Mesh capabilities and options with E400

Products Enterprise Wi-Fi Networks
1

Good morning everyone,

I'm working on a project to supply internet to the complex attached.  Every unit will not have internet so mesh will be a requirement.  We have a few implementations utilizing UBNT and Open-mesh with fairly successful results.  I didn't know that the e400 line was capable of mesh so I'm in the process of doing some research to see if it will meet our needs.  I just watched the webinar and still have a few questions when anyone has a moment.

  • remote wifi password change capabilites through maestro?
  • auto meshing between closest base if they all have the same SSID or do they have to be hardset to a specific base?
  • multi SSID per AP capable, for example AP1, SSID1=unit number / SSID2=globalSSID / SSID3=privateSSID / SSID4 =meshID? then AP2, SSID1=unit number / SSID2=globalSSID / SSID3=privateSSID / SSID4 =meshID? / AP3, etc etc...
  • each base can only support 5 clients, is that meshed e400's or actually clients connected to the wifi?  What happens to the 6th do they bounce to another AP or base?
  • Are there any options to switch the meshed ap to a different base remotely if the base goes down or if there is one with a better signal?
  • mesh can only be enabled on 1 frequency, 2 or 5, is it still usable for other SSID's on that same frequency?
  • if channel interference becomes an issue does the base automatically change and will the mesh clients also change or do they have to manually be set to reconnect to the base.  How does that work with the auto channel selection?
  • throttling is a capability, but is that per AP or can that be set per SSID?
  • zero-handoff between AP's?
  • Can SSID's that are broadcasted have different settings?  SSID1=client isolation SSID2=network browsing enabled

I would like this to be as automated as possible, are there rules or fallback options that can be implemented to insure an AP doesn't go down?  Everything I've read so far it all seems to be in config and I just want to make sure that if we need to make changes we won't have to make a visit to the house to make that change.  Thanks for the feedback and any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Ryo

2

Hi ,

Please see answers for your queries:

  • remote wifi password change capabilities through maestro?

Ans. Yes, can be done from template based config change. first do it for Mesh Clients and then for Mesh base.

  • auto meshing between closest base if they all have the same SSID or do they have to be hardset to a specific base?

Ans. It is Auto meshing to the closest AP and derived on signal strength when they have same SSID.

  • multi SSID per AP capable, for example AP1, SSID1=unit number / SSID2=globalSSID / SSID3=privateSSID / SSID4 =meshID? then AP2, SSID1=unit number / SSID2=globalSSID / SSID3=privateSSID / SSID4 =meshID? / AP3, etc etc...

Ans. Yes this is supported.

  • each base can only support 5 clients, is that meshed e400's or actually clients connected to the wifi?  What happens to the 6th do they bounce to another AP or base?

Ans. This is meshed AP number. 6th mesh clients will be denied of association.

  • Are there any options to switch the meshed ap to a different base remotely if the base goes down or if there is one with a better signal?

Ans. If mesh base goes down and a redundant base is available nearby with same capabilities, then all mesh clients will go for that.

  • mesh can only be enabled on 1 frequency, 2 or 5, is it still usable for other SSID's on that same frequency?

Ans. Yes it is available for other SSID on same frequency. say you created mesh link on 5ghz

  On WLAN1, after that you can create SSIDs on other WLANS and use normal clients. Please note that overall bandwidth will be shared even with mesh clients and hence throughput will be a bit lower than a normal profile.

  • if channel interference becomes an issue does the base automatically change and will the mesh clients also change or do they have to manually be set to reconnect to the base.  How does that work with the auto channel selection?

Ans. This is derived as per mesh base channel whenever they are not in same channel, mesh clients will start scanning of base and move to that. we are coming with one more step in this called mesh recovery which will be available from next software version.

  • throttling is a capability, but is that per AP or can that be set per SSID?

Ans. Throttling is applicable per SSID.

  • zero-handoff between AP's?

Ans. A normal handoff goes smooth between two mesh clients.

  • Can SSID's that are broadcasted have different settings?  SSID1=client isolation SSID2=network browsing enabled

Ans. Yes this can be done.

1 Like
3

That's perfect Om, thanks for the feedback.

I'll have to order a few and start some testing.

Thanks again,

Ryo

4

Your Welcome Ryo.

Please get in touch with us in case you need any further help during trial tests.

Thanks

Om

5

I need some clarification

1. you said each Base only support 5 clients

Let say, I need more than 5

QUESTIONS:

1. Should I add more Base

2. If yes how between Base connected and synchronized

3. if 1 Base down, could it handle other Base client

tq

6

this restriction is not applicable now. A E400 device can support more than 5 mesh clients. 

7

How about these.
I mean let say I want more than 1 Base

QUESTIONS:

1. Should I add more Base

2. If yes how between Base connected and synchronized

3. if 1 Base down, could it handle other Base client

8

The assumption is, the AP with the wired uplink(backhaul) connection will be the Mesh base 

From the question's what I understand is, bring up a backup base when the primary base goes down. 

QUESTIONS:

1. Should I add more Base 

What is the use case where more than one base is needed ? 

2. If yes how between Base connected and synchronized 

We can do this by pushing same AP_profile to both the mesh AP's 

3. if 1 Base down, could it handle other Base client 

Yes, this is possible, but again what scenario where one base will be down and another will be UP.