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The enterprise level Aruba AP-205H Wi-Fi Mesh

installation to an AP-225 at home to solve IPTV video

streaming issues

“Free” Aruba Wi-Fi Access Point (APs) at the Wireless Conference

At several Wireless LAN Professional conference (WLPC) some vendors gave away Wi-Fi equipment, antenna’s and tools. Aruba was one of them and they provided in 2014 Aruba AP-225 APs (3x3:3) and later on in 2015 onwards via vouchers the AP-205H APs (2x2:2) were shipped. First of all, I want to thank Sean Rynearson (@srynearson) with his very good support to ship and to get these APs over to Asia.

Android IPTV video streaming did not work well One of the issues was the 2.4 GHz coverage (see Globeron 1-2-3 Solving Android IPTV WiFi issues http://bit.ly/2wVo6Am) for more details. Having both the Aruba APs available and reading “Exploring Mesh with an AP-205H” by Scott McDermott @scottm32768 website link mostlynetworks.com how to configure the equipment, we decided to follow. There are few extra things to take into consideration:

• Country codes (both Aruba APs need to have the same country code)

• Latest firmware on both APs. Somehow, I had to make sure that only 1 Aruba AP is on the network to be able to connect to it and update the firmware, otherwise it directed the web browser back to the 1st APs IP-address

By Ronald van Kleunen, CEO - Globeron Pte Ltd Certified: CISM #1117595, CISSP #99801, GIAC #1395658 (GCIH/GMOB), BICSI #237560, CWNE #108, CWNP #307052 (CWNT, Wireless#/CWTS, CWNA, CWSP, CWAP, CWDP, CWNE),ITILv2 and ITILv3 #819214, CSOEP #100600 (DataCentre, Infrastructure, Process, Management, Security) IRCA ISO/IEC 20000 ITSM (IT Service Management) #01193718, IRCA ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS (Security Management) #01193718

“Thank you, Aruba, and in particular

Sean Rynearson (@srynearson) helping

with the shipment to get the AP-205H

to Asia and the supplied AP-225 at the

WLPC conferences.

©2003-2017 Globeron Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. All product information is subject to change without notice. Globeron, CSOEP, CSODP, CSOIP, CSOPP, CSOMP, CSOEP are trademarks in Singapore and//or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 001-20-0517 Rev A01 www.globeron.com

“Android IPTV streaming did not

work well over Wi-Fi. After setting up

the Wi-Fi Mesh network, the

performance and Quality of Service

(QoS) was much better for the wireless

portion.

Click here

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Both support access at 2.4 GHz (for any client to connect to) as well on 5 GHz, but the 5 GHz is also used for the Mesh backhaul.

Before using the 5 GHz network as a Mesh backhaul (the IPTV was connected directly to the AP-225 portal)

After using the IPTV box with the Mesh network setup using 5 GHz as a backhaul. Note that the IPTV box only supports 2.4 GHz and connected to the other radio on the Mesh AP.

©2003-2017 Globeron Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. All product information is subject to change without notice. Globeron, CSOEP, CSODP, CSOIP, CSOPP, CSOMP, CSOEP are trademarks in Singapore and//or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 001-20-0517 Rev A01 www.globeron.com

Android IPTV Box only supports the

2.4 GHz. It also shows a warning for

best uninterrupted HD quality use a

router with LAN cable (not Wi-Fi)

“Initial installation considerations

with the Aruba AP-205H in Instant

Access Point (IAP) mode”

Clients and status of the AP-225 (Portal) AP-205H (Point)

IPTV connected to Mesh

AP (Point) and via Mesh

AP using 5 GHz backhaul IPTV connected to

AP (Portal) and

not using 5 GHz

Visualized using Metageek Chanalyzer

A packet capture / protocol analyzer

will help to visualize how Wi-Fi clients

connect to the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz radio

in the AP.

©2003-2017 Globeron Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. All product information is subject to change without notice. Globeron, CSOEP, CSODP, CSOIP, CSOPP, CSOMP, CSOEP are trademarks in Singapore and//or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 001-20-0517 Rev A01 www.globeron.com

Besides looking into the Portal Access Point itself also with a packet capture / protocol analyzer you can see that the MESH Point (AP-205H) is connected to the Mesh Portal (Aruba 225) which is connected to the rest of the network and the internet. The Mesh network is using an 80 MHz backhaul.

Wi-Fi clients still connect normally to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks depending on the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) and they will roam accordingly between both networks. While “band-steering” with a single SSID is supported on the APs (to automatically balance Wi-Fi clients between the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and vice versa), I prefer to use two separate SSIDs “www24GHZ” for the 2.4 GHz network and “www5GHZ” for the 5 GHz network to validate (using a protocol analyzer) to see if dual-band clients connect to the particular radio and to see if they roam between the Mesh-Point AP and the Portal AP.

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Aruba AP-225 Mesh Portal AP 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz

(not polarized properly, because of heat (50 degree Celsius)

and to be able to see the LED lights and the Aruba logo…

80

MHZ

Both 2.4GHz and 5GHz

radios are turned off. It is only

used as a router

Aruba AP-225

2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Antenna RF Pattern.

(visualized using iBwave Wi-Fi Design)

Visualized using Savvius Omnipeek