best wireless for my plant

[Neetu Bhushan]

hi all,

i have a plant that we used wireless barcode scanner that move all through out the area, and we have about 8 wireless access point with the same SID.  the wireless were not planned proplery so we have error on the switch (2960s) about flapping between access point and therefore crash the erp system when that happened.  another problem is that the wireless are symbol/motorola and cisco of course will not help.  now i'm trying to get the best solution for my plant.  meraki-cisco is the company now offers wireless but they don't have centralized controller.  does anyone have similiar environment that their wireless barcode scanner works fine between access point?  does centralized controller help in solving the barcode scanner from moving to another access point?

thanks for any comment you may add.

[Leo Laohoo]

meraki-cisco is the company now offers wireless but they don't have centralized controller.

Meraki's wireless LAN controller is called a "Cloud" controller.

does centralized controller help in solving the barcode scanner from moving to another access point?

Centralize controller's significant benefit is, if left at default, the proper management the APs transmission power, data rates and channel allocation.  Depending on the model of AP you are using, you can also use central controller to enable CleanAir.

[Neetu Bhushan]

so what's solution is best fit for my plant that is a bigger area and barcode scanner need to have access in all that area with one ip address with no error created on the cisco 2960s.  barcode scanner wireless cannot have multiple ip because the mrp system will not be able to communicate properly...

[Leo Laohoo]

so what's solution is best fit for my plant that is a bigger area and barcode scanner need to have access in all that area with one ip address with no error created on the cisco 2960s.

You've got multiple problems and one of them is the misconfiguration of the 2960.

1.  You need to get a wireless site survey done.  With a wireless site survey, you will be able to better determine WHERE you want to install the AP and HOW MANY.

2.  You need to get someone look at the way your AP and your switch is (mis)configured.

[Simen Ringstad]

Our company use Meru wireless in our warehouses. We also use symbol/motorola and other terminals.

I'm not well versed in the world of Meru but if I understand the setup correctly the controller creates a "virtual AP" for each station. When moving for one physical AP to another the station is not doing any roaming, but there is a handover between the two AP's.

Meru have both hardware controllers and vmware-appliances. We use both.

You would of course have to switch you APs to Meru.

We also have a Cisco wlan environment in retail stores and they have had some issues with roaming. It's due to poor implementation on the stations and Cisco is not to blame. It's just that the way Meru handles the roaming works better on these shoddy terminals.

As Leo Laohoo explains, it is also up to configuration and placement of equipment. It doesn't matter how much money you throw at the problem if you don't get the basics right from the start.