What is this antenna?

[bharvey2]

They smaller ones may also be 60Ghz. They are getting common now too. They don't have the range (maybe a kilometer or so) but depending upon conditions, can achieve 1 Gig throughput. As Cameron314 pointed out, none need to be licensed.

 

[MUTNAV]

Depending on the age of the school, it might.

Older schools may not have fiber optic cable between buildings. It may not have conduit to allow installation of fiber. Might be that they just decided to forego it and go straight to RF.

A number of older schools and similar places around me have setups like this.
The small pucks are point to point network links, might be running on 5.8GHz.
The panel antennas are for WiFi, we're using some similar antennas at work to 'paint' certain areas with WiFi coverage. '
The box below the panel antennas would be the WiFi access point with coax going to the two antennas and an Ethernet cable coming from their router.
Other puck antennas may connect to other buildings/facilities.

Easier/cheaper than running new fiber everywhere, especially in older buildings.

A few years ago a communications person mentioned that if a country or area doesn't have wired telephone infrastructure at this point, they never will (they would go straight to cell).

Thanks
Joel

 

[mmckenna]

A few years ago a communications person mentioned that if a country or area doesn't have wired telephone infrastructure at this point, they never will (they would go straight to cell).

Thanks
Joel

I was in Eastern Europe back in the early 2000's. That is exactly what they were doing. No wired phone/internet services going in to the rural places. It was all cellular based.

Infrastructure construction for fiber/copper gets really expensive if you don't have an existing duct structure to carry all that cable. Fiber itself is cheap. Putting it in the ground is the issue.

 

[bharvey2]

A few years ago a communications person mentioned that if a country or area doesn't have wired telephone infrastructure at this point, they never will (they would go straight to cell).

Thanks
Joel

I'd believe him/her. I'm in the SF BayArea (California). - I look after several sites for work. AT&T, the telco provider, has no interest in installing or even maintaining copper circuits. They are a pushing fiber and cell services. Fewer and fewer companies still have copper lines, mainly to keep old alarms or fax services going, I don't remember the last time I saw a telco employee with a butt set hanging on his belt.

 

[mmckenna]

I'd believe him/her. I'm in the SF BayArea (California). - I look after several sites for work. AT&T, the telco provider, has no interest in installing or even maintaining copper circuits. They are a pushing fiber and cell services. Fewer and fewer companies still have copper lines, mainly to keep old alarms or fax services going, I don't remember the last time I saw a telco employee with a butt set hanging on his belt.

True. I'm not far from you.
I hired a number of ex-AT&T guys as they all wanted out. The skill set needed to maintain outside plant is pretty much gone. There's little money in it and most carriers don't want to support it anymore. There's a lot of FCC notices about carriers abandoning cable plant as they get out of the business.

Wether it is a butt set or a sidekick meter, most younger techs don't know how to use them properly. The old guys have retired or long since moved on.

To be honest, I love the traditional copper plant. It just worked, as long as there were techs that knew how to maintain it. That's getting rare, and I'm getting pulled (kicking and screaming) into the IP world.

But when the IP breaks, it's hard not to yell "Just give me two damn wires and I'll make it work!".

 

[bharvey2]

But when the IP breaks, it's hard not to yell "Just give me two damn wires and I'll make it work!".

Oh, that time 10. On more thn one occasion in the past, when I've had to contend with some non-functioning circuit, whether phone or cable, I've told the telco/cable tech to get lost because they couldn't resolve the problem. I'd end up doing what they told me couldn't be done. Unfortuately, that is a thing of the past.

 

[Cameron314]

And how would you know that? Care to share?

I can look at the gear and see what it is.

 

[n5dki]

could be a CBRS node. a lot of schools are installing these for "distance learning". they're getting "covid money" to pay for it.
CBRS is Band 48 for LTE and N48 for 5G ( 3.5Ghz to 3.7 Ghz )