Networking through steel bulkhead

[cduck28z]

Good evening. I've been reading the forums for a long time but this is my first post.

So we're trying to set up a local network on a ship that I'm working on. Almost everything is hard wired with cat 6 cable right now. We've encountered a problem however with the water-tight bulkheads (not able to drill through something so important for obvious reasons). I was wondering if anyone has any idea how we could get a signal through a 3/4" plate of steel. I was thinking some sort of directional receiver and just point the two together, but I don't know how well it can penetrate something like that. Any thoughts or ideas?

Key Features:
- On a large boat
- Unable to hard line through bulkhead
- Has to be discrete (not quite "allowed" to have something like this)
- There are hatches around but they are often kept closed (also made of steel)
- Trying to continue our gigabit network to the other side of the boat (approx 300 ft)

Appreciate any help we can get! Thank you!

 

[vmfantom]

You might need to amplify the signal. There are Ethernet repeaters for when Ethernet runs exceed 100 meters, and wifi amplifiers that connect to an antenna port on a router and a coaxial jumper cable.

 

[cduck28z]

Thank you for the quick response. We are trying to get a total of about 300 ft away, but the bulkhead is only about 20 ft from our server. The first real problem is getting through the bulkhead, then we'll deal whatever pops up after that.

 

[kanewolf]

The obvious question is how do other cables get through?

 

[vmfantom]

Thank you for the quick response. We are trying to get a total of about 300 ft away, but the bulkhead is only about 20 ft from our server. The first real problem is getting through the bulkhead, then we'll deal whatever pops up after that.

Is the signaling you need to send already Ethernet, or did you want it to be wifi? Cat6 would be 250 MHz so fortunately that's a fairly long wavelength (1.2 m/47 in) to work with.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

"Has to be discrete (not quite "allowed" to have something like this)"

And here is where we stop. If it's "not quite "allowed" then it's definitely verboten here.

Closing