular network and wiping out all of the spectrum.

 

If you are going to attempt to do this yourself (we have tried it in the past and never found it worth the hassle) then you need to be looking at a portable satellite internet supply with guaranteed bandwidth allocation, then a couple of distributed, professional grade access points (last time we looked the rule of thumb was basically 1 point per 30 people to stand a reasonable chance of it being reliable) plus all the software needed to tie them together - there's not going to be a cheep or all in one box solution to this problem

[jonathanroberts1988]

Thanks Tom,

 

I've run sites where I hire the service in for larger numbers of people and need the full support. This is normally expensive.

 

For this particular requirement it is normally a maximum of 70-80 people only using phones to access basic web polls etc.

[emsgeorge]

We use teltonika routers with dual sims in for some of the radio networks that need internet to link together. They do have wireless as well as an ethernet port, and are used professionally rather than a home mifi type solution. They have antenna ports so you can use distributed antennas with them as well.

 

I would echo the above though, our gear is supplying either a non essential radio system link, so we can just see how the repeaters are doing, or deploy the boxes around where we are, so we can have internet on the laptops. If you are providing a service, or want something that you can 100% reliably get data on, then satellite is the only real way, or physical landline broadband.

 

Its like those radios that are actually ptt over cellular. All well and good, nationwide coverage, until you meet a crowded cell site - then all the gloves are off.

[Jivemaster]

O2 and EE certainly do mains and USB powered 4G to wifi devices on monthly contract, maybe four users could use written word or music, but only one user gets enough data to do even 720 video.

 

Ideal for just a few users at each site, nbg for lots of users at one site unless your data needs are really small each.

[richardash1981]

Would agree with all that has been said, but I can vouch for the robustness of teltonika routers for staying on the network without needing manual attention (they have pretty good watchdog, scheduled reboot etc.). The hardware is pretty good, although you may need to glue the DC power connector in, as most of the faults I have had have been down to the power lead working loose ...

[Jivemaster]

Had some friends using satellite for internet access on a boat, fabulous data rate but serious latency (measured in seconds) obviously great on a boat but as a UK based land system you'd have to find and negotiate clear view of the sky every where you go.

[Owain]

Do the users actually need to access The Internet, or would a local DHCP/DNS/web server running the polls/voting etc be possible?

 

That way you don't need to get any upstream connectivity, and by eradicating all other data use you'll minimise the load on the wifi as well.

 

 

[pmiller056]

What do buses and trains use when they provide free wifi to a few 10's of users on board? Presumably that's a simple, robust system using a standard 4G link.

[emsgeorge]

What do buses and trains use when they provide free wifi to a few 10's of users on board? Presumably that's a simple, robust system using a standard 4G link.

 

Teltonika routers, primarily the rt955 in the newer units.

[sandall]

What do buses and trains use when they provide free wifi to a few 10's of users on board?.

My experience of Stagecoach buses in Sussex is that you can connect to the bus, but that's it. If you want internet you use your own 4G connection.

[sunray]

I've been trying to find details of something we helped with last year, unfortunately the group of volunteers who did this experiment have moved on so the best I can come up with is peoples opinions on what was done;

4 x 'a unit with up to 4 sim cards'

1 x 'a unit which combined the output of the 4x4 sim cards'

1 x wifi router

several x wifi hot spots plugged into router

several x wifi mesh devices

4 x ubiquity dishes

The brief was for as much wifi as possible to deploy in an emergency situation over a wide area,

a survey was done to establish what networks were available and the sim slots were filled with an appropriate selection of networks sims.

 

We peaked at 512 users connected (we think this may have been the limit of the system) averaged at about 120 over a 4 hour period including all device set up time (Not the infrastructure) Connexion was unreliable after around 300-350 user and found inactive connexions being rapidly dropped.

480GB data used at a cost of about £500.

 

The limiting factor was the amount of 4G (and 3G) available.

This experiment was being conducted with the assistance of all of the network providers in the area and all claimed their capacity had been reached but bear in mind we were not the only users of the network.

 

I'm still hoping for full details of the equipment.

[abbotsmike]

That scale of equipment isn't cheap, and that's why the people who set it up for you aren't cheap.

 

You're basically looking at several lots of bonded 4G, and a bunch of unifi/ruckus wireless APs.

 

You also say various locations, there are a lot of places where the network just isn't there, nor is the backhaul from the one cell tower you're trying to hit. At that point you're into bonded satellite, which is another load of expense.

 

Pepwave and others make routers that can handle the use case, but it's all commercial kit, so not cheap!

[Jivemaster]

Let me just add that on the day of the bus/tube bombings in London all mobile comms went down Cellular gets switched off, and likely mobile broadband goes too. Emergency services take all the bandwidth so don't rely on mobile phone or broadband in an emergency.

[emsgeorge]

Let me just add that on the day of the bus/tube bombings in London all mobile comms went down Cellular gets switched off, and likely mobile broadband goes too. Emergency services take all the bandwidth so don't rely on mobile phone or broadband in an emergency.

 

Yep, all the incident wagons from the services use satellite broadband from excellerate, who seem to have the uk market cornered.