1030 as Mesh Radio

[hrios]

I'm a little confused as to some information provided on the mesh capabilities of the 1030 radio.

Cisco includes the 1030 as an option for their "Mesh Networking Solution":

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/ps6548/products_technical_reference_chapter09186a008062bd41.html#wp1041684

But then, in the document below, they specify in the basic guidelines that external antennas are to be mounted indoors only.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/docs/wireless/access_point/1000/quick/guide/ap1000qs.html#wp34152

So my question is, how can you recommend a product like this one for a point-to-multipoint deployment (1500 as RAP and 1030s as MAPs) when you have as one of your guidelines that antennas are not to be mounted outdoors?

Or does the information make an implicit assumption that the 1030s are to be used with 1030s only. The way I read it, if I'm going to use a 1500 as my RAP, which is supposed to be installed outdoors, then my MAPs (or at least their antennas) must be installed outdoors.

[j.metzger]

It will work fine. The 1030 is an indoor AP, so the AP itself will need to be indoors (or in an appropriate environmental enclosure), but the antenna's can be outside.

[dmarksbu]

I'm using 1030s as RAPs and MAPs. The config for 1030 and 1500 is the same EXCEPT that the 1030s will only use the A radio for backhaul, whereas you can select A or B/G on the 1500s. Be sure to use lightning protection when running antenna cable from an inside 1030 to an outside antenna.

[hrios]

Have you had any issues with the 1030s running as MAPs??? Specifically with the external antenna settings on the 802.11a radio? I'm using 3rd party antennas and I'm getting mixed results on signal strength. I've played with the dB settings but the signal does not improve. And this is with a link that has line-of-sight.

[dennischolmes]

The 1030 was designed as an indoor AP and as such only has power settings for indoor usage. The 1510 series has an amplifier to push the backhaul to greater ranges. The 1030 as used for MESH should be used to bridge the signal from outdoor to indoor only. It was never meant to be an outdoor MESH AP. The same goes for the 1242 in MESH mode.

[jrackelmann]

I had several issues, and resolved them.

First is the antenna type; you must use antennas that are tuned to 5Ghz (802.11a), not 2.4Gz, since the 1030s only use the A radio for backhaul.

Second is the config: you must add RAP and MAP MAC addresses to the "AP Authorization List". Then set each to bridging mode, which forces a reboot. If using an external antenna, you need to go into Wireless->AccessPoints->802.11a Radios and chnge the antenna type from indoor to outdoor (for some reason, the software won't let you do this after you set it to Mesh mode). THEN, go back into the AP config and set to Root or Mesh mode, and whatever other bridging information you want. By the way, I can't figure out why the "Bridge Data Rate" wouldn't be set to the max...

Remember that the 1030 mesh solution is a one hop solution, 1 root to (I think up to 3) mesh, not a many-to-many.