There are many situations where enterprises are challenged to provide sufficient bandwidth to all buildings in a campus environment. Laying fiber and using Telco facilities are very expensive, and lower frequency point-to-point wireless solutions do not have the required capacity. Fortunately there are a couple of wireless solutions that can deliver highly available symmetrical gigabit speeds at distances of up to six miles.

The Options

There are really two options to deliver gigabit wireless point-to-point connectivity. The first is very high-frequency millimeter Wave (mmW) wireless, and the second is laser-based Free Space Optics (FSO). There are several alternatives for lower bandwidth requirements, but if gigabit connectivity is required the above solutions are the only options.

The following table outlines some of the capabilities of mmW and FSO.

Frequency	Speed	Distance	Licensed	Security
60GHz	Full-duplex 1Gbps	1.5 miles	No	Up to 256 bit AES
80GHz	Full-duplex 1Gbps	6 miles	Yes	Up to 256 bit AES
Laser	Full-duplex 1Gbps	2 miles	No	Up to 256 bit AES