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General Notes

All the AP24's are configured as a bridge, so all IP addresses are on the 192.168.0 network.

WDS (wireless distribution system) is also enabled which enables the whole setup to appear as if it is one ethernet switch. I've set wds-ignore-ssid=yes, which as I understand it, allows WDS across different SSIDs. In order for that to work, all access points must be on the same frequency, and dfs-mode (dynamic frequency selection) turned off.

I've chosen frequency=2452 Mhz for testing at FLAB. In the field we can use "interface wireless frequency-monitor" at setup to find a quiet frequency.

Common settings:

  • frequency=2452
  • tx-power-mode=default
  • dfs-mode=none
  • wds-mode=dynamic
  • wds-ignore_ssid=yes
TX power

Here's a useful FAQ for routers, such as the AP24's, using the mikrotik software, http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Wireless_FAQ.

Code Block
 What TX-power-mode is the best?

TX-power-mode tells the wireless card which tx-power values should be used. By default this setting is set to default.

    default means that the card will use the tx-power values from the cards eeprom and will ignore the setting what is specified by the user in the tx-power field.
    card-rates means that for different data rates the tx-power is calculated according the cards transmit power algorithm from the cards eeprom and as an argument it takes tx-power value specified by the user.
    all-rates-fixed means that that the card will use one tx-power value for all data rates which is specified by the user in tx-power field. 

Note that it is not recommended to use 'all-rates-fixed' mode as the wireless card tx-power for the higher data rates is lower and by forcing to use the fixed tx-power rates also for the higher data rates might results the same problems like in the previous question about tx-power setting. For most of the cases if you want to change the tx-power settings it is recommended to use the tx-power-mode=card-rates and it is recommended to lower and not to raise tx-power. 

tx-power-mode=default seems to work well in the staging area. If it doesn't work in the field, we'll go with

  • tx-power-mode=card-rates
  • tx-power=(lowest setting that works well, in the range 13-26)
Access point at base with a single omni antenna

site

WIFI

antenna

role

ssid

floor

etherant

internal, to rim

station adaptor

ISFS

rim

AP24-2

internal, to floor

access point

ISFS

rim

AP24-2

external, yagi to base

station adaptor

ISFSext

base

AP24

external, omni

access point

ISFSext

near

AP24-3

internal, to base

station adaptor

ISFSext

far

etherant

internal, to base

station adaptor

ISFSext

Dual antenna access point at base

If an omni antenna at the base cannot receive adequately from rim, near and far, then we could enable the internal antenna, as follows:

site

WIFI

antenna

role

ssid

floor

etherant

internal, to rim

station adaptor

ISFS

rim

AP24-2

internal, to floor

access point

ISFS

rim

AP24-2

external, yagi to base

station adaptor

ISFSrim

base

AP24

internal, to rim

access point

ISFSrim

base

AP24

external, 180

access point

ISFSext

near

AP24-3

internal, to base

station adaptor

ISFSext

far

etherant

internal, to base

station adaptor

ISFSext

AP24 at base

Here are the wireless settings if only using the external antenna:

Note:

  • wlan1-Int-Ant is disabled
  • ssid=ISFS
  • wds-default-bridge=bridge1
Code Block
langnone
[admin@ap24] > interface wireless print                                                                                       
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0 X  name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:29:B2 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no 
      interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-IntAnt" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFSext" area="" 
      frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default 
      rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps 
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps 
      max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default 
      periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b 
      wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes 
      update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep 
      disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes 

 1  R name="wlan2-Ext-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:3C:BC arp=enabled disable-running-check=no 
      interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-ExtAnt" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFSext" area="" 
      frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default 
      rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps 
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps 
      max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default 
      periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a 
      wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes 
      update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=no default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep 
      disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes 
AP24-2 at rim
Code Block
langnone
[admin@ap24-2] > interface wireless print                                                                                     
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:9A arp=enabled disable-running-check=no 
      interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="ap24-2-internal" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFS" area="" 
      frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default 
      rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps 
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps 
      max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default 
      periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b 
      wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes 
      update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep 
      disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms hw-retries=15 preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes 

 1  R name="wlan2-Ext-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:1C:0D arp=enabled disable-running-check=no 
      interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="ap24-2-external" mode=station-wds ssid="ISFSext" area="" 
      frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default 
      rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps 
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps 
      max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default 
      periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a 
      wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes 
      update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep 
      disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms hw-retries=15 preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes 
AP24-3 at near

The AP24 supports a maximum bandwidth of 54 Mbps, whereas the highest I've seen on an Etherant is 11 Mbps. So the plan is to use the single antenna AP24 at the near tower instead of an Etherant.

Code Block
langnone
[admin@ap24-3] > interface wireless print                                                                                     
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0  R name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:90 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no 
      interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-3" mode=station-wds ssid="ISFSext" area="" 
      frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2442 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default 
      rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps 
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps 
      max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default 
      periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b 
      wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=none wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=no 
      update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=no default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 
      default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=pre-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep 
      disconnect-timeout=3s on-fail-retry-time=100ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes