Bridge Disassociating Restores Connectivity

[paucan]

From time to time i loose connectivity to a non-root bridge from a non-root repeater bridge. When i goto to the non-root repeater bridge I click on the log entry for the lost non-root bridge and select disassociate and connectivty is then restored to non-root bridge. Why is this happening and why doesnt it reassociate on its on instead of me having to manually dissasociate it?

According to the log and status of non-root bridge on the non-root repeater bridge everything is ok( Status = OK, WEP, Short Preambles and State = Assoc, AID=3, SSID=0) but cannot ping non-root device when this happens. Devices are 350 non-root-repeater and 1310 non-root. This happens at 2 other locations I have as well but at least the log at those locations relfects connectivity lost, however to regain connectivity i have to dissaciate manually.

[karthiknarasimhan]

Hey Paucan,

You have mentioned that the devices's roles are: non-root bridge from a non-root repeater bridge.

This doesn't sound right to me. A on root bridge will connect to a root bridge. Is that what your setup is like ? Repater mode comes under Root Ap & repeater Ap when the device is configured as an Access Point. And If it's a Birdge it has to be configured as a root bridge or a non-root bridge.

Please brief me upon the way these bridges have been setup so that we can troubleshot further.

Thanks & Regards,

Karthik N

[paucan]

These are the options on the 1310:

Access Point,

Repeater,

Root Bridge,

Non-Root Bridge,

Root Bridge with Wireless Clients,

Non-Root Bridge with Wireless Clients,

Install Automatic,

Install Root Bridge,

Install Non-Root Bridge,

Workgroup Bridge,

Scanner.

These are the options for 350 bridge:

client/non root

repeater/non root

access point/root

I have a non-root bridge(1310) conencted to a repeater/non root bridge (350) conencted to a access point root bridge (350)

my problem again stems from the 1310 non-root bridge disassociating from the repaeter bridge thereby i have tomanually disassocitate the bridge on the repeater/non root bridge so that the 1310 will reassociate

[karthiknarasimhan]

Thanks for the details.

I understand that the setup acording to your explanation is as given below:

350 root bridge---350 Non-Root Bridge---1310 Non Root

Well, this setup doesn't work the way it has been described if this is a Bridge setup.

In such a setup, the 1310 non-root bridge & the 350 non-root bridges will communicate with 350 series root bridge only & independent of each other. So the 350 non-root bridge will not associate the 1310 non-root bride & vice versa.. But both will associate with 350 series root bridge.

So the setup is actually like this:

350 root br----350 non-root br

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1310 non-rot Br.

Now, what would be the approximate distance for both bridges from the root bridge ?

I feel your 1310 is located at a distance farther than the 350 series non-root bridge from the 350 root bridge and that might be one of the reason why you face intermittent connection with the 1310 non-root bridge.

Also let me know which antenna you are using with their strength & gain values.

Thanks & Regards,

Karthik Narasimhan

[paucan]

The reason i have 1310 non-root associating to 350 non-root and 350 non-root associated to 350 root is because the 1310 does not have line of site to the 350 root so it must associate to the 350 non-root. The 350 and 1310 non-roots are using 5.2 dBi omnis and are about 1000ft apart. The 350 non-root is about .8 mile from the 350 root bridge which is using a 12dBi omni.

Thanks for your help!

[karthiknarasimhan]

Hi Paucan,

Thanks for the reply.I guess there is an issue with th 1310 communicating with the 350. The 350 series bridges run vx works where as 1310 are IOS based devices. so there might be an issue in communication amongst these devices.

The same is mentioned in the following Url: http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo1300/brsc1234/o13spl.htm#wp1051821

Note:Repeater access points running Cisco IOS software cannot associate to parent access points that that do not run Cisco IOS software.

So I think this might be the issue that you are facing. I am not sure if you have tried associating the 1310 with the 350 series root bridge directly just for testing. If feasible can you try this test and check the link up time. If you see the same issue in this setup also then we can confirm the bridge software interoperability issue between vx works & IOS.

Thanks & Regards,

Karthik N