Wireless Access

Hi

I am using Aruba outdoor coverage planning tool to design a wireless mesh with 3 MSR4000 routers and ANT 2x2 D607 for mesh point. After set up the default AP value there are some error generated by the tool and need to be fixed before proceeding next step. However the error message is not clear regarding where exactly I should change the parameter.

for example, error "Go to Define Nodes to adjust antenna heading of MSR4000_AP2 to around 48° or MSR4000_AP3 to 228°", it doesn't tell which radio should I enter 48° in AP2 setting? In AP2 settings, radio 1/2/3 are all for 802.11an Group4 with ANT 2x2 D607.
KMZ file and error message attached.

You have three points, AP1/2/3/ Which one, or are all of them, an MSR4k? You're right, the planner error dialog box isn't doing a good job of telling you which radio to adjust the antenna for. it was a consequence of shoehorning in the 4-radio AP into the first revision of the outdoor planner.

So a few things,

* Even with a 1dB design margin, the outdoor planner won't build a mesh link using the D607 at or near 1km. For 1km or more, you need to either use the ANT-2x2-5010 (not ideal) or the ANT-2x2-5614. See attachment 'ap175-700m-ptp-test-fail.png' for a screenshot of my attempt of a 700m PtP shot with the D607 with AP-175s. In short, the D607s just don't have enough oomph to get you there. You need higher gain antennas. See below for more.
* When you let the planner automagically select the mesh links for you, it assumes that any link (portal+point+point(s)) all need to be able to see each other in some way. If it can't then it throws out all those wacky alignment errors trying to get an adjustment to come close. Remember, the tool is not only looking for SNR, but useable SNR above the noise floor. If there's not enough separation there, based on the link distance, antenna gain, design margin, and noise floor, the link won't be stable.
* The best way to control what the planner does in a multi-hop plan, is to control the channels of the links. In your case, you have three 4-radio APs, RADIO0 for client access, and then each AP can build two other links to its neighbors (Radio 1 and Radio 2).

I built it like this:
AP1
Radio 1 Portal @ 141deg --> AP2 Radio 1 Point
Radio 2 Portal @ 96deg --> AP3 Radio 1 Point
AP2
Radio 1 Point @ 327deg --> AP1 Radio 1 Portal
Radio 2 Point @ 48deg --> AP3 Radio 2 Portal
AP3
Radio 1 Point @ 275deg --> AP1 Radio 2 Portal
Radio 2 Portal @ 227deg --> AP2 Radio 2 Point

So with this, you have up to three mesh link. I took your layout, and built a different channel per link on the map and assigned accordingly. That way the planner is forced to build it the way I want it to, instead of it trying to think FOR me. See attachment '1-config.png' for the examples.

Attached is a zip file with two KMZ, one using ANT-2x2-5010 which gives you anywhere from 47Mbps to 64Mbps (using a 3dB margin, I am assuming this is all clear line of sight); and then the ANT-2x2-5614 which gives you 77Mbps to 127Mbps (again, with a 3dB margin). Hope this helps, but I wouldn't plan on getting the D607s to work at that distance.

And yes, while I have a feature request in to change the erroneous error you are seeing (or if the link is REALLY bad it just never comes up at all) and replacing it with a clear warning that 'the link is too far to build a stable connection' kind of message. We are working on later version that will correct a lot of this behavior. Thank you for your patience.

TL;DR - You need higher gain antennas. :)

Many thanks for your advice. I am new to the tool and the Aruba mesh product line.
The KMZ I posted here is a sample.
The actual size of the project is for a big area: one construction site (10 Square KM) and a camp site (0.7 Square KM) linked by a 9 kilometres road)
Client requests seamless coverage on both sites as well as the link road.
Local Aruba engineer suggest to use combination of MSR2000 (client coverage) and MSR4000 (client coverage + mesh point) for the design.
They also suggested to use ANT 2x2 2005 for client coverage and ANT 2x2 D607 for 802.11an group4.
I end up with a design contain 29 of MSR2000 and 91 of MSR4000.


I found the outdoor planner can only process a certain amount of APs.
Initially I load a KMZ with 120 APs and found the tool only display 80 locations.
Then I found when processing mesh point, it time out if I have more than 13 APs in the KMZ. (in this case all 13 are MSR4000 with ANT 2x2 2005 for 802.11bgn and ANT 2x2 5005 for 802.11an group4)
I don’t know why with this combination of antenna the tool does not give any error and finish the final coverage map.
Please see the zip file.

It's recommended to limit the number of APs per KMZ to around 40. Alot of that is a combination of the time required to process the file in the planner, but also what Google Earch can handle when that many points have that many models associated to it. You can then open the three 40-AP KMZ files at the same time to get the same visualization.

That said, why it's giving you fits with 13 MSR2k/4k is strange. Can you attach the original KMZ and I will see if it does the same to me? The attached file you sent, was that the one that worked or eventually processed?

Last attachment "Link Road 3 New" is the one eventually processed.
I attached here the original KMZ file of Link Road which has 34 APs.
It times out in Outdoor Planner when calculating mesh point.
Then I reduce AP number to 18, still times out in planner.
Finally I reduce the number to 13 then got the coverage map "Link Road 3 New".

Are you configuring MSR4K with directionals, and setting the heading on each but leaving them all in the same channel? If you are doing that, the planner is likely choking on the fact that an AP aimed up the road will be able to hear and build a link to each AP in the chain, thinks you want that, and attempts to build it but chokes after trying to build a few hundred mesh links :)

Two options I can think of:
1 - manually assign links from AP to AP. the drawback is this is very time consuming and is likely prone to errors.
2 - lower the design margin on the mesh to an absurdly high level and hope that attenuates all but the closest links

Let me know what AP and antenna configuration you are trying that is choking the planner. I am trying to render on my end with 5010s, so we'll see how that finishes out.

Attached is a render of MSR2Ks using ANT-2x2-5010 for mesh (3dB margin) and ANT-2x2-2005 for client coverage (6dB margin). It took about 5 minutes but it eventually popped out the other side. I have no doubt that using 5614s would create so many interconnected links that the planner would time out before it finished. I will submit this to the outdoor PLM to make a note of.

Thanks a lot for your reply. Sadly the client choose another solution. I don’t know which product they will use but not Aruba.
However it’s good experience to play with the outdoor planner.
Now I am thinking if Aruba Mesh is the right solution for this kind of project.
It wouldn’t be good to see 120-300 poles standing on the site to provide the service. (The original Aruba proposal has 300 APs hence 300 poles)
I think a WiMAX solution will be more realistic.

If the coverage requirement is wide area, clear LoS, and low user densities, sadly something with much wider range like Cellular/LTE or WiMax is usually a much better fit for a number of reasons. Thanks for all the hard work though!

Where can I find this planning tool?

https://outdoorplanner.arubanetworks.com

This is a beta product with zero cost, and there are some times when the system is sluggish or has errors. Also make sure to read through the user guide, as there are critical points in the user guide as to how the system models, and how important it is for the user to pick the correct design margin, modeling characteristics, etc.