Airaya AI108-4958-ON Wireless Bridge

Review

Author: Benjamin Luck – Synworks Development Group

Synworks DG Website http://www.synworks.info/

Email: contact@synworks.info
 Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 The Equipment

2.1 The ODU (Out Door Unit)

3.0 Setting up the Units for Deployment and Testing

3.1 Getting Access
3.2 Setting Up Remote Access
3.3 Setting up the Radio Interface

4.0 Alignment and Service Statistics

5.0 Product Support

6.0 The Conclusion

7.0 Product Review Rating

1.0 Introduction
This week, I have been testing and reviewing a few pairs of AirayaWirelessGRID AI108-4958-ON
radios. Airaya is one of the world's premier developers and marketers of 4.9 GHz, 5.2 GHz UNII,
5.4 GHz ETSI, 5.8 GHz UNII, and 2.2-2.5 Ghz outdoor wireless equipment.

The Airaya WirelessGRID AI108-4958-ON is a wireless bridge unit, designed to work in PMP and
PTP modes. The radios operating in the 4.9Ghz to 5.8Ghz frequency bands, using OFDM with 5 ,10
,20 and 40Mhz channels and uses a modified 802.11 standard.

For more information, click here for the Airaya WirelessGRID data sheet located at the Airaya
website.

2.0 The Equipment

Within two boxes, I find the pair of bridges, POE/power supply adapter, ethernet cables and power
cables.

2.1 The ODU (Out Door Unit)

The Airaya WirelessGRID ODUs are painted white, metal cased and have easy mounting holes for
brackets on the back.The POE injector is simple, fairly small and wall mountable.
Was simple to install the ethernet into the ODU screw socket and get the unit powered up the initial
configuration.

3.0 Setting up the Units for Deployment and Testing

Our next steps are to review the set-up process and get the units into the field for testing. First, I
need to get access to the units.
3.1 Getting Access
Access to the Airaya backhaul interface can either be done by the web interface or via telnet
(Console).
To get the unit ready for configuration, I hooked it up to our laptop, with the IP address set to
192.168.1.10. Then I powered up the unit and after a few seconds, a link on the ethernet status
appeared.
Configuration is best done by the web interface. You can use Firefox or Internet Explorer to connect
to the unit's default IP address of 192.168.1.70. Once connected, a password prompt will come up.
Just enter into the field the username and password of Airaya (default setting). Then a few things
need to be set in the Airaya ODUs before deployment.

3.2 Setting Up Remote Access

Once logged in, select the Network Settings option in the top menu. This will display the NMS
configuration. Just fill out the form with the relevant IP address, subnet mask and gateway address.
Then click the update button to commit to flash.

3.3 Setting up the Radio Interface

Clicking on the Radio Settings menu tab, brings up the radio configuration menu. Here you set the
SSID, channel size and set the country code to the right region. The radio frequency is between 5.4
and 5.8 for this unit, you set it to 5.4Ghz. Next I just set the Transmit Power to a suitable level,
Antenna Select to best, Software Retry to 3 and Hardware Retry to 4. Then to update the settings
into flash, just hit the Update button at the bottom.

Now to allow the other bridge into the ACL, you click on the Security menu option. Here you add
the other radios MAC address and ID, You will need to do the same in the other radio, with this
radio's MAC address.Then click the Add New button to commit the new bridge MAC. To complete
the process, you will have to reboot the unit for the changes to occur.

4.0 Alignment and Service Statistics

When clicking on the Current Settings menu tab, this shows you the running configuration of the
Airaya ODU. The screen also displays the currently attached bridges and the general operation
statistics of the Airaya ODU. This is the screen that you first get when you login to the Airaya ODU
unit.
For alignment of the Airaya, click on the Advanced menu option. This brings up a list of the bridges
with a stats button. Clicking the stats button brings up the RSSI graph and indicator. Also the over
the air rate is shown here. Another option for alignment is to telnet into the Airaya ODU IP address
and connect to port 3000. This displays a constant list of current RSSI values. The higher these
values the better.

5.0 Product Support

Airaya support and sales for the AI108-4958-ON product is done by their various regional
headquarters and product distribution partners. Their technical and sales staff are helpful and quick
to resolve any issues and handle any requirement requests.

6.0 The Conclusion

The Airaya unit works well with our equipment and seemed to do a good job as a back haul for
meshed systems or a dedicated last mile client connection. The average latency is less than 2ms and
the over the Ethernet rate is pretty close to the over the air rate.
Set-up is simple and only takes a few minutes to get the Airaya going on the bench. The web
interface on the Airaya unit is function and easy to understand. Installation on the tower is pretty
simple as well, generally only requiring the supplied mounting brackets and since it is only the
ODU, no rack space is required.
The ODU is painted white, metal case. Which makes it resistant to hail, wind related damage and a
good heatsink for hot days. But I am still testing the resistance to sea salt.
Airaya's product support is good, with competent technicians and sales staff giving worth while
service.
The only downsides are the lack of QOS in the radio and problems with towers about 100m tall or
taller (Ethernet standards shortfall, not the radio).

Pros:
• Simple to set-up and get going.
• Minimal equipment at the tower. (only one unit)
Cons:
• Ethernet cable length to the unit can become an issue for large towers.
• No QOS ability for different traffic.

7.0 Product Review Rating

This is a rating from my in-house and field testing. With a rating out of 5 stars.

Reliability:

Ease of Setup:

Performance: