Everything Instant On

Hi all

We are moving to a new building where no ethernet cabling exists - yet.

The building has 3 places where clients or servers will be: 1 centrally where the internet firewall, servers, switches etc. will be installed and 2 other places (1 on the same floor, 1 on the floor above) where clients will need wireless and wired connections.

I was thinking about investing in one of the 1930 PoE switches and 3 x AP11D's

Will the AP11D's be able to form a wireless mesh network (and how much bandwith should we expect on the backhaul link) as well as provide connectivity to through the wired ethernet ports? The existing firewall and servers will provide DCHP, DNS, etc.

The idea was then as we get the ethernet cabling installed over the coming months to cable the AP11D's and reuse the wireless capacity for clients while keep using the built in switches as distributed LAN ports for wired clients.

Perhaps one of the other AP models are better if the LAN port will connect to a small switch to provide wired access on the 2 remote locations? Again we need this to work through the wireless backhaul until ethernet cables are installed.

And final question: We need VLAN support throughout both wired and wireless while we transition from wifi-mesh til wired

Will the Aruba Instant On system be flexible enough to help in the new building?

Thanks in advance and stay safe outhere

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm
------------------------------

@henrik The AP11D is more of a directional AP for coverage and not Omni-directional and may not give you the coverage you are looking for. You could use the AP12​'s to give you the potential coverage you are looking for. When cabling your new network it is best to keep a central closet when are your wiring connects into, less troubleshooting.  As long as one of your AP's is wired and the other two can mesh to the wired one, and depending on your bandwidth you may be fine. The mesh uses the 5GHz as it backhaul and shares it with clients. Your internet firewall should be able to support your VLAN's and then you can assign them on the switch. The 1930 and AP's must be in the same default VLAN to function in the cloud.

------------------------------
Greg Thiesen
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2020 01:57 AM
From: Henrik Otterstrøm
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

Hi all

We are moving to a new building where no ethernet cabling exists - yet.

The building has 3 places where clients or servers will be: 1 centrally where the internet firewall, servers, switches etc. will be installed and 2 other places (1 on the same floor, 1 on the floor above) where clients will need wireless and wired connections.

I was thinking about investing in one of the 1930 PoE switches and 3 x AP11D's

Will the AP11D's be able to form a wireless mesh network (and how much bandwith should we expect on the backhaul link) as well as provide connectivity to through the wired ethernet ports? The existing firewall and servers will provide DCHP, DNS, etc.

The idea was then as we get the ethernet cabling installed over the coming months to cable the AP11D's and reuse the wireless capacity for clients while keep using the built in switches as distributed LAN ports for wired clients.

Perhaps one of the other AP models are better if the LAN port will connect to a small switch to provide wired access on the 2 remote locations? Again we need this to work through the wireless backhaul until ethernet cables are installed.

And final question: We need VLAN support throughout both wired and wireless while we transition from wifi-mesh til wired

Will the Aruba Instant On system be flexible enough to help in the new building?

Thanks in advance and stay safe outhere

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm
------------------------------

@GThiesen thanks for your reply.

I get the difference in the antennas of the different AP's - thanks for pointing that out. I was maybe falling for the AP11D because it also has a switch and the idea was via wireless meshing to be able to connect cabled clients to the remote AP's switch.

I totally get the optimal way will be to cable every network drop to a central wiring closet and that will also happen eventually. I was looking for an interim solution to get both cabled and wireless clients in all three locations ​on the network for a few weeks/months until the cabling can be put in place.

My understanding was that other than the AP11D not other AP's in the product range will support cabled clients at the remote location I describe. I might be wrong?

Also from your reply I get that the AP's use the 5Ghz radio for meshing - so I assume the stronger 5Ghz radio the AP have, the better meshing performance I will get, all other things being equal?

Thanks again :-)

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2020 12:03 PM
From: Greg Thiesen
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

@henrik The AP11D is more of a directional AP for coverage and not Omni-directional and may not give you the coverage you are looking for. You could use the AP12​'s to give you the potential coverage you are looking for. When cabling your new network it is best to keep a central closet when are your wiring connects into, less troubleshooting.  As long as one of your AP's is wired and the other two can mesh to the wired one, and depending on your bandwidth you may be fine. The mesh uses the 5GHz as it backhaul and shares it with clients. Your internet firewall should be able to support your VLAN's and then you can assign them on the switch. The 1930 and AP's must be in the same default VLAN to function in the cloud.

------------------------------
Greg Thiesen

Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2020 01:57 AM
From: Henrik Otterstrøm
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

Hi all

We are moving to a new building where no ethernet cabling exists - yet.

The building has 3 places where clients or servers will be: 1 centrally where the internet firewall, servers, switches etc. will be installed and 2 other places (1 on the same floor, 1 on the floor above) where clients will need wireless and wired connections.

I was thinking about investing in one of the 1930 PoE switches and 3 x AP11D's

Will the AP11D's be able to form a wireless mesh network (and how much bandwith should we expect on the backhaul link) as well as provide connectivity to through the wired ethernet ports? The existing firewall and servers will provide DCHP, DNS, etc.

The idea was then as we get the ethernet cabling installed over the coming months to cable the AP11D's and reuse the wireless capacity for clients while keep using the built in switches as distributed LAN ports for wired clients.

Perhaps one of the other AP models are better if the LAN port will connect to a small switch to provide wired access on the 2 remote locations? Again we need this to work through the wireless backhaul until ethernet cables are installed.

And final question: We need VLAN support throughout both wired and wireless while we transition from wifi-mesh til wired

Will the Aruba Instant On system be flexible enough to help in the new building?

Thanks in advance and stay safe outhere

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm
------------------------------

You are correct that the AP11D is the only AP the will provide Mesh bridging for clients, and yes a stronger signal for mesh will provide better performance.

------------------------------
Greg Thiesen
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2020 01:36 PM
From: Henrik Otterstrøm
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

@GThiesen thanks for your reply.

I get the difference in the antennas of the different AP's - thanks for pointing that out. I was maybe falling for the AP11D because it also has a switch and the idea was via wireless meshing to be able to connect cabled clients to the remote AP's switch.

I totally get the optimal way will be to cable every network drop to a central wiring closet and that will also happen eventually. I was looking for an interim solution to get both cabled and wireless clients in all three locations ​on the network for a few weeks/months until the cabling can be put in place.

My understanding was that other than the AP11D not other AP's in the product range will support cabled clients at the remote location I describe. I might be wrong?

Also from your reply I get that the AP's use the 5Ghz radio for meshing - so I assume the stronger 5Ghz radio the AP have, the better meshing performance I will get, all other things being equal?

Thanks again :-)

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm

Original Message:
Sent: 11-02-2020 12:03 PM
From: Greg Thiesen
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

@henrik The AP11D is more of a directional AP for coverage and not Omni-directional and may not give you the coverage you are looking for. You could use the AP12​'s to give you the potential coverage you are looking for. When cabling your new network it is best to keep a central closet when are your wiring connects into, less troubleshooting.  As long as one of your AP's is wired and the other two can mesh to the wired one, and depending on your bandwidth you may be fine. The mesh uses the 5GHz as it backhaul and shares it with clients. Your internet firewall should be able to support your VLAN's and then you can assign them on the switch. The 1930 and AP's must be in the same default VLAN to function in the cloud.

------------------------------
Greg Thiesen

Original Message:
Sent: 10-31-2020 01:57 AM
From: Henrik Otterstrøm
Subject: Advice needed - is Instant On the right solution for new building

Hi all

We are moving to a new building where no ethernet cabling exists - yet.

The building has 3 places where clients or servers will be: 1 centrally where the internet firewall, servers, switches etc. will be installed and 2 other places (1 on the same floor, 1 on the floor above) where clients will need wireless and wired connections.

I was thinking about investing in one of the 1930 PoE switches and 3 x AP11D's

Will the AP11D's be able to form a wireless mesh network (and how much bandwith should we expect on the backhaul link) as well as provide connectivity to through the wired ethernet ports? The existing firewall and servers will provide DCHP, DNS, etc.

The idea was then as we get the ethernet cabling installed over the coming months to cable the AP11D's and reuse the wireless capacity for clients while keep using the built in switches as distributed LAN ports for wired clients.

Perhaps one of the other AP models are better if the LAN port will connect to a small switch to provide wired access on the 2 remote locations? Again we need this to work through the wireless backhaul until ethernet cables are installed.

And final question: We need VLAN support throughout both wired and wireless while we transition from wifi-mesh til wired

Will the Aruba Instant On system be flexible enough to help in the new building?

Thanks in advance and stay safe outhere

------------------------------
Henrik Otterstrøm
------------------------------