Ruckus Unleashed R500's, Ap Vs Mesh mode

[atma_tiwana]

Hi,

I have 4 Ruckus R500's running unleashed in AP mode.

What benefit is there in setting these up as a mesh instead (other than being able to connect a unit wirelessly in the future).

TIA

[atma_tiwana]

Cheers Dan.

W have basically the same setup except currently mine is fully wired and using unleashed firmware allows me to manage all  the AP's from the phone, or web browser.

Like they say wire where you can, mesh if you can't.

Out of interest just in case I have to make one of my points completely wireless what speeds do you get from the completely wireless ap compared to a wired ap.

Also can you confirm the PSU rating for the wireless ap.

Thanks

[dan_kern]

Atma,

As far as speed and latency is concerned in the Mesh configuration, it really depends on how you set things up.  I found this document really helpful when I was thinking about implementing Mesh and I think you will to.

https://webresources.ruckuswireless.com/pdf/appnotes/bpg-wireless-mesh.pdf

As for power requirements, I have purchased off the shelf wall warts to power 2 of my R500 AP's

The requirement to use the female connector on the AP is 12VDC @ 1Amp.  I am using an old notebook power supply brick rated at 12v 3.3Amps with no problems at all.  The center pin of the connector is Positive and the Barrel is Negative.

I also have 1 powered by an official Ruckus Wireless POE Injector.  If your not familiar with this, it's a device that will inject power into the Ethernet Cable to power the Access Point using Power Over Ethernet (POE) connections.  The POE Injector is placed anywhere between the Router/Switch  and the Access Point.  Simply plug in the POE Injector to wall power, then connect the wire coming from the Router/Switch to the LAN RJ45 female port on the injector.  Connect another Ethernet Cable to the POE Output port on the injector and plug the other end of the cable into the POE Input port on the Access Point.  It's simple and works great.

The official injector nameplate indicates it puts out 48VDC @ 0.5Amps.  Power is applied to Pins +(1,2) (4,5) and -(3,6)(7,8).

And of course you can always power the AP's directly from a POE Router or POE Switch.  Just be sure the device puts out enough power at the correct voltage to run your devices.  I know some of the newer devices coming out require more amperage than the older ones, so keep that in mind if you should decide to upgrade at some point in the future.

Hope this helps!