Question : Wireless bridge link capacity and video surveillance

I have 2 LAN networks that I plan to connect with wireless link (two AP's in bridge mode).

LAN1                                                   LAN2
PC1|                                                 | PC4
PC2| - Switch - AP1 - AP2 - Switch - | PC5
PC3|                                                 | PC6

Is it better to go on 108Mb wireless lik or is 54Mb sufficient for following demands:

1) computers in network don' t exchange much data 9mostly some database queries to a network database)
2) in LAN1 we would later add 3 video cameras (with the possibility of night surveillance)
3) in LAN2 we would later add 2, possibly 3 video cameras (with the possibility of night surveillance)
4) all video surveillance should be shown on PC1 (LAN1)

And few following questions
1) would the traffic from cameras in forst LAN occur in LAN1 only, or it would roam over the wireless link to LAN2?
2) what equipment would you recommend for video surveillance, something in the middle range, not to expensive and not to cheap?
3) how much bandwith does one video camera use?

Thanks,
Goran

Answer : Wireless bridge link capacity and video surveillance

You have a "tall order"!

Simply put, for your demands, faster is better and you will need a good line of site between your APs or good high gain yagi (directional) antennas.

Video is very network intensive and some cameras do a better job of compression than others and in such cases you may need to use that camera suppliers software.

Your camera traffic will be seen by both networks IF they are on the same LAN segment, i.e. 192.168.0.XX with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and of course a PC is connected to the camera itself. Most cameras do not broadcast traffic and some have built in web servers which eliminate further traffic from cameras until you connect.

I have experimented with the D-Link pan and tilt wireless and IP cameras such as the DCS-3220 and DCS-5220 wireless.

As far as bandwidth, the more cameras you are actively watching, the more bandwidth. I could not find any specific data. But in your scenario with all 5 running you may seem latency especially across the wireless link form the two in LAN2.

I doubt it will be that significant if all those PCs are doing is some database work.

Good luck and hope I helped a bit.

John