A KSA university campus needs to connect 12 buildings across a 2km diameter — fiber would mean digging trenches, getting permits, and 6 months of work. A NEOM construction site needs network connectivity for 800 workers, 200 IoT sensors, and 50 security cameras across a 30 km² zone. A Saudi Aramco refinery needs to extend the corporate network from the main administration building to a remote control room 15 km away through harsh desert. A Jeddah port needs to backhaul 200 security cameras from terminal cranes to the central NOC. A retail chain needs branch failover when the primary fiber circuit dies.

Each of these requires Point-to-Point (PTP) or Point-to-Multi-Point (PTMP) wireless networking — not Wi-Fi. EIE has been designing and deploying outdoor wireless backhaul in Saudi Arabia for over 20 years. We’re a Ruckus partner (now a major focus area following recent partnership expansion), Cambium partner, Ubiquiti partner, and integrator of Mikrotik, Mimosa, and Aruba PTP/PTMP solutions across the Kingdom.

If you need to extend a network without trenching fiber — across a campus, between buildings, from city to industrial site, across NEOM-grade outdoor zones — outdoor wireless is the answer. And the design depth determines whether the link works for 10 years or 10 weeks.

Point-to-Point (PTP) wireless explained

PTP wireless is exactly what it sounds like: a dedicated, unidirectional or bidirectional radio link between two specific endpoints. One radio at site A, one radio at site B, line-of-sight (or near-line-of-sight at certain frequencies), and dedicated bandwidth between them.

Key characteristics:

Dedicated bandwidth — the entire capacity of the radio link goes to this single connection
Higher capacity than PTMP (typically 1-10 Gbps achievable on premium PTP)
Lower latency — sub-2ms achievable on premium gear, comparable to fiber
Distance — 1 km to 100+ km depending on frequency, terrain, and equipment
Reliability — when properly designed (link budget, fade margin, redundancy), 99.99%+ uptime achievable

PTP is the right choice when you have two specific endpoints and need carrier-grade reliability between them.

Point-to-Multi-Point (PTMP) wireless explained

PTMP uses one central “hub” radio (the access point or sector) and multiple “subscriber” radios at remote locations. Each subscriber connects back to the hub.

Key characteristics:

Shared bandwidth — the hub’s capacity is shared across all connected subscribers
Lower per-subscriber capacity but more cost-effective per endpoint
Coverage area — typically 3-15 km radius from hub depending on terrain
Subscriber count — 50-500+ depending on platform and bandwidth needs
Common use — ISP-style deployments, security camera mesh, IoT backhaul, branch network coverage

PTMP is the right choice when you have one central location and many remote endpoints to connect — like an industrial site with multiple satellite buildings, a smart city zone with dozens of IoT clusters, or a campus extending to multiple satellite facilities.

When PTP/PTMP wireless beats fiber

The choice between fiber and wireless backhaul comes down to four factors: time, distance, terrain, and total cost.

Time — fiber requires permits, civil works, trenching, splicing. Typical 3-9 month project for a 2 km run. Wireless can be installed in 3-5 days.

Distance — fiber works for any distance but cost scales linearly with cable length and trenching. Wireless cost is fixed per link regardless of distance (within frequency-distance limits).

Terrain — fiber is hard across roads, water, rocky terrain, third-party land. Wireless leaps over obstacles with line-of-sight.

Total cost — for distances over 500 meters or where civil works are restricted, wireless typically wins on TCO.

Use cases where wireless is clearly the right answer:

Building-to-building campus extension
Construction site connectivity (temporary)
Remote industrial site backhaul
Security camera mesh in port, refinery, smart city
ISP last-mile in non-fiber-served areas
Disaster recovery site connectivity
Event venue temporary network
Branch failover when primary fiber circuit dies

Major PTP/PTMP vendors EIE deploys

Our partnership and integration depth across the major outdoor wireless vendors:

Ruckus Networks — newly expanded partnership. Strong outdoor wireless portfolio including the T-series (T350, T610, T750, T811-CM mesh) for high-density outdoor and IoT-aware deployments. Cloud-managed via Ruckus Analytics. Excellent fit for hospitality outdoor extension, education campuses, smart cities.

Cambium Networks — purpose-built outdoor wireless specialist. PTP 670/700/820/850/880 series for medium-to-long-distance backhaul (5 GHz, sub-6 GHz licensed bands, 60/80 GHz mmWave). ePMP and PMP for PTMP applications. Strong KSA presence in industrial and ISP segments.

Ubiquiti — cost-effective UISP and AirMax Gen2 ecosystem. NanoBeam, PowerBeam, RocketDish, AirFiber for PTP up to 100km. LiteBeam, LiteAP, Rocket M for PTMP. Mature for budget-conscious deployments without sacrificing core capability.

Mikrotik — highly configurable, strong feature-set per dollar. Wireless Wire (60 GHz nLOS), wAP series, hAP series, NetMetal series. Strong in price-sensitive deployments where customization matters.

Mimosa Networks (Airspan) — innovative MU-MIMO PTMP, mmWave PTP. A6 series for high-density PTMP, B5/B5c for long-distance PTP, B11 for 24 GHz licensed.

HPE Aruba — outdoor 700-series APs that support PTP and limited PTMP. Less specialized than Cambium/Ruckus/Mimosa but integrates seamlessly with Aruba enterprise networks.

Cisco — outdoor APs (1560 series, 9165 series) with mesh capability. Strong for Cisco-standardized deployments needing outdoor extension.

Vendor selection follows your specific scenario — frequency, distance, capacity, regulatory environment.

Frequency bands used in PTP/PTMP

Different frequencies fit different use cases:

Sub-6 GHz licensed (LTE-like) — for very long distance, weather-resistant, lower bandwidth. Subject to KSA CITC licensing.

5 GHz unlicensed (5.150–5.875 GHz) — most common general-purpose PTP/PTMP. 100 Mbps to 1+ Gbps achievable. 5-30 km typical range. No license required. Affected by congestion in dense areas.

6 GHz unlicensed (5.925–7.125 GHz) — newly licensed in KSA by CITC for indoor unlicensed use. Outdoor 6 GHz licensing scenarios emerging. Less congestion than 5 GHz currently.

24 GHz licensed — long-range, high-capacity. KSA CITC licensing required. Used for carrier-grade backhaul.

60 GHz unlicensed (mmWave) — very high capacity (10+ Gbps), short-range (1-3 km), affected by rain. Used for short PTP and dense urban backhaul.

80 GHz licensed (E-band) — carrier-grade. 5-10 Gbps over 1-3 km with high availability. Subject to KSA CITC licensing.

EIE handles CITC licensing coordination as part of project scope where required.

Distance and capacity guidance

What’s achievable for typical scenarios:

Distance	Frequency	Typical Capacity	Use Case
100m – 1km	60 GHz	5-10 Gbps	Building-to-building short
1-5 km	5 GHz	200 Mbps – 1 Gbps	Campus extension
5-15 km	5 GHz	100-500 Mbps	Industrial site backhaul
5-15 km	80 GHz	5-10 Gbps	Carrier-grade short backhaul
15-50 km	5 GHz	50-200 Mbps	Long-distance regional backhaul
50-100+ km	Licensed sub-6 GHz	50-100 Mbps	Very long-distance

Real performance depends on terrain, line-of-sight, weather, and equipment selection. EIE produces formal link budget calculations during scoping.

KSA-specific use cases

Industrial backhaul (Saudi Aramco, SABIC, refineries) — extending corporate networks across vast industrial sites. Often 5-15 km between admin buildings and remote control rooms. Ruggedized PTP equipment essential due to dust, heat, EMI.

Port and logistics (King Abdullah Port, Jeddah Islamic Port, Yanbu, Dammam) — security camera backhaul from cranes and gates to central NOC. PTMP architecture with multiple camera-tower subscribers connecting back to central hub.

NEOM and Vision 2030 giga-projects — temporary construction site connectivity, permanent operational network for distributed facilities, smart-city PTMP for environmental sensors, traffic management, public safety.

Smart cities and municipal networks — PTMP for city-wide IoT, environmental sensors, traffic cameras, smart lighting, parking management.

Education campuses (King Saud, KAUST, KFUPM) — extending campus network across multiple buildings without trenching, especially when buildings are protected (heritage, royal sites, etc.).

Healthcare — connecting ambulance/emergency response stations to hospital network. Field-deployable PTP for disaster scenarios.

Retail chains — branch backup connectivity when primary fiber fails. PTP point-to-back-haul to nearest fiber-served office.

Hospitality — extending hotel resort network to outdoor venues, beach facilities, golf courses, satellite restaurants.

Mining and remote operations — connecting remote mining sites and quarries to corporate network where fiber is not feasible.

Site survey and link planning

Real-world deployment starts with proper engineering, not just buying radios:

Path profile analysis — terrain, vegetation, buildings between endpoints. Even slight Fresnel zone obstruction degrades performance.

Line-of-sight verification — drone-based or surveyor-based confirmation. Some frequencies (5 GHz) tolerate slight obstruction; others (60 GHz) don’t.

RF spectrum survey — interference assessment in unlicensed bands. KSA urban areas have significant 5 GHz congestion in some zones.

Link budget calculation — formal engineering analysis ensuring adequate fade margin for KSA weather (rare but heavy rain events; persistent dust/sand).

Antenna alignment — proper alignment to within 0.5° is critical for high-frequency PTP. Specialized alignment tools required.

Tower or mounting infrastructure — height, structural strength, lightning protection, grounding. KSA Civil Defense compliance for towers above thresholds.

Power and UPS — outdoor radios need stable power; UPS or solar+battery for remote sites.

EIE does all of this as part of the engagement — not optional, not add-on.

Mesh wireless variants

For scenarios where PTP/PTMP architecture doesn’t quite fit, mesh wireless extends:

Self-healing wireless mesh — multiple nodes that route traffic dynamically; survives single-link failure
Use cases — large outdoor venues, smart cities, dense IoT, public-safety networks
Vendors — Ruckus mesh, Cambium ePMP mesh, Mikrotik wireless mesh

Mesh adds complexity but provides resilience when single-path PTP/PTMP isn’t sufficient.

Integration with rest of network

PTP/PTMP wireless doesn’t operate in isolation. It connects to:

Switching infrastructure — PoE+ switches at both endpoints to power radios
Core network — routing, VLAN extension, security policies
Cybersecurity overlay — encryption (IPsec or vendor-native), monitoring, firewall integration
Network management — central monitoring (SolarWinds, vendor-specific platforms like cnMaestro for Cambium, UniFi for Ubiquiti)

The wireless link is just one piece of a larger network architecture that EIE designs as a whole.

Typical engagement structure

A PTP/PTMP wireless engagement at EIE follows this arc:

1. Discovery — what are you connecting? distances, capacity, regulatory environment, budget 2. Survey and design — site visit, RF survey, link budget calculation, equipment selection 3. CITC licensing (where applicable for licensed bands) 4. Procurement — radios, antennas, mounting, power, network gear 5. Installation — tower/mast/wall mounting, alignment, testing 6. Commissioning — capacity validation, redundancy testing, monitoring setup 7. Documentation handover — configurations, link budgets, alignment records 8. Ongoing managed services — proactive monitoring, predictive maintenance, weather-related response

Typical project timeline: 6-12 weeks from PO to operational, depending on equipment lead times and licensing requirements.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the typical cost difference vs fiber for a 2km link? Highly variable. Wireless capex is typically SAR 30-150K for premium 1-10 Gbps PTP. Fiber capex (trenching, permits, civil works) is often SAR 200-800K for the same 2km in KSA urban context. Wireless wins on TCO in most non-fiber-incumbent scenarios.

How fast can you deploy a PTP link? Best case 3-5 days from “go” decision (if equipment is in stock and no licensing required). Realistic 4-8 weeks for proper survey, equipment procurement (especially for 80 GHz licensed gear), tower/mounting infrastructure, and commissioning.

Is the wireless link as reliable as fiber? Properly engineered, yes. Premium PTP gear with adequate fade margin and redundancy achieves 99.99%+ availability. Where uptime is mission-critical (banking, healthcare), we typically deploy redundant wireless paths or wireless+fiber hybrid.

What about KSA weather — sand, dust, rain? Less of an issue than people think. Sand/dust mostly affects mmWave (60+ GHz). 5 GHz is largely unaffected. Heavy rain affects all frequencies but KSA has fewer heavy-rain events than tropical regions. Link budget calculations include weather fade margin.

Do we need a CITC license? For unlicensed bands (5 GHz, 60 GHz, 6 GHz indoor) — no license required for the radios themselves; tower-mounting may require permits. For licensed bands (24 GHz, 80 GHz) — CITC licensing required; we coordinate.

Can EIE manage the link as a service after deployment? Yes. Proactive monitoring, weather-aware operational status, predictive maintenance, equipment refresh planning, vendor escalation. Available as managed service.

What about security — can wireless be intercepted? Modern PTP gear uses authenticated, encrypted protocols (IPsec, vendor-native AES). Encryption is on by default in our deployments. Replay attacks, MitM attacks blocked by proper crypto and key management.

Is Ruckus a major focus area now that you’ve expanded the partnership? Yes. The expanded Ruckus partnership puts us in an excellent position for hospitality outdoor extensions, education campuses, smart-city deployments, and dense urban PTMP scenarios. Ruckus’s outdoor portfolio (T-series, R-series outdoor) is a strong fit for KSA’s mix of dense urban and harsh-environment deployments.