A high-speed data link from Sardinia to Tuscany has achieved data rates of up to 356.33 Mbps using Ubiquiti airFiber equipment.
Ubiquiti worked with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the Centro Italiano Sperimentazione ed Attività Radiantistiche (CISA) to set up the 189-mile link in the 5 GHz frequency band using Ubiquiti AF-5X radios.
“What makes this accomplishment significant is the extremely high data rate and spectral efficiency,” said ICTP spokesperson Ermanno Pietrosemoli. “This link attains broadband data rates of over 350Mbps while using only 50 MHz of spectrum.”
Pietrosemoli also noted that while this is not an FDD system, the link has latencies of less than 3.5 milliseconds, an important measure of networking performance. The link’s high speed and low latency were ascribed to the Ubiquiti gear’s proprietary Hybrid Division Duplexing technology.
Despite the long distances involved, the link was relatively simple to set up.
“Once the antennas were mounted on the towers, the radios were aligned in a matter of minutes using the airFiber radio’s built-in aiming tool,” said Giuseppe Misuri, president of CISAR, which operates CisarNet, a nationwide amateur radio communications system which serves as part of Italy’s emergency communications infrastructure.
He added, “With Ubiquiti’s airFiber equipment, we will be able to increase our network capacity considerably without requiring a major capital investment. This upgrade will provide an excellent tool for our ongoing studies of broadband propagation.”
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