Heavy Networking 679: Mountaintop Networking And Long-Haul Wireless

Today on Heavy Networking, we’re telling tales from the world of wireless internet service providers. Our guest is Bradley Thompson, Senior Network Engineer at SkyFiber Internet out of Reno, Nevada.

I met Bradley at NANOG87 in Atlanta, where we chatted about what he does as a network engineer, including climbing up towers on the top of mountains to install wireless links for his network.

I’ve only dabbled with some private metro wireless over the years, and I was a junior engineer at the time. So, Bradley’s day-to-day wireless network with long-haul shots, weather challenges, and different ways to think about oversubscription and routing design fascinated me.

We discuss:

• What long-haul wireless means
• Working for a wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)
• The physical aspects of lining up long-haul shots
• Weather, seasonal, and horse impacts on gear and performance
• Layer one designs
• Edge designs and backhaul
• More

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Show Links:

Bradley Thompson on LinkedIn