Using Ethernet-Over-Power as a Layer 2 bridge for an MR?

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Using Ethernet-Over-Power as a Layer 2 bridge for an MR?

On this retreat center property Im slowly building the network out on, I have a run that's about 300 feet downhill through ferns and all kinds of other foliage to reach a garden where wifi is desired. To trench and run fiber will be a headache though not impossible. There is already power that runs on the same circuit from the room where a switch is located that connects to the main fiber backbone on the property to the garden area. I don't need crazy speed but stability is important. I had the thought to try an EOP product to see if I can get a stable connection going and then pop an MR74 I have laying around on there and voila - garden networking. Any suggestions on this? I have used that tech before with good results but I haven't used it recently. Any opinions? 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.
5 REPLIES 5
NolanHerring
Kind of a big deal

That is one of those things where it either will or wont work and you won't know unless you try it. 😃

If it works, then you'll be in business, but I probably would not expect more than 100Mbps on it.
Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
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100Mbps would be stellar for this use case. I have the thought to just leave it pinging with a hearty packet size for like 6 hours and just see what kinds of loss I get. Any other sense of how to test the integrity of the connection? 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

I have used the Dlink power line extenders before with good success.

 

Just a note you tend to get 10% of the advertised performance.  So a 2Gb/s power line extenders tends to give you 200Mb/s of throughput.

Thats been my experience as well. I would be more than happy with 200Mbps

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Powerline extenders can work okay, but they tend to be hit or miss. In the best scenarios I've seen maybe 10-20% of the advertised link speed (so like 100-200mbit), but for some reason in certain settings I've just had them drop out repeatedly (especially when certain appliances come on), or fail to be able to work across certain junction boxes or powerstrips too.

 

It's worth a shot, but honestly in a lot of sites even without line of sight, I've found a wifi based meshing solution or P2P solution to deliver better bandwidth.

 

I've joked that powerline extenders should just cheat and carry a dual wifi radio backhaul with internal antennas....

 

But in all seriousness, reliability is the big question. I've had cases where the connection quality is highly variable and it was frustrating finding any sort of pattern or explanation as to why. I've more or less sworn off the technology and I'd rather add more intermediate wifi backhaul hops to deal with this problem.

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