Does anyone have practical experience with deploying Ethernet connectivity outdoors?
I am looking into a low-tech solution to connect a bunch of temperature probes to the Internet. They are digital temperature sensors, and the way the technology works is that there is a converter from the native protocol to TCP/IP based Ethernet. Each sensor then becomes a node on the network. Each sensor string has some 35 nodes, and there are 12 strings total, spread out over a rather large area.
To return the signal to a place where it can then be connected to the Internet at large I would need to bridge approximately one mile (longest distance).
I know the whole thing can be done wireless, but wireless is too complex for this project, especially since the sensors can be powered over the Cat cable (they are ultra-low voltage) and no additional power is available at the sites the sensors are deployed.
Running a mile of conduit, and some sort of all-weather Cat5e cable would be the ideal solution, except that Cat5e only goes out to 100 meters max. If anyone has any experience on how to deliver cabled Ethernet over longer distances while keeping complexity down, I would appreciate some input.
I am looking into a low-tech solution to connect a bunch of temperature probes to the Internet. They are digital temperature sensors, and the way the technology works is that there is a converter from the native protocol to TCP/IP based Ethernet. Each sensor then becomes a node on the network. Each sensor string has some 35 nodes, and there are 12 strings total, spread out over a rather large area.
To return the signal to a place where it can then be connected to the Internet at large I would need to bridge approximately one mile (longest distance).
I know the whole thing can be done wireless, but wireless is too complex for this project, especially since the sensors can be powered over the Cat cable (they are ultra-low voltage) and no additional power is available at the sites the sensors are deployed.
Running a mile of conduit, and some sort of all-weather Cat5e cable would be the ideal solution, except that Cat5e only goes out to 100 meters max. If anyone has any experience on how to deliver cabled Ethernet over longer distances while keeping complexity down, I would appreciate some input.