First look at 60GHz airFiber 60 from Ubiquiti Networks
NewsAirFiber 60 is the first 60GHz link from Ubiquiti Networks with a Gigabit LAN port, powered by a passive 24V / 0.5A PoE adapter, with a parabolic antenna bigger than 400mm in diameter. In front of antenna there is placed feed with several blue bright LEDs on the side.
The whole construction is very robust and strong. In addition to the 60GHz radio, the device also has a 5GHz AC backup radio for worse weather. It worked really well during the test. Only a few pings were lost when 60ghz line failed, as is shown on the screenshots bellow. Overall we were satisfied with the whole product, although with the initial fw (GP.V1.1.0 # 41469).
The tested piece was borrowed from Ubiquiti Networks and in addition to the already held KKTS conference in Pilsen, you will be able to see it at the 1st Czechoslovak Telecommunication Conference on November 14, 2019 in the Slovak village of Vyhne. We do not yet have detailed information about availability and price on the European market. Early Access pricing is set at $ 299. The program is only available for US customers and units are currently sold out.
Dashboard view
Sophisticated dashboard looks like the management of airMAC AC units, to which we are already accustomed and offers an overview of modulation rates, signals, link quality, both local and remote units.
Align antenna view
A handy helper for align antenna also shows the direction in which the antennas need to be directed. According to the crossed-out loudspeaker at the local unit, we think that it will be possible to target the units according to the audio signal, but this did not work with this tested HW / SW.
IPv4 / IPv6 address setup
The network setup is very clear and intuitive. It allows setting of both static and dynamic IPv4 / v6 addresses, as well as VLAN management, or enabling the STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) protocol for the construction of circular topologies.
Integrated Speed Test
View to the System tab
The System tab offers informations about FW and HW, radio on/off management for configuration directly from the roof/mast, NTP server settings and login change. What we did not find was SNMP, which is very imortant for most ISP providers. We strongly believe that when FW and HW will be final, this feature will not be missing in management.
Wireless setup
The 60GHz section offers 4 frequencies, AP/Station mode, shared SSID field (for both 5GHz and 60GHz) and 5GHz bandwidth settings where 20, 40 and 80MHz can be set.
Switching to 5GHz when the primary 60GHz line lose link
Tested at 200Mbps load and gradual deflection of the antenna. After unit lost signal on 60GHz band, device switched to a 5GHz backup line after a few lost pings.
