Controller-less WLANs

Mesh Portal and Point help establish connection between 2 points, mostly over a longer distance where wired connectivity is not feasible.

IAPs can be used to achieve the same. This articles explains how a pair of IAP can be configured as Mesh Portal and Mesh Point.

Environment : Indoor or Outdoor Mesh Environment.

Network Topology : Switches======== IAP Mesh Portal ========= IAP Mesh Point=========Switches.

Below are the steps to configure an IAP Mesh Network:

1. Connect both IAPs to a LAN network.
2. They should form a cluster as usual.
3. By default all the IAPs are capable of functioning as Mesh Portal.
4. To configure the Mesh Point, goto the access point tab in UI.
5. Click the access point you want to configure as Mesh Point.

6. Click edit and go to uplink tab. Enable Eth0 bridging.

7. This would enable the IAP mesh point to use its Eth0 port as downlink and identify that it has to function as a Mesh Point.
8. The IAP Mesh Point can now to unplugged and plugged where necessary.
9. The Mesh Portal and Point will form a Mesh link once the Point comes up.

To verify if the Mesh Portal and Point have formed a link, below commands can be run.

*********************************************************************************************************
 9/23/2013 20:11:25 PM    Target: 6c:f3:7f:c4:0b:4c    Command: show ap mesh link
*********************************************************************************************************

Neighbor list
-------------
MAC                Portal             Channel  Age  Hops  Cost  Relation      Flags  RSSI  Rate Tx/Rx  A-Req  A-Resp  A-Fail  HT-Details       Cluster ID
---                ------             -------  ---  ----  ----  --------      -----  ----  ----------  -----  ------  ------  ----------       ----------
6c:f3:7f:c0:b5:11  6c:f3:7f:c0:b4:d0  161+     0    1     7.00  C 5h:36m:24s  HLK    65    6/6         1      1       0       HT-40MHzsgi-3ss  8071044095124fd7a54e5db8468a3b1

Total count: 1, Children: 1
Relation: P = Parent; C = Child; N = Neighbor; B = Blacklisted-neighbor
Flags: R = Recovery-mode; S = Sub-threshold link; D = Reselection backoff; F = Auth-failure; H = High Throughput; L = Legacy allowed
    K = Connected; U = Upgrading; G = Descendant-upgrading; Z = Config pending; Y = Assoc-resp/Auth pending
    a = SAE Accepted; b = SAE Blacklisted-neighbour; e = SAE Enabled; u = portal-unreachable; o = opensystem

*********************************************************************************************************
 9/23/2013 20:11:57 PM    Target: 6c:f3:7f:c4:0b:4c    Command: show aps
*********************************************************************************************************

AP List
-------
Name               IP Address    Mode    Spectrum  Clients  Type  Mesh Role  2.4 Channel  2.4 Power (dB)  2.4 Utilization (%)  2.4 Noise Floor (dBm)  5.0 Channel  5.0 Power (dB)  5.0 Utilization (%)  5.0 Noise Floor (dBm)  Need Antenna Config  From Port  Config Id
----               ----------    ----    --------  -------  ----  ---------  -----------  --------------  -------------------  ---------------------  -----------  --------------  -------------------  ---------------------  -------------------  ---------  ---------
6c:f3:7f:c4:0b:4c  10.10.45.253  access  disable   0        135   Portal     1            21              95(poor)             -90(good)              161-         20              25(good)             -87(ok)                No                   none       5
6c:f3:7f:c4:0b:50  10.10.45.254  access  disable   0        135   Point      11           21              91(poor)             -87(ok)                161-         20              25(good)             -92(good)              No                   none       5
Flat Slave AP Count:1
Hierarchy Slave AP Count:0