Controllerless Networks

This is a short demo guide (18 pages) for demonstrating the long awaited WiFi uplink feature on Instant 11ac APs. Now with Instant version 8.5 we have it.

 

In this guide I’ll demonstrate this feature in two scenarios, one using a WiFi uplink to a WiFi hotspot and the other using WiFi uplink to connect to an existing Instant cluster.

 

Hope you’ll find it useful and as always please send through your feedbacks to improve it.

Hi Ariya,

 

I understand that I cannot enable mesh and wifi upliink on the same AP, but would it be possible to use this to extend the 2-hop limitation for IAP mesh links into 3 hops?

I'm thinking:  "WiFi link > mesh point > mesh point > mesh portal" (3 mesh ap's in a cluster and the last wifi uplink one standalone) to get client access with an additional hop?

I would be very surpsied if that is supported (I don't think it is or will be), and even if it were, it would require the wifi uplink IP on the end NOT be a part of the mesh/instant VC so it would be managed separately, etc, etc.

 

Nevermind, no the mode is STA, so the IAP on the end in wifi uplink would only work in standalone mode and show up as a station in the user table. 

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@jhoward wrote:

Nevermind, no the mode is STA, so the IAP on the end in wifi uplink would only work in standalone mode and show up as a station in the user table. 

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Yes it would act as a client to the mesh point ahead but since it is a standalone AP and the WiFi uplink doesn't prohibit users connectign to either radio I am guessing this will work.

Whether Aruba supports the setup is indeed another matter. 

Guess I will have to test to be sure.

no I dont think this is supported.

Ariya,

 

Can you comment on what APs are supported? The manual says the following but that list seems rather small?

AP-203H, AP-203R, AP-203RP, AP-207, 300
Series, 310 Series, 320 Series, and 330 Series access points, 

 

Is support for other platform coming? Any ETA?

If the config options are there, does that mean anything?  On an IAP365 the config options are there, but the IAP would not connect. 

The AP models supported are very small. Some of the other 300 platforms will come on later, as may some others (that is currently still being worked on), so it's TBD. 

The list there is accurate. the new addition is all the 11ac APs.

As far as I know an AP-365 is an 11ac wave2 AP. :)

that list also includes AP-370 series.

What list are you looking at then? Because the list I found in the manual does not mention 360 or 370 series AP.

I think the user guide must have categerised 3XX series that inlcudes all the 37x models as well.

I found that in my testing that I needed to enable enforce uplinke and set it for wi-fi.  Am I doing something wrong?

 

I am conducting my testing on an AP-303H running 8.5

 

 

No I dont think you are doing anything wrong, it is a valid setting. We have the uplink priority list that includes Eth0, WiFi sta and 3G/4G. you can use it based on your use case.

 

Understood, but my AP won't even try to log into the SSID unless enforce uplink is set... in your testing was that the case?

That depend on your "uplink priority list". Is WiFi-sta the top priority there?

By default WiFi-sta is the second priority uplink and for that to kick in, Eth0 should be disconnected. In my setup, if you refer to the page 5 of the PDF document that I pubished, you'll notice that Enforce uplink = none but WiFi-sta was my top priority uplink.

My priority list was setup exactly as the document specified. Any other ideas on why I need to also set the enforce uplink option?

Sent from my iPad

that should not happen, I used IAP-315 with Instant version 8.5.0.

Are you using IAP-315s? also have you enabled Pre-emption?

here is the extract from the user guide on the expected behavior of "Enforcing uplink"

Hi!
I’m using a 303H in my testing and I have pre-emption toggled on.

Niten

Niten Jaiswal
Senior Solutions Architect
email: jainiten@amazon.com | office: 646-817-7320



[AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate]

[AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate]

[AWS Certified Developer - Associate][signature_584266402]




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Thanks.

 

Nice work with the document.

 

I got it running, but it seems depending on the eth0 link, if that is not up when booting the wireless uplink does not come up.

Also, in my particular test with 203R it stops working after having run for a little while.

 

Did you make any tests with no wired ports, only wireless uplink and wireless clients ?

 

 

Thanks fro you comments.

 

with instant 8.5.x as soon as an IAP that was part of a cluster boots up with e0 disconnected, it automatically becomes a mesh point.

with AP-203R which is an entry level AP, has a single radio 2x2:2SS 11ac on either band, OR dual radio, 1x1:1SS 11ac.

 

Are you running it in dual radio mode?

 

WiFi Uplink to a WiFi hotspot is working for me with an IAP-318, but:

- is it possible to bridge the traffic between the WiFi Uplink and the eth0-Interface?

 

I can only see and realize it with (s)nat. That's not what the customer needs.

We need the same layer-2 network on both Interfaces. (remote-sessions from WiFi to eth0-clients and vice versa)

Maybe this feature ist planned? If not, the customer will look around. (for example "cisco work-group-bridge")

I believe the bridging feature is available in 8.6.

 

you are right; thanks @C0LdWir3d

 

It works with Version 8.6.0.0 (release 19.Nov 2019)

 note that with Instant 8.6, Wifi uplink now supports IAP-VPN as well.

Is the WiFi Uplink to Wired Bridge setup supported in Central?

Thanks.

I'm using an 303H AP as standalone configured as the guide. The AP uses the 2.4 antenna to connect to a wireless modem as up-link and the 5G antenna for down-link.

It works ok for some time than it behave strange. Youtube and google continue with no problem at 8Mbps and very responsive. The other sites most of the time fail to load. the ping goes ok everywhere.

I thought it was a mtu problem did some changes on PC but no results.

Any ideas what's going on?

I have no filters or anything applied. tried to update the firmware to 8.6 and the new mesh feature appeared but still behave the same.

I did a packet debug trying to open a simple http site that fails to load

WEB <--> modem (192.168.1.1) <-> 2.4G (192.168.1.5) = 5G (172.20.20.1) <-> client (172.20.20.128)

what channel is 2.4G radio on?

check the utilisation of the 2.4G radio.

The modern is set to auto to choose the least used channel, mostly i have found it using channel 1 and showed as 1+ . Rssi at 33-36

It's not an uplink failure since the drops are 0 pkt and the gateway 192.168.1.1 is always reachable.

And YouTube and Google are always uninterrupted and with high bandwidth.

Looks like you are using a 40mhz wide 2.4 channel.

 

 

it is better to change the 2.4G radio to 20MHz channel width which basically it means it should be on channel 1 not 1+

so go to configuration->RF>show adv options-> "wide channel bands" = 5GHz

"wide channel bands" = 5GHz this setting is by default, i haven't changed it.

 

Utilization of 2.4 is at 15-20% Drops are at 0fps, errors change by 0-10 fps

 

5Ghz has optimal parameters

 

The most incredible part is that when the sites stop to load, if i open a YouTube video ironically the pages start to load normally and everything works better 

 *ping with modem from the wifi client

 

if anyone has the same problem, i have resolved it using only the 2.4Ghz for uplink and connecting the clients.
Something is wrong with this firmware a bug or something else 

Hi @ebilcari.

 

What version of the firmware are you using ?

 

Latest are 8.5.0.8 and 8.6.0.4.

I have tried both 8.5 and 8.6

I've read this thread 20x.  I cannot get my IAP225 to connect via wifi uplink.  

Probably because the IAP-225 is not one of the supported APS:

https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/Instant_85_WebHelp/Content/instant-ug/uplink-conf/wifi-uplink.htm?Highlight=wifi%20uplink