Wireless Access

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Access network design for branch, remote, outdoor, and campus locations with HPE Aruba Networking access points and mobility controllers.
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Aruba "STATION AP"???

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  • 1.  Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 07, 2014 04:47 AM

    Hi everybody,

    Does anyone know if Aruba has a solution for connect an AP working as station (mesh???) to an existing Aruba SSID? This "Station AP" has to move in a warehouse, so it has to do roaming from an AP to another of the existing SSID. And this "Station AP" has to do an ethernet port to connect to it another IP machines.

    We are trying this with an Ubiquiti PicoStation, but the results are poor. So we are looking around to find a better solution.

     

    Some suggestions?

     

    Thanks,

    Massimo

     



  • 2.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 11, 2014 02:35 AM

    So there isn't an Aruba solutions for this? We can work with an AP/IAP/RAP as "Client/Stations" of an SSID?

     



  • 3.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 11, 2014 05:21 AM

    Hi,

     

    I think you can solve this with mesh configuration.

    Configure the AP that is "roaming" as mesh-point and the APs where the point need to connect to as portals with the same configuration.

     

    Kr,



  • 4.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 11, 2014 06:01 AM

    Ok, this colud be a good suggestion, I think.

    My only doubt is: how does "roaming" from an AP to another work? Does it work fine or colud have some problems like "hole"?

    Another disadvantage in my particular situation is that I should change my existing APs that propagate the SSID, because thay are AP93 and if I use mesh I need dual radio/dual band APS (for example AP105), that's right?

     



  • 5.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 11, 2014 07:54 AM

    Well, this should be imediate roaming, so no black hole. Maybe you can test this in your lab with 2 mesh portals and 1 point. Then you disconnect the portal who has the active connection; at the same time you are connected via the point to your network. run a continious ping and see how fast the connection is re-established (if you lose lots of replies).

     

    Mesh can work while there are clients connected on the same radio, although this is not recommended since if you have a high load this can affect your setup, but you can use your existing infrastructure.

     



  • 6.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Aug 11, 2014 08:27 AM

    Note that AOS mesh does not 'roam' in the way it's being described and requires more time than you would likely want to see for the mesh config to reconverge. Unfortunately we do not have a 'wireless client bridge' option specifically. If you are using AOS (controller-based) WLAN, you may be able to get an Instant AP and use the 'WiFi Uplink' config to make it act as a client bridge. Otherwise, though, there are good options from HP that support this feature requirement perfectly (HP501 or HP M111).



  • 7.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 11, 2014 11:10 AM

    @jhoward wrote:

    Note that AOS mesh does not 'roam' in the way it's being described and requires more time than you would likely want to see for the mesh config to reconverge. Unfortunately we do not have a 'wireless client bridge' option specifically. If you are using AOS (controller-based) WLAN, you may be able to get an Instant AP and use the 'WiFi Uplink' config to make it act as a client bridge. Otherwise, though, there are good options from HP that support this feature requirement perfectly (HP501 or HP M111).


    that's why I used the quotes around roaming. But I thought it was prety fast? But that's maybe only when one of the portals fail and not when it sees an other, better signal? 



  • 8.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Aug 11, 2014 09:31 PM

    timing is semi-configurable, but ultimately it's not very fast. Reselection has to occur regardless once the expiry timers trigger.



  • 9.  RE: Aruba "STATION AP"???

    Posted Aug 21, 2014 03:53 AM

    Hi,

    I have tried the solution that you suggested; an IAP with "WiFi Uplink" and client bridge configuration connected to my AOS WLAN. I have set the IAP's ethernet interface to bridge mode.

    It works fine if the users connected to the IAP's ethernet take their IP address from the internal VC DHCP Server. But, in my case, the users behind the IAP's must be in the same VLAN of the IAP and the SSID in which IAP is connected; and in this situation it doesn't work very well. The users behind the IAP don't take the IP from the DHCP server in the network and also with a static IP address they are cut off from the network. This happens also with IAP eth interface in Access or Trunk mode.

    I have tried this in two different location but the behavior is always the same.

    The IAP is a 93 and the firmware version is 6.3.1.8.

     

    There is something that I forgot to do?

     

    Thanks,

    Massimo