Aironet Network Nodes

I am currently doing a project, investigating setting up a wireless
network at the local college in the cafeteria and outdoors near the
library.

The Network is to cover 500 students and a VLAN for 300 faculty
members and staff.

I and my partners have done the research and have found with wireless
G Access points we should be able to support about 30 students per
point. The access points we theorize could be pushed with a bridge,
that would work as the linkup to the back bone ( default gateway style).

The question is this...

Can an Aironet Bridge connect multiple access points...all of which
supporting their own networks.... to a WAN or a DSS?

If not... is this where we would use a wireless controller?

We are really stuck on exactly what components we need on the other
side of the access points to provide service to such a large number of
hosts.

Any and all suggestions are invited.

Thanks in advance everyone.

Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.

I'll be glad to come over and show you what to do .

I'm not sure what your trying to do?

VLANS over wireless huh? I would'nt really go for that, it's very
easy to snoop on wireless traffic, so I'd really deploy it with
a layer 2/3 encryption solution. I'd avoid bridging if possible,
it's nasty, and can cause all sort of headache you can't even begin to
dream that could happen. Think ARP spoofing, think dnsiff, think disaster.

I can't really see what your trying to do, are you trying to extend
wireless coverage, without a wired backbone, if so you need to get AP
to forward traffic to other AP's?

if so, you need to look at mesh network, not something cisco can't
really say they know too much about at this stage.

the best route you can take is, wired backbone to all AP's.
reuse wireless channels the best you can.

use a good layer 2 encryption protocol, such a wpa2 with
a radius server to your authentication server, AD or LDAP or what ever
for authentication of users.Radius is going to solve a lot of headache
with you wireless network.... You'll be able to do client and AP
certifates to, stop evil twins appearing.

for exernal users, you could place normal wireless hotspot, with
chillspot or something, and plug that into your dmz as well.

roll out a layer 3 ip sec concentrator for a bit of extra security
and control. you can place this in a DMZ on your firewall, and then
you can treat wireless uses, as you would incomming internet users to
your site.

do all that you've got yourself a nice network..

500 users is certainly high density, about 30 users per access point
is about the max, bit this depends on what they are doing, simple web
browsing is different to streaming video's 24/7 . If bandwidth is a
problem consider using g/a adapter s, and using 802.11a extra channels
for extra capacity. not all user will be using it as the same time,
but once you offer it as service, usage will definity go up!, so will
coffee sales.

you've got 3 overlapping channels, you can actualy squeeze 4 channels
out, if you have a little now how with radio engineering!. you can
even play around with direction antenna's, or reducing the transmit
power of AP's, to get a greater density.

roll on superwide band i say

please buy me a beer.

Cheers,
Tox.

--- In Cisco_CCIE_Lab%40yahoogroups.com">Cisco_CCIE_Labyahoogroups.com, "KEY&quot; <keypinitreel1...> wrote:
&gt;
> I am currently doing a project, investigating setting up a wireless
> network at the local college in the cafeteria and outdoors near the
> library.
>
> The Network is to cover 500 students and a VLAN for 300 faculty
> members and staff.
&gt;
> I and my partners have done the research and have found with wireless
> G Access points we should be able to support about 30 students per
> point. The access points we theorize could be pushed with a bridge,
> that would work as the linkup to the back bone ( default gateway style).
>
> The question is this...
>
> Can an Aironet Bridge connect multiple access points...all of which
&gt; supporting their own networks.... to a WAN or a DSS?
>;
> If not... is this where we would use a wireless controller?
>
>
> We are really stuck on exactly what components we need on the other
&gt; side of the access points to provide service to such a large number of
> hosts.
&gt;
> Any and all suggestions are invited.
>
> Thanks in advance everyone.
>

Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.

Cisco has several Lightweight access points that can be configured in
a "wireless mesh". It sounds like the solution you are looking for
would be a combination network of standard lightweight indoor access
points, and a mesh of outdoor access points - it depends on the size
of the outdoor area and whether or not you could get by with just
having an antenna on a nearby roof or not.

With the LWAP technology, it is pretty straightforward to map a
different SSID to a VLAN dedicated to faculty. The challenging part
will be to make sure that the faculty computers are authenticated to
that SSID. There are ways to do it, it just depends on what
infrastructure you already have, and how much money you are willing to
invest on the project.

As far as the density of users go, the real question isn't how many
users you have, it how many are going to be on the network at one
location in any given time. This is probably a bigger concern in the
cafeteria than in the outdoors area. But even in the cafeteria, you
are probably going to be safe with the numbers we are talking about.
The AP controllers have the capability of load balancing the number of
users between each access point. I'm guessing you will need at least
6 APs for the cafeteria, and if they have enough overlap then the
Controller will be able to take care of you dynamically.

All of that means you will probably need the following

X number of 1240AG series APs

1 Lightweight Access point controller

Enough Power-over-Ethernet switches to support the Access Point -
Cisco has several models with built-in Access Point controllers.

Possibly several outdoor mesh APs, although the 1240s can support a
mesh configuraton as well.

And possibly a TACACS+ server to authenticate users onto the faculty vlan

This is a 1,000 ft view of a solution, but hopefully it gives you an
idea of the scope of what you need. There is more than one way to
accomplish the specifics, but without more detail than I really want
to see without a paycheck, its hard to say exactly what you need.

--- In Cisco_CCIE_Lab%40yahoogroups.com">Cisco_CCIE_Labyahoogroups.com, "KEY&quot; <keypinitreel1...> wrote:
&gt;
> I am currently doing a project, investigating setting up a wireless
> network at the local college in the cafeteria and outdoors near the
> library.
>
> The Network is to cover 500 students and a VLAN for 300 faculty
> members and staff.
&gt;
> I and my partners have done the research and have found with wireless
> G Access points we should be able to support about 30 students per
> point. The access points we theorize could be pushed with a bridge,
> that would work as the linkup to the back bone ( default gateway style).
>
> The question is this...
>
> Can an Aironet Bridge connect multiple access points...all of which
&gt; supporting their own networks.... to a WAN or a DSS?
>;
> If not... is this where we would use a wireless controller?
>
>
> We are really stuck on exactly what components we need on the other
&gt; side of the access points to provide service to such a large number of
> hosts.
&gt;
> Any and all suggestions are invited.
>
> Thanks in advance everyone.
>

Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

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