Connecting multiple NVRs together

[William Nelson]

I have been eye-balling the Dahua 5216 NVRs and couldn't find any information about running multiple NVRs in a "cluster" so to speak. They have hot standby capabilities, but the use case for these would be multiple buildings that are separated by a block or two, but connected centrally.

Short of some sort of VPN or MPLS, I am trying to determine the best way to achieve this. Is this possible with these units? If not, can anything do this?

 

[alastairstevenson]

multiple buildings that are separated by a block or two, but connected centrally.

By this do you mean connected in the LAN sense? I'm assuming so, as your question is network related.
If so, the NVRs will already be all connected.

 

[nayr]

do the buildings have networks that can support the bandwidth between them? need more details on how they are connected.

 

[William Nelson]

Sorry, I misspoke. I meant if the NVRs were located blocks away connected by different WAN connections.

 

[William Nelson]

do the buildings have networks that can support the bandwidth between them? need more details on how they are connected.

Yes, each building will have sufficient WAN capabilities. They are completely separated WAN circuits with no inter connectivity between each other, that's why I was thinking MPLS or VPN.

 

[nayr]

are they transiting untrusted networks? You can connect them all via Site to Site VPN and make em act as one big network.. it'll be transparent to the NVR/Cameras.

 

[William Nelson]

Yes, they are. Standard WAN. I was thinking VPN also. What is sufficient bandwidth per camera at maximum resolution on the Dahua Starlights Turrets that you recommend, nayr?

 

[nayr]

H264 or H265? What Framerate? could be 4-8Mbps depending for max bitrates..

I'd also be stuffing each camera with a local SD card; dont needa be big but if the cameras have local storage you can use the ANR feature that will download any missing footage off the cameras when the NVR's or network goes down.

 

[William Nelson]

H264 or H265? What Framerate? could be 4-8Mbps depending for max bitrates..

I'd also be stuffing each camera with a local SD card; dont needa be big but if the cameras have local storage you can use the ANR feature that will download any missing footage off the cameras when the NVR's or network goes down.

Just H264. Lower framerate also, I suspect 15ish.

Good idea on the SD cards, will definitely do that.

Will the 5216 support that ANR feature?

 

[nayr]

5216-4KS2 supports ANR, see page 1 on spec datasheet: http://www1.dahuasecurity.com/download/DHI-NVR5208_5216_5232-4KS2_Datasheet_20160815.pdf

H264 15FPS on the Varifocal Turret offers the following bitrate range: 1024-6656Kb/S; so about ~6Mbps for only the Main Stream, perhaps a lil less if you run VBR instead of CBR but you should plan for Max Bitrate

 

[William Nelson]

Wow, that is a lot on the bitrate side. With VPN encryption overhead and camera bitrate, that will be hard to find on the upload side.

Hopefully VBR is very efficient.

 

[nayr]

H265 cuts that in half; and you can get an EXTREMELY efficient VBR out of the cameras by enabling SmartCodec; but you will loose alot of advanced features such as IVS (Tripwire/Intrusion) as it needs the CPU for the SmartCodec and cant handle object tracking at the same time.

 

[William Nelson]

OK, that is good. I don't mind using h.265. I don't plan on using IVS at all, so that should be okay.

Hypothetical question. If these buildings did not have WAN connectivity (think apartment building complexes), what are my options? I do NOT want to use WiFi based on feedback around here.

Are there any sort of LoS products?

 

[ldasilva]

Ubiquiti makes stuff that will do building to building
hell even town to town
Ubiquiti Networks - Products

 

[nayr]

Point to Point wireless links can be just as reliable as wired long range link, or even more so since you own the network.. as long as you have Line of Sight between the buildings.

 

[William Nelson]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. This could get involved.

I have been hearing more and more about Ubiquiti. I have used their UniFi and was pretty happy.

 

[William Nelson]

I am actually still thinking about the design. With the PtP stuff from Ubiquti, I might go ahead and run all the cameras to a centralized NVR via the PtP links and PoE switches.

Before that, I was going to just have mutiple NVRs at each building and then "cluster" them, which I am still not sure is possible. Either way, with the PtP stuff, I could still have separate NVRs and they would be on the same network, so that is the way I am leaning.

 

[nayr]

Ive setup PtP 5GHz links spanning miles and they been running for neigh a decade now w/out problem.. iirc @bp2008 got internet to a remote cabin w/no direct LoS by setting up a relay station on a ridgeline a few miles out.. he's pushing some impressive distances.

sounds like your setup should be a piece of cake relatively.. I suggest you use 5GHz for maximum bandwidth and minimum interference.

 

[William Nelson]

Never really thought 5Ghz had that kind of range when you look at the difference in signal strength on residential wireless devices. 2.4 seems to have better strength, but limited bandwidth.

Never really looked into the limitations of each frequency though. Might be some good bedtime reading....

 

[nayr]

5GHz will go just as far for the given power; it just dont go through and around (via reflections) objects nearly as well as lower frequencies will.. which is irrelevant if you have LoS

We boil water with 2.4Ghz in our microwave; water resonates at that frequency so rain will actually be more of a problem for a 2.4Ghz P2P link than 5Ghz.. at least in my experience.

32Mile 150Mbps 5Ghz link: 5Ghz Titanium 32 mile PtP Results! - Ubiquiti Networks Community