topic Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration in Wireless

Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 07:20:21 GMT

Hi,

I just finished the site survey for my customer's POS devices. Before I started the site survey, I thought I would be doing mesh setup. Now, after the site survey, I realized that can't do mesh because of the hotel's building materials. Now, I have to pull cables from the LAN room to the outdoor APs.

The site is located in Florida and it is near the beach probably 100 or 150 yards away. I know there is going to be some corrossion issue because of the salt in the air.

I asked my POC if they are having issues with corrossion and he said yes. I also found some older indoor Cisco APs that are exposed to the salty air, and the metal mount is covered in rust. Therefore, I want to do this installation the right way since I am not local in Florida. I have no experience with outdoor installation at all.

1. For outdoor install, if I power on an AP using a PoE injector, is the grounding lug to the ground enough to protect the AP and the network devices in the LAN room from lightning?

2. Should I insert a gig fiber-optic to ethernet media converter at the AP side, and plug the AP to power outlet?

[LAN Room]------ethernet-------[media converter]----------1 meter fiber-optic----------[media converter]----------[AP]

3. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, would I get an omni coverage?

4. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, can I still use the shield cover to protect the AP from sun heat?

5. Based on your experience, what type of configuration do you do for POS devices (802.1X, PSK, etc)?

6. Is there a stringent security that should be used?

7. For my BOM, I should be good with WLC 2504 with 15 license AP. The APs are 2602i and 1530i. The total AP number is 12.

Link to the previous thread https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/4178513#4178513

Tomorrow is my last day here and I have to drive to the next site for the same site survey. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 04:03:11 GMT

I can only state what I know:)

1. For outdoor install, if I power on an AP using a PoE injector, is the grounding lug to the ground enough to protect the AP and the network devices in the LAN room from lightning?

> I would still use 2 lighning arrestors... one should be outside and the other inside.

2. Should I insert a gig fiber-optic to ethernet media converter at the AP side, and plug the AP to power outlet?

[LAN Room]------ethernet-------[media converter]----------1 meter fiber-optic----------[media converter]----------[AP]

> You don't need to

3. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, would I get an omni coverage?

>You get omni coverage mounting it the way it is... you change the mounting, you will change the RF signal. If you surveyed with it in a 90 deg, then mount it 90 deg.

4. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, can I still use the shield cover to protect the AP from sun heat?

> If you decide to mount it in a 90 degree, then maybe look at an 3rd party heat shield... you would have to take measurements to see if it would work.

5. Based on your experience, what type of configuration do you do for POS devices (802.1X, PSK, etc)?

> Depends on the unit... if they support 802.1x, I would use 802.1x... many older ones don't and you are stuck with PSK.

6. Is there a stringent security that should be used?

> Depends on the client and the device support for the type of encryption.

7. For my BOM, I should be good with WLC 2504 with 15 license AP. The APs are 2602i and 1530i. The total AP number is 12.

> You should be good... maybe look at the 2504 HA sku for redundancy.

Thanks,

Scott

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Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 04:05:44 GMT

Make sure you also use an outdoor shielded cable with coax seal and have a drip loop.

Thanks,

Scott

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Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:34:51 GMT

Scott,

1. For outdoor install, if I power on an AP using a PoE injector, is the grounding lug to the ground enough to protect the AP and the network devices in the LAN room from lightning?

> I would still use 2 lighning arrestors... one should be outside and the other inside.

> If this is the case, how do you weatherproof the wall power adapter? This is the only power adapter I could find AIR-PWRADPT-1530=, and I am not sure if it is weatherproof.

Is there a reason why do you use two lightning arrestor and do you still use grouding?

3. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, would I get an omni coverage?

>You get omni coverage mounting it the way it is... you change the mounting, you will change the RF signal. If you surveyed with it in a 90 deg, then mount it 90 deg.

> The reason I ask, is that I found the antenna pattern, and it looks like a patch antenna pattern.

(see attach pictures) - the 2.4GHz looks the similar to 5GHz.

Then I found this document. It says if it tilts 90 degrees, it would a better omni. Now, I am thinking to use the external antenna because I can get a better omni pattern with it. At this point, I am really confuse.

Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 13:10:08 GMT

1. For outdoor install, if I power on an AP using a PoE injector, is the grounding lug to the ground enough to protect the AP and the network devices in the LAN room from lightning?

> I would still use 2 lighning arrestors... one should be outside and the other inside.

> If this is the case, how do you weatherproof the wall power adapter? This is the only power adapter I could find AIR-PWRADPT-1530=, and I am not sure if it is weatherproof.

The electrician can direct you to outdoor outlet covers that are also secured. You should also be able to hard wire power to the AP

Is there a reason why do you use two lightning arrestor and do you still use grouding?

Yes... its best practice... this is how its done with bridges back in the days... you have two points that can stop a lightning strike. The decision is up to you.

3. If I tilt the Cisco 1530i 90 degrees, would I get an omni coverage?

>You get omni coverage mounting it the way it is... you change the mounting, you will change the RF signal. If you surveyed with it in a 90 deg, then mount it 90 deg.

> The reason I ask, is that I found the antenna pattern, and it looks like a patch antenna pattern.

(see attach pictures) - the 2.4GHz looks the similar to 5GHz.

If you surveyed with the 1532 mounted in a given direction, then changing the angle will affect your coverage. I would always use a external antenna which can give you more flexibility. If you know the coverage of the omni, then you can sort of determine if that will cover the area you will be mounting the 1532 at.

Thanks,

Scott

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:26:46 GMT

I'm having an issue with the 1532i AP about the coverage. When I walked away from about 10ft, my RSSI was -78dBm 5GHz.

Unfortunately, there is no electrician here.

The APs are going to be mounted on a steel frame. Can I use that same frame for grounding?

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:38:11 GMT

Grounding has to be on a building ground. Unless that's certified as a building ground then you can use it.

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:46:57 GMT

Is the 1532 autonomous for your surveying or joined to a WLC? Check the TX power settings.

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:07:41 GMT

The 1532i was autonomous and powered by an injector.

Can I run fiber-optic directly to the 1532?
If I put fiber in the middle of CAT6, I would need two media converter which I would need two more power outlets. Power outlet is one of my issues right now.

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:12:56 GMT

I wouldn't use converters.

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 17:52:15 GMT

Scott,

If I used two lightning arrestors, can I power on the AP with an injector.
[switch]-----Cat6----[POE]------Cat6------[arrestor]------Cat6------[arrestor]------[AP]-----[arrestor]----Anternna.
I'm not exactly sure if my map is even correct.

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Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 18:29:54 GMT

Yes you can.... make sure they are rated for PoE. Some are, some are not and you will loose power in the line.

Thanks,

Scott

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Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:38:57 GMT

Scott,

I appologize for my late reply.

I did some Google-ing and I found some lightning arrestor that are PoEs; however, they are all rated for 802.af. Have you seen or may be used a lightning arrestor that is compatible with UPoE. The 1530 series requiers UPoE and I could not find any.

Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:29:48 GMT

Many of the outdoor arrestors that handle PoE+ can support UPoE. You can always reach out to the manufacture for verification. These are what we use to power up the MESH AP's and I will try to get you a part number when I get a hold of our low voltage guy.

Thanks,

Scott

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:25:03 GMT

This is what we used

http://itwlinx.com/wp-content/uploads/1Gb-CAT6-235_new.pdf

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:20:47 GMT

Scott,

Thank you so much for providing the model. I will call them to verify if it supports UPoE.

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Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:23:05 GMT

It should, since it does max out 235V... Let me know what they say. We use them for many outdoor bridging with different vendors.

Thanks,

Scott

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:52:48 GMT

Scott,

Do you by any chance know what this is and what it is used for?

It says Cisco Aironet power injector, but I saw two regular gray power injectors in the cabinet next to these.

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

Scott Fella — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:00:08 GMT

Those are for older 340's and 350's.... You can try to use them, if you want.

Thanks,

Scott

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Re: Outdoor Installation and Configuration

steelinquisitor — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 12:44:11 GMT

Scott,

It seems like they are closed on weekends, so I have to try to call them again on Monday.

The 1532E has 4 antenna N-connectors. I'm not sure if I understand this correctly. If I have to used single band antennas, I have purchase 4 antennas (two antennas for 2.GHz located at the bottom of the AP and two for 5GHz located at the top of the AP)?

For dual band antenna, I just need to purchase two which both go to the bottom of the AP.

These are the antennas that are compatible with 1532E. The customer doesn't want the AP to be visually seen by their guests; therefore, the APs need to be installed in the hard ceiling. I saw some antennas that are already installed 6 - 7 years ago (see attached pic). So I was thinking I would do the same thing. However, I need to extend the

AIR-ANT2547V-N with a pigtail cables. I am not sure if that is possible or even recommended. I checked all these antennas, but none of omni have pigtails.

I found this pigtail AIR-CAB005LL-N, but not sure if it is compatible with 1532E, AIR-ANT2547V-N antenna, and the AIR-ACC245LA-N= lightning arrestor. Do I need to change one end of the pigtail to female or to male?

Also, if the antenna is directly connected to the AP, do I need to get the lightning arrestor AIR-ACC245LA-N=?


Part Number	Frequency Band	Gain	Type	Required Quantity
AIR-ANT2547VG-N	2.4/5 GHz	4/7 dBi	Omnidirectional	2
AIR-ANT2547V-N	2.4/5 GHz	4/7 dBi	Omnidirectional	2
AIR-ANT2588P3M-N=	2.4/5 GHz	8/8 dBi	Directional	1
AIR-ANT2450V-N	2.4 GHz	5 dBi	Omnidirectional	2
AIR-ANT2480V-N	2.4 GHz	8 dBi	Omnidirectional	2
AIR-ANT2413P2M-N=	2.4 GHz	13 dBi	Directional	1
AIR-ANT5180V-N	5 GHz	8 dBi	Omnidirectional	2
AIR-ANT5114P2M-N=	5 GHz	14 dBi	Directional	1