topic Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m? in Access Points - Indoor and Outdoor

what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

jesus_olais — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 05:08:57 GMT

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

morgan_finucane — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 10:22:30 GMT

Depends what data rates you need. The 7731 bridge is the only way to do this effectively for high throughput. The 7761 can mesh - use the sector model - 7761S. Depending on how noisy the 2,4GHz environment is you may wish to consider a move to 5GHz - If you do I'd suggest looking at the appropriate antenna for that.

None of the 802.11ac products can mesh yet - which means the T300 is out at the moment even though it has 2.4GHz radios in it. (2.4GHz giving longer range than 5.0GHz and ac being only a 5GHz technology).

I believe the next revision of firmware will enable meshing which is overdue.

Good Luck.

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

john_d — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:10:47 GMT

Meshing on 802.11ac is now available -- firmware 9.10 was posted on Monday!

I'm not sure, though, whether meshing at 500m is realistic for T300/301 though.

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

michael_brado — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 19:15:13 GMT

I wrote an article on meshing far apart APs, but it wasn't published external.

Our default mesh distance for ZoneFlex outdoor APs is 600 meters.

APs must both see each other with an RSSI of >= 25 on their wifi1 (5G) radios.

You can enter your ZD debug into the Log Analzyer on the Support Portal front page.

https://loganalyzer1.ruckuswireless.com/Rowdy/

It will create a 3D map of your Root and Mesh APs. You can click on either node,
and then the Mesh Info tab, to check and see if both APs have sufficient RSSI. This
is similar to what TSEs can pull from your ZD debug with internal (Merlin) tool. In
this case, this AP, can see AP_1F:E5:10 at RSSI of 27 on channel 157, so is a good
mesh candidate.

AP: c4:10:8a:1f:cc:60 / 10.10.1.11 / fc00::1
Name : AP2
Mesh Role : ROOT AP

Neighbor MAC rssi/radio ch state adv depth reason last seen
c4:10:8a:1f:c6:10 13/11g/n 1 0 0 Tue Jul 8 01:31:11 2014
c4:10:8a:1f:be:00 27/11g/n 1 0 0 Tue Jul 8 01:09:11 2014
c4:10:8a:20:8d:c0 29/11g/n 8 0 0 Tue Jul 8 01:27:11 2014
c4:10:8a:1f:e5:10 27/11a/n 157 D 1 1 c Tue Jul 8 01:35:34 2014

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

john_d — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 19:27:34 GMT

Wow, that's pretty awesome. Why is it that the outdoor AP's can establish links so much further than indoor AP's? Do they have a higher transmit power, or a different beam pattern?

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

jesus_olais — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 02:22:44 GMT

Hi All,

Thank you very much for the prompt reply.

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

jesus_olais — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 02:31:12 GMT

Hi Michael,

Is anyone allowed to use ROWDY?

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

wouter_beens — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 08:15:37 GMT

I'm allowed to use ROWDY from the Support site when i'm logged in

Re: what outdoor AP models that can established mesh more than 500m?

eizens_putnins — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 09:39:55 GMT

I think difference in distance for indoor and outdoor is mainly results of different environment -- outdoor you have LOS, indoor you have walls. Otherwise it must be similar, as in both cases radio have same power limits and similar antennas (if we compare similar APs, for example, R500 and T300).
You can create mesh on longer distances, if you use high gain directional 5GHz antennas on ZF7762 (1km and even more), but normally you don't need that (ZF7731 is cheaper and more convenient for such needs). We have installation, where some APs are located on the poles without any way to get LAN connection there, and we have very stable meshing without additional antennas over about 500-700m with throughput 50-60 MB/s. We also have 2x ZF7762 AP meshed to root ZF7762-S AP over ~1 km (we use external 16 db 5GHz directional antenna on root AP, as ZF7762-S has no internal 5GHz antenna), works very stable, RSSI are good and throughput is about 60 MB/s.
For distances over this we usually use ZF7731 and it works perfect.