Need help setting up Multi-Building Networking with one main WAN and failover at each

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Hey,

So I have a question for you guys. I’m currently helping my job redoing their entire network. I’m by no means a network engineer. I just volunteered my way into this mess.

TLDR: Multi-Location sharing primary WAN with Both over Wireless Backhaul, and Sharing or if possible load balancing independent locations backup connections if primary goes down.

Anyways, they have two different properties about a km apart. We don’t owe the property in the middle though we do have an easement on it that we could run a fiber line on if push came to shove. (This isn’t a great option atm since the cost would be high for the reward and would be a hard sell)

They currently use two starlinks at Location A facing different directions, and at Location B they have two starlinks, and one regional wireless internet provider.

My current plan is to get fiber at Location A and keep a starlink as a backup on the lowest plan at Location A, and the regional wireless provider at Location B. I want to use some form of wireless backhaul to share the fiber connection between the two buildings. Having fiber at both isn’t a realistic option because of the rural nature of the locations. The only reason one works out is because of where the lines run between the towns that’s being built out currently. If possible I would like to just drop down to a single connection at each location that failover for each other though its not a bad idea to have 3 different providers since how everything is cloud based now adays and realistically if the internet went down for one day the loss alone would likely cover the backup connections cost for the year.

Currently the Cloud Key (at Location B) manages both networks, though this makes the Guest Login portal buggy at the location A (Haven’t dived into fixing this as they didn’t have a portal before and I just left it disabled. It is something I want to get working in the future but it would only be at Location A because of certain devices don’t play nice with those portals, and we just have a locked network over at Location B for those guests)

During our busiest season we have about around 400 people at Location B, and around 150 at Location A we expect this to increase to around 250-300 within the next two years though, So I’d like to make sure the network can handle that load when it’s the busiest. Location B will likely have a significantly higher bandwidth usage due to the cliental there, it will be mostly 4k video streaming, likely all at the similar times.

So to the root of the issue, I would like to ensure proper setup of this network. We don’t have anything on site that’s required access at both locations other than the cloud key (and I’m just using our static IP address for the inform currently for Location A) and I don’t expect this to change within the next few years. I would however like to have it so even the backups internet connections can share with each site, or even load balance the backup connections if the primary goes down. I know I’m digging into more enterprise stuff with this, but if we’re paying for the connections anyways it’d be nice to have them available for both sites. I’m willing to push to move to Opensense if needed though I do enjoy the benefits the UXG-Pro provides for easy tracking of bandwidth usage, and notifications of issues.

Oh last by not least I’ll have 5 static IPs available to me.

In terms of gear currently available to me

Cloud Key G2 Plus
Gateway: UXG-Pro, Edge Router X & 12, Several consumer routers
APs: ~ 5 AC Mesh Pros, ~ 25 AC Mesh
Switch: 2 US 8 60W, 4 USW Flex Mini, 5 port unmanaged Switch, 12 port unmanaged Swith.
PtMP: ~ 3 Wave AP Micro
PtP: ~ 2 airMAX Lite AP GPS, ~ 12 Wave Nano

If you’re wondering about the odd gear list, we have a roughly 200 acre outdoor area that we want to have full wifi coverage in, and this what was included in a quote from a 3rd party company that wanted to manage it. (He bought it thinking that he’d have the time to do it himself… and I kinda just took the project over since well I like overtime and it wasn’t going to get done otherwise :sweat_smile:)

Any help would be appreciated.

Computer Network Diagram
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2

The Unifi system can do failover and easy route adding, but it only supports 2 WANs. So I dont think you can really use a UXG-Pro here like you mentioned down below if that second location is going to have 3 WAN interfaces.

The Ubiquiti PtP devices do work great though and would be a good choice.

Though this seems to imply you have Unifi going at both locations already and it is working with 3 WANs?

3

Hey, So both wifi networks are mostly Unifi, at location B its all Unifi currently, and at location A all but the gateway is Unifi. I was running a raspberry pie for the network app, but I decided to just do some port forwarding that way the cloud key could just manage both of them. (You can set it to multisite, and it can support it more then one location that way)

I just found out theres a conduit (Kinda at least) that runs from one property to the other =D, so I’m gonna start looking into fiber cables to get since that’s just the best option. I have to figure out how to get a pull cord though, my boss was saying a mouse and a vacuum will do it. But it’s pretty long piping. Realistically, if we get fiber between the properies, I’ll likely just combine the networks together fully and have only one network room, if the fiber actually gets cut somehow there’s bigger issues :rofl:

4

Ive seen people suck a nylon pullcord through with a bag secured with a rubber band to the end of it using a vacuum and do it over a few hundred ft. I suppose it would work over a longer period as well especially if you had a more powerful shopvac or something, as long as the tube isnt cracked anywhere to let the vacuum pull from anywhere by the other side of the pipe. Be sure and cover the entire entrance to the pipe where the shopvac is. Once you get a lightweight nylon pullcord through, secure two fiber cables to it and pull it manually. Fiber is light, but I doubt it can be pulled that far with a vacuum.
That is assuming both ends were covered properly and the pipe isnt full of debris…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1znHXZdROE

You will likely want single mode fiber for between properties as it is a long distance. Stick with multi-mode for all in building distances though between switches.

edit: or apparently you can also blow it through using compressed air as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ewJCZ6F8h4