Ripwave The Facts

PlasmaFish

Hi all

I've been reading Boards.ie Allot now and I have tested this Ripwave product from IBB in Galway as a college project and I thought I would post my results up. There is a lot of detail but I it’s all the different things that can affect the Ripwave service.

My experience of IBB Ripwave in the last week has been up and down. The product lacks that the coverage for it is not as wide spread as the mobile phone operators, plus a lot more due to its configuration.

I looked into the Navini Website and got the Data sheets of both them (http://www.navini.com/)

What the product is capable of doing in Peak performance

Max Download 4.8Mpbs
Max Upload 3.2Mbps
Max Range 18km @600kbps (US Radio signal output, Clear LOS Ext Antenna)
Range with built in Antenna: 5km Blocked LOS
Antenna Gain 6.2dBi (Breeze Modems have 21dBi) 3.5Ghz

Base Station:
Gross output per 60degress sector: 12Mbps
100Mbit Backbone link
Max Gain 18dBi Per Ripwave unit

Also an external antenna can be got for this device; the current flip-up antenna can be removed. And there is a simple little WiFi connector where you could probable attach a 3.5Ghz high Gain antenna.

The following is some info I found on a site:

Are there external antennas available for the wireless service, and how do get one?
Some customers may not receive adequate signal quality using the internal antennas alone. If not, an external antenna may be substituted for the flip-up antenna. An external antenna may be ordered by calling NTELOS Customer Care at 877-4-NTELOS.

The PBB wireless Internet modem has three built-in antennas to receive signal from the base stations. Two patch antennas built in to the left and right side of the modems, and the flip-up antenna on the front of the modem.

The modem will automatically choose the best antenna for receiving signal from the tower. *Please Note*: If the modem is moved to improve reception, it should be power cycled (turned on and off) so that the modem can re-select the best internal antenna to use. The modem must remain upright for the antennas to function, as the signal from the tower is polarized.

The flip-up antenna on the front may be removed by lining up the raised tabs on the flip-up antenna and the modem body, and then gently pulling the flip-up antenna straight away from the modem body. Many third party inside and outside antennas tuned to the MMDS band (2.6GHz) may be used with the Navini Ripwave modem and the proper antenna connectors to improve reception.

NTELOS recommends and sells only one antenna for external use. The California Amplifier “Gecko” Indoor transparent antenna for the MMDS (2.6GHz) band.

The Gecko antenna is usable as an indoor antenna where no lightning grounding is necessary, and it has a short enough cable length, so that the signal gain of the antenna is not lost in the path down to the modem.

Larger outdoor antennas are of dubious value for the following reasons: Outside mounted antennas (such as roof mounted antennas) must be professionally installed and grounded. NTELOS does not offer antenna installation service, and a customer who chooses to use an external antenna does so at their own risk and expense. The longer length of the antenna lead down to the modem reduced greatly the signal gain offered by the antenna. Typically, the modem (which must remain indoors) will see no gain from an external antenna with a cable longer than 10 feet.

The internal patch antennas on the Navini modem are wired directly into the modem, and provide equivalent gain when the modem is properly placed inside a building. *Please Note*: An external antenna will not help customers with no signal what-so-ever at their location. It will only help those customers who get RF signal lock, but are unable to pass data.

I tested, A few sites around Galway city, Started right up beside the eircom Mast, (It’s the biggest mast in Galway Red and white) the transmission equipment is about half way up the top, same as Breeze Broadband.

There is two high sites in Galway, Ballybane and Tonabruck both have 3 sectors working off them, two 60 Degrees and one 120 Degrees facing into Galway city centre. The high sites are not 360 Degrees coverage it takes about 7 sectors to cover such an area.

The Ripwave unit works OK to acceptable between the two Masts; once you drive around with it you can see how the signal bounce’s off large buildings that can see the Mast.

You get a steady green light from 500m to 2.5km Blocked or Clear LOS from the Base station. And irishisptest.com shows 484kbps D/L and 51.5kbps U/L, Very good so I think.

A note about Bandwidth: between 8% to 13% of your bandwidth is used for header traffic i.e error correction, etc this is for any kind or connection, LAN ,ADSL, Fibre

When I ventured more out of town up to ClareGalway it needs LOS once the distance exceeds 3km but it can still work up to 10Km! With a Clear LOS of Ballybane. Ventured over to the Airport, about 6.3km OK red light,

I will post a web address with more details about my tests,


Conclusion:
The Ripwave product has much more potent ional and seams to be undermined due to coverage and setup
One very important factor I noticed is the power output of the Modem signal, it’s well below the US Standard meaning that the device must be restricted due to Irish Radio output standards, It must be all the complaints about the Mobile phone masts.
IBB Should increase the Bandwidth and have a more lower contention ratio (1Mbit @ 20:1) Also they should offer an external antenna if the signal is low, and if there is too little signal then the it just doesn’t work there, no charge and your money back, try the Breeze broadband.


P.S Just in case any one’s thinking, I AM NOT an IBB EMPLOYEE!

PlasmaFish

sharingan

Nice info. Interesting information on external aerials and reboot after move. If what you say about the mast being halfway up the eircom mast is correct, then I will never get LoS. Damn.

I heard that you could remove the aerial, but it required more force and less technique :P

In my experience, steady orange light isn't sufficient for adequate service, if you get RipWave and can't get a steady green, cancel.