Background - anticipated basic deployment:
- A pole-mounted HD2 IP67 with two+ SIM cards (two carriers)
- Power to the HD2 provided by PoE on the WAN port, the WAN port being configured to serve as a LAN port
- An ethernet cable running from the HD2 PoE port (i.e., the WAN as LAN port) to an indoor switch.
- The indoor network being a combination of wired connections and pepwave access points managed by IC2 and the HD2.
The HD2 being the main router for the network and the home for network policies (speedfusion connections to HQ, etc.)
Issue/question:
There is a wish to add a wired WAN to the mix, with the source equipment for the WAN having to be indoors.
The obvious solution is to
- Pull another ethernet cable from the wired WAN equipment to the HD2, connect it to the WAN PoE port and shift the LAN connection from the HD2 to the LAN port.
However, adding another ethernet cable from the indoors to the pole is not attractive (principally a matter of structure integrity coupled with the cost of trenching).
The two alternatives that come to mind both seem rather Rube Goldberg’ish:
-
Add a Balance router of sufficient capacity (presumably a Balance One Core to get the throughput) indoors, to manage the traffic to the two cellular WANs on the HD2 and the third WAN on the ethernet. This loses the ability to combine all three WANs for speedfusion purposes (unless one wants to spring for another speedfusion license for the indoor Balance)
-
Feed the third (ethernet) WAN to the HD2 using the HD2 WAN/PoE port, and then connect the HD2 LAN port to the local indoors network using a combination of WiFi connectors to bridge from the HD2 back indoors. The additional equipment on the pole would have to be powered by the same PoE ethernet cables as used for the HD2.
Alternatives? Thoughts?
Btw: Happy New Year!
A single run of ethernet up a pole is asking for trouble. As you insinuated, the ‘right’ way to do this is to run another pair of toughened ethernet cables up the pole (always run two if you have to pull one through the ducting anyways - so one as a spare).
Assuming you really can’t do that then I would suggest a small managed Layer 2 Mid Span switch with POE Passthrough. Put the switch up the pole next to the HD2 in a weatherproof box, POE in to the switch, POE out from it to the HD2. Have another switch internally. Then set up port based VLANs so you can break out the fixed line WAN to the HD2 from the building and bring the LAN back.
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Hello @zegor_mjol,
Just like we do with our professional RF installations we recommend that you make sure to install suitable Ethernet lightening protection that is properly earthed separate to the power system, every bit of protection you give the equipment helps ensure the longevity of the system. If you do not know how to do this, please let us know and we can point you to some guides.
We use the first two products extensively found on the Telco Antennas website at the following URL, we have found these to be the best with a range of equipment from different vendors and that they work reliably well also with Peplink/Pepwave models.
- Cambium PTP 650LPU (Lighting Protection Unit) & Grounding Kit
- Cambium PTP450i Gigabit Surge Suppressor
They are worth every cent when correctly installed (avoid the cheaper models).
We have used other brands of suppressors (including those mentioned here) in the past and we keep coming back to the Cambium PTP 650LUP & the PTP450i. Both of these models have very good installation documentation that can also be used as a guide on how to properly protect you assets.
Happy to Help,
Marcus 
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Thanks for the suggestion (as well as the recommendation w.r.t. the number of cable runs). The trade-off is a matter of whether to stay with the legacy (one-cable) run already in place, or to go for a new, properly executed, set-up with the additional cost that entails.
