Okay here’s what we already have:
2x MLPPP Bonded T1’s —> SonicWALL Pro 2040 —> Cisco 2811 —> Switch —> CMM Micro —> (6) 60 degree integrated 900Mhz AP’s.
This site has ~60 customers and the AP’s are ~180ft off the ground. 22 miles is the max range setting currently on the 900Mhz AP’s. Our longest shot is ~20 miles.
What we want to add is this:
21 miles away we own a 500ft tower. We’re thinking we may want to go up ~300ft but are doing a path analysis at the moment to see how high we need to go.
We want to take a backhaul from our main site to this new colo site and put up 2 connectorized AP’s there. Preferably with antennas that are 120-180 degrees. We don’t anticipate ever getting over 75 customers on each AP at this new site.
What connectorized antennas would you use for your AP’s in this situation, and what do we need to transfer sync from a backhaul to 2 AP’s? Does the new coverage extender fit what we need or am I over analyzing this?
Edit: On top of that - even if we do that setup… What kind of network infrastructure do we need to split the bandwidth between the backhaul at the colo site and the AP’s that are already on our main site.
Because the cost of getting more network equipment for this colo site won’t be worth our time - especially w/ the local loop fees out there.
MTI makes some nice sector antennas. H-POL is quite a bit more than V-POL.
The coverage extender is nice, but not necessary. We have had no issues passively splitting the sync once to 2 AP’s. Just don’t connect pin 4 as this can trip the AP into override on a reboot.
The BH will just be shared BW on the CMM. You don’t need to do anything other than connect it.
The CMM micro supports port based VLAN. I have not implemented this, but it will isolate the AP’s from seeing each other, and would also isolate the BH from seeing the AP’s on the main tower forcing all traffic to the switch.
Better to over analyze than be under prepared…
At that distance, you chances for inter-tower self interference are slim, but it might be a good idea to set the new AP’s with the same settings as the cluster just for continuity.
Thanks - answered most of my questions.
Is there any place that gives a walkthrough (or for that matter, do you know if it is in the manual) on what exactly I’d need to do to implement the VLANs on the CMM?
I was really worried about the CMM not sharing the bandwidth correctly. Glad to hear that shouldn’t be an issue.
So I don’t need a syncpipe or anything - just split the pins out of the backhaul and into both AP’s on the remote site? Sounds great.
Chas,
Does your (6) 900MHz APs have any interference with each other? I just put up (3) APs with 120deg antennas and used the three non-overlapping channels. Does the CMM sync keep you from having issues? What channels do you use?
Thanks,
Frank