[HowTo] Configure Access Point ( Aironet 1250 & Aironet 1142 ) to work together

[andrei.iurean]

Hello everyone,

I have 1x Cisco Aironet 1250 & 3x Cisco Aironet 1142, I want to configure them on a workspace together with fast roaming.

I don't know how to configure them, first, I configured the 1250 series and after that I copied the configuration to 1142 series, the wireless was working okay but the roaming was not working perfecty. 

I created a VLAN and connect all the APs there, I logged in and tried to configure them with web interface.

In web interface, when I go to 'Network map', I can see all the APs, but I don't know how to configure them to work together.

I'm looking for a solution and the best way to configure them to work togheter and I need roaming to work as well.

I heard someting about Wireless Controller, does Aironet 1250 support to be a Wireless Controller on the network? Or should I use WDS?

Please help me.

Kind regards,

Andrei

[Sandeep Choudhary · Accepted solution]

1250 and 1142 APs dont act like a Wireless controller.

Either you need to buy a small (2504 or 5520) WLC to manage it or run them as autonomous APs individually.

In Autonomous mode:

Case1:

If you just using the WPA-AES  and as long as the ssid and encryption are the same, and there is overlap between the cells the client should roam between the AP. In other words...if you are using a PSK, then all you need to do is configure the AP exactly the same way, with the exception of the IP address on the BVI interface.

Case2:

if you are using 802.1x, then you would want to configure WDS for the key caching.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps4570/products_configuration_example09186a00801c951f.shtml#step1

Regards

Dont forget to rate helpful posts

[andrei.iurean]

Thank you.

If you can tell me how exactly I can use channel overlap if I have 3x AP aironet 1142 and 1x AP aironet 1250?

I'm using web intereface.

[Sandeep Choudhary]

For that you need to do the site survey. 

For voice-type deployment, we usually recommend a 15 to 20% overlap between cells, for data, about 10-15%. This overlap represents the area where you are still in one cell, and can already hear the next AP signal with a good signal and quality levels (i.e. your device could jump to that next AP).

Regards

Dont forget to rate helpful posts