ZD1200 system upgrades question - adding Mesh

[sean_mcneal]

Never done Mesh before with Ruckus and I don't work with ZD1200 very much, mostly Unleased.

This is a large property with the ZD1200 in the IT and AV rack. The system now has

R500 x7

R510 x1

T301s x3

T310c x1

We need to cover two out buildings, so I was thinking to add a T310n or s to the Shop to aim at the Arena building to mesh to a T310c on a solar panel for power and then another T310c on the Stables with another solar panel for power and turn on Mesh at the Barn T310c.

This would allow the arena to mesh back to the Shop and the Stables to mesh back to the Barn.

My question is - will this work? The Shop to Arena is completely open - no trees in the way. The Barn to Stables is not open because the barn is a big metal building and the T310c is on the inside - however the Stables to Arena is open and kind of open to the Shop T310 if I use the s version for 120degree coverage.

Is the T310n better for a bridge than the s?

Last question is about moving this over to Unleashed - it's not commercial so there are not a lot of users per AP, but I believe Ruckus is moving away from ZD and I like using Unleashed. Is this a good candidate or are some of my APs to old to take advantage?

Thanks,

[syamantakomer]

Hi Sean,

As long as APs are able to reach each other with good signal strength, mesh will work.

I will avoid using mesh beyond 2 hops or even keep it within just one mesh hop, because cascading it beyond 2 will degrade the bandwidth.

Since there are many deployment experts out there in the community, I will leave the deployment queries to them and trying to answer some compatibility related queries.

If you have a ZD1200 already, it is preferred to use it with existing APs because ZD is a dedicated controller vs Unleashed being one of the APs acting as controller.

If you really want to move to Unleashed, you can. All the mentioned APs are supported on Unleashed 200.7, but you cannot upgrade beyond that, because wave1 APs are not supported beyond 200.7.

[DarrelRhodes]

Hi Sean,

Adding to Syamantak's comments...

Ruckus SmartMesh is a fantastic system but there are considerations when using Mesh (or PTP) links in any system. i) Even a single-hop reduces throughput. Because Wi-Fi is a half-duplex technology, only one side of a Mesh link can TX or RX at any on time, so data throughput is halved for each link. ii) Because all APs in the Mesh link need to use the same frequency you can also have co-channel interference, especially if you are thinking of providing Mesh and client access on the same radios.

When I deploy Mesh, I always try to use dedicated APs for the Mesh link(s), then utilise eMesh to connect APs dedicated for client-access. eMesh is where APs can be hard-wired to each other even through they aren't directly connected (by cable) to the main network, e.g. the APs inside your out-buildings.

Also please be aware that supplies of T310n and T310s may be constrained in your area. We now have the new T350, Wi-Fi 6 outdoor AP.  However this won't work on the same version of Unleashed as the R500 and T301 APs you have.

Regarding your controller platform; have you considered Ruckus Cloud? This would allow you to run all your APs on the same platform and software version.

I'd recommend speaking to your local Ruckus partner for further advice on the deployment, network design, to check stock availability and potentially a trial of Ruckus Cloud.  https://extapps.commscope.com/howtobuy/RuckusChannelPartner

Best,
Darrel.