airFiber

Design & Deployment

airFiber's modem technology was built and designed for the challenges of outdoor point-to-point bridging and network backhauls. airFiber is also incredibly easy to deploy; the simple mechanical design of equipment means that a two-person team can install and an align and airFiber link easily. Alignment can also be further optimised by accessing the received signal levels through the airFiber LED display, airFiber Configuration Interface, and audio tone feature. Some airFiber models operate the license-free 24GHz and 5GHz bands, meaning you can purchase and install airFiber without any permits, registrations and licensing costs.

Innovative Dual-Antenna Architecture

Some airFiber products feature a dual-independent, 2x2 MIMO, high-gain reflector antenna system. Separate yet integrated transmit (TX) and receive (RX) antennas help extend link budgets by eliminating the extra RF losses caused by the switches or duplexers required in systems with common TX/RX antennas.

Ubiquiti airFiber Products

The Ubiquiti airFiber product range was developed from the ground up by Ubiquiti engineers to produce the best wireless link possible, without the limitations of the 802.11 'WiFi' protocols. As such, they use a propriety over-the-air protocol with extremely low latency, and very high speeds. With such low latency, airFiber can deliver robust FDD performance as a carrier-class network backhaul, an airFiber network is perfectly scalable to thousands of devices. The range includes a selection of radios, antennas and accessories ideal for carrier backhaul building to building enterprise use, or public safety applications.

The Ubiquiti airFiber is perfect for deployment in crowded RF environments due to its highly efficient use of 'unlicensed' band spectrum. Utilising a dual antenna design and proprietary self-interference cancellation algorithms, airFiber extracts more usable channels out of the available spectrum than any other comparable radio system. airFiber’s built-in configuration tool guides the selection of RF channel bandwidths, transmit power, and other parameters to minimize interference potential and optimize link budgets.

• airFiber2: These products operate in the 2.4 GHz band. Only single antenna (Half Duplex) products are available. No license required for operation in Australia.
• airFiber3: These products operate in the 3 GHz band. Only single antenna (Half Duplex) products are available. License required for operation in Australia.
• airFiber4: These products operate in the 4.9 GHz band. Only single antenna (Half Duplex) products are available. Usage of the AF-4X is permitted in Australia for Public Safety Agencies.
• airFiber5: These products operate in the 5 GHz band. Both dual antenna (Full Duplex) and single antenna (Half Duplex) products are available. No license required for operation in Australia.
• airFiber11: These products operate in the 11 GHz band. Only single antenna (Half Duplex) products are available. License required for operation in Australia.
• airFiber24: These products operate in the 24 GHz band. Only dual antenna (Full Duplex) products are available. No license required for operation in Australia.

The airFiber range is offered in two broad categories:

• Built-In Antennas: Examples include the AF-24/24HD and AF-5/5U
• External Antennas: This is the AF-X range including the AF-2X, AF-5X, AF-11FX

Things to look for

• Half-Duplex (HD) or Full-Duplex (FD)? Some airFibers can operate in FD mode; others only in HD mode. The advantage of FD mode is that traffic flows in both directions simultaneously which helps lower latency.
• Max. Throughput. Throughputs between 0.5 to 1.2 Gbps are available.
• Frequency Band. Some airFibers operate in bands requiring the operator to buy a licence (e.g. AF-11FX, 11 GHz). Others operate in the class-licensed (i.e. free) bands of 2.4 and 5 GHz.
• PtP or PtMP. Ubiquiti's road-map includes adding PtMP to some of the airFibre products. The marketing term for this is LTU. When that software is released, it will be possible to operate a central airFiber LTU 'Access Point' with multiple airFiber 'Clients' pointed back to it.