Controllerless Networks

Hi!

 

I have a strange question from a strange scenario. We are deploying wireless to a machine operating inside of construction tunnels that have an IAP275 mesh point mounted on it. So far, this machine has only been operating inside a single tunnel connecting to the same IAP cluster mesh portals and it has been working fine.

 

Now, demands for this machine to be able to travel between different tunnels(different IAP clusters) to operate has come. My question is: Can we make this IAP mesh point connect to mesh portals in different clusters or do I need to convert to controller based to meet this demand?

 

Cheers,

Chris

My question is: Can we make this IAP mesh point connect to mesh portals in different clusters ?

No

do I need to convert to controller based to meet this demand?

You can create to two mesh cluster profiles , one will serve as Primary (Mesh Point Connects to Mesh Portal-1) and the other one as Secondary (Connects to Mesh Portal-2 if Mesh Portal-1 is not available)



Hope this helps

Thanks for your reply. I´m under the impression that when using controller based I can simply keep the 275s in the same group with the same Mesh cluster and radio settings and it should be able to roam freely between all the mesh portals in that group. Isn´t that correct?

 

Cheers,

Chris

Quite an interesting scenario you have, I have used multiple mesh portals in past but for redundancy .

This could work but you may need adjust some of the mesh link thresholds under the mesh radio profile based on the environment conditions to make sure that the mesh link is dropped and another is chosen as the mesh point roams or to avoid flapping between the two .





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Thanks for the tip on the client bridge. The different portals will be well separated from eachother (different tunnel entraces) and the machine is not moving alot, it´s drilling at the front of the tunnel. The reason we chose to place an AP on the machine itself was because we have a "no-deploy" zone of about 150m behind the drill and since they´re drilling further all the time, the zone moves.

 

We have achieved good enough mesh links between the last stationairy IAP275 and the one on the machine, the WLAN module on the machine itself would not be able to connect on that distance by itself.

 

I´ll try to put them in the same controller group provisioned as mesh portals and the ones on the drills as mesh points. 

 

Thanks!

All good points above. Making a 'mobile' (albeit very slowly mobile) mesh point deployment is not supported and roaming can take a few seconds to a minute. So long as you are OK with that, you should be fine. The labor-intensive way to ensure stability is to figure out the midpoint of SNR between the two portals with the point (walk down the tunnel with the mesh point and check the 'meshinfo' at the console, and whatever the midpoint SNR is, set the mesh threshold 6dB above that. That way when the point does roam, you are positive that you are going to be stable on the new mesh portal.

 

I would definately recommend using the HP501 as a client bridge solution. It's designed for just this exact kind of scenario and can bridge up to 15 wired devices behind it. If you are needing wifi ON the drilling rig, I think you're good with the AP-275s.

 

Unfortunately, right now you cannot do multiple mesh clusters on IAP, and there is zero mesh configuration settings you can make (mesh link threshold, etc). It may work but I would guess in the middle where it would need to roam, it would not perform well.

Christoffer,

 

You can certianly configure that, but mesh points do not roam very quickly or well between mesh portals.  It is not something that you want on a moving vehicle.  What I would suggest is the HP 501 client bridge here: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/mpc/networking-wireless/product-detail.html?oid=6372587

 

You could plug your wired client to the 501 device and it roams like an actual client.