Case study

Two buildings, connected wirelessly over 800 metres

A client with two buildings 800 metres apart wanted a single network, without the cost and disruption of digging in cabling. Pantronic IT solved it with a Unifi Device Bridge Pro — a wireless site-to-site link with full VLAN support.

Similar project? See the technology VMware to Proxmox

The challenge

One business network, split across two buildings

The client had a main building and a second location roughly 800 metres away. Both needed to sit on the same network: the same VLANs for data, telephony and guests, the same firewall, and central management from one environment.

A cable connection between the two buildings wasn't an option. A public road runs between them, and 800 metres of trenching means permits, a contractor, and a timeline of weeks to months — for costs out of proportion to the problem.

Two separate internet connections with a VPN tunnel between them was technically possible, but that results in a slower, less stable and harder-to-manage network than one physically joined network.

  • One logical network

    Both buildings needed to behave as a single network, not two separate sites joined by a VPN.

  • VLANs intact over distance

    Data, voice and guest VLANs needed to work in the second building exactly as they do in the main one.

  • No digging

    No permits, no contractor, no weeks of waiting for a physical cable connection under the public road.

  • Centrally manageable

    One Unifi environment where both buildings are visible and manageable, without separate routers or per-site settings.

The solution

A wireless bridge that behaves like a cable

We mounted a Unifi Device Bridge Pro on each building: a point-to-point wireless bridge with clear line-of-sight between the two locations. The bridge operates at Layer 2 — to the rest of the network, it's invisible that there's no cable.

Diagram of the site-to-site connection Two buildings 800 metres apart, each with a Unifi Device Bridge Pro on the roof, connected via a wireless link. Inside both buildings the same VLANs (data, voice, guests) run via a Unifi switch. Device Bridge Pro Building A – Main site Unifi switch – VLAN 10/20/30 Device Bridge Pro Building B – 800m away Unifi switch – VLAN 10/20/30 ± 800 metres · line-of-sight Layer-2 bridge · 802.1Q VLAN trunking

Point-to-point wireless bridge

Two Unifi Device Bridge Pro units, one per building, carefully aligned on clear line-of-sight. No relay stations needed at this distance.

VLAN trunking (802.1Q)

Every VLAN running at the head office — data, telephony, guests — is tagged and passed across the bridge. Building B is, network-wise, simply an extension of Building A.

One Unifi environment

Switches, access points and the bridge itself all sit in the same Unifi controller. One dashboard, one login, no separate configuration per building.

Firewall stays central

All traffic from Building B runs through the same firewall as Building A. No second firewall, no second security policy to maintain.

Fast to deliver

From aligning the bridges to a working, tagged connection: days rather than the weeks trenching would take.

No digging, no permits

No contractor, no municipal permit for crossing the public road, no resurfacing afterwards.

The result

Two buildings, no noticeable difference from one network

Staff in Building B notice nothing about the distance: the same VLANs, the same printers and network drives, the same firewall rules as at the main site. For IT management, it's one network to maintain, not two.

The client saved the cost and lead time of trenching 800 metres of cable, while keeping the full control and segmentation a cabled connection would offer — thanks to VLAN trunking over the wireless bridge.

Sound familiar? Or is something similar coming up for you — two locations, an awkward cable route, or simply a network that's outgrowing itself? We're happy to think through what's possible.

Technology used in this project

  • 2× Unifi Device Bridge Pro (point-to-point)
  • Unifi switches with VLAN trunking at both sites
  • Central Unifi Network controller
  • One central firewall for both buildings
  • 802.1Q VLAN trunking for data, voice and guests
Discuss your own situation

Case study 2

From VMware to Proxmox: seamless and without data loss

For a client we migrated the virtual machines from VMware to Proxmox VE. The client chose Proxmox because of VMware's policy, the costs and the simplicity of the platform.

All VMs were moved without data loss and with their settings preserved. The risk lies in the switch itself: it must not come at the expense of your data or your working environment.

Migration from VMware to Proxmox Four virtual machines move one by one from a VMware server to a Proxmox VE server. After arrival a check mark appears: the VM runs with the same settings. VMWARE PROXMOX VE migration VM 1 Application VM 2 Database VM 3 File server VM 4 Domain controller

Schematic view of the migration. VM names are for illustration.

The result

Everything runs on Proxmox, exactly as before

After the migration all virtual machines run on Proxmox VE with the same settings as on VMware. For IT management it means an open platform without dependence on VMware licences.

Our approach per VM:

  1. 1

    Inventory

    We record which VMs exist and how they are configured.

  2. 2

    Migration per VM

    Each VM is moved to Proxmox individually, with data and settings preserved.

  3. 3

    Verification

    After each migration we test that everything works before the next VM is moved.

Technology used in this project

  • VMware as the source platform
  • Proxmox VE as the target platform
  • Migration per virtual machine, with verification afterwards
  • VM settings preserved
Discuss your migration

Multiple locations, need one network?

We're happy to help work out whether a wireless bridge, VPN or leased line best fits your situation.

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