A breif list of the equipment we'll be using
Starting from the web server and ending at the user
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. We will be loading our with linux OS.
Ubiquiti's Edge Router Pro is a powerful enterprise grade router for a very good price. Offers a really great and simple to use Web-GUI for easy programming. We'll be spending some time in it.
Tough Switch Pro is great to have but not entirely necessary with the right programming on the router. However, if you need more ports than the router has, this is the way to go.
Rocket Series PTMP Base station with Omni 2x2 antennas. Useful in both the 2.4 and 5.8 frequency ranges. Amazing to work with and very good range considering its omni directional antenna.
Directional airMAX PTMP antenna and radio base station. Incredible distances beyond 15 miles can be crossed in the 2.4/5.8 Freq. Pretty incredible throughput can be had using these types of antennas too.
NanoStation M2 and M5 are some of the most versatile and incredible radios found today. Like the swiss army knife of WiFi tools. Web GUI is by tradition on point as well.
NanoBeams can also be used in more advanced hands. Much more difficult to dial in, but well worth the trouble. Bandwidth of over 1Gbps can be achived in perfect conditions.
UAP AC LR - Unifi Access Point AC Long Range, are great access points that handle high traffic extremely well and their ability to be managed as a fleet make them extremely useful.
60 Watt 12 Volt solar panel. Either mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline. Both work in this case. Mono will allow you to save space as they are a little smaller, but poly is less expensive.
12 Volt 35 Amp Hour batteries for night time and rainy days. 18Ah will work also to save space or money, but generally the larger the battery the better.
Solar Controller for handling the incoming solar power and regulating the battery correctly. The USB ports on the front can be very handy for lots of reasons as well.
This is primarily a wireless operation, but you will still need some cables to hook everything together. Cat6 is the fastest, so that's what we recommend going with.
This is where we get serious
For this tutorial we used nothing but Unifi and Ubiquiti networking and radio products. We did that not only because they are both insanely easy to work with, but are very inexpensive as well. They are not to say the most powerful radios or the most inexpensive company out there so as you gain experience you may want to move on to another carrier. From what we have seen they deliver the most bang for your buck, especially when just getting started out.
Another reason we picked the equipment that we did, was because it allows for easy scaling of the network size. Having extra ports in the router and switch will come in handy when you're ready to expand your network with another antenna. Using less capeable equipment may save money today but will most likely need to be replaced in the future for the same products you wanted to have gotten in the first place. The choice is yours so make the best decision for your business no matter what it will be.
Where to begin
Now that we have a brief overview of the structure of how it works and the products to make it possible, its time to actually dive into the programming of the systems. We will start with the web server and installing the unifi controller software, and eventually work our way out to the main antennas. From there we will construct and program the the solar powered bridge/access point systems that allow the users to receive free internet and get us paid!