3Com 09-1765-001 manual

http://www.3com.com/ http://www.3com.com/productreg ® AirConnect ® Site Survey Administrator Guide Version 1.5 Part No. 09-1765-001 Published June 2000[...]

3Com Corporation ■ 5400 Bayf ro nt Plaza ■ Santa Clar a, California ■ 95052- 8145 Copyright © 2000, 3Com C orporation. All rights reserved. No part of this docume ntation may be repr oduced in any f orm or by any means or used t o make an y derivative w ork (such as translation, transformation, or adaptation) w ithout written perm ission fro[...]

C ONTENTS 1 P REPARATION Introduction 5 Insp ecting the Survey Ar ea 5 Environment al Cons idera tions 6 Direct-Seque nce Co nsiderat ions 6 Anten na Placemen t Consid erations 6 Site El ectrical Consi deratio ns 7 Request ing a S ite Su rvey 7 2 C ONDUCTING A S ITE S URVEY Introduction 8 Site Survey I nstallati on 8 CD-Rom Instal lation 8 AirCon n[...]

Navi gat ing t he Ar ea M enu 14 Cr eatin g a New Sur vey Ar ea 14 Selecti ng and Editing a n Existin g Survey Ar ea 14 Clearin g the T ext File Log for an Open Sur vey Ar ea 14 Editi ng the Not e File for an Op en Survey Ar ea 15 Running I CMP or WNMP T ests 15 Setting ICMP or WNMP T est Parame ters 15 Setting New T e st Para meters 16 A A IR C ON[...]

1 P REP A R A T I O N Intr od ucti on Installi ng an Ai rConnec t wireless network begins w ith cond ucting a site survey . A site survey in volves the use of the AirCo nnect Site Survey utility to determi ne the physica l r equirements for a site-spe cific AirConn ect wireless network. A site survey analyzes the instal latio n envir onment and pr [...]

6 C HAPTER 1: P REPARATION The compl etion of t he RF Site Su rvey Req uir ements document i s a coor dinated ef fort between t he site survey team and the customer management team. The RF Sit e Survey Requ ir ements docu ment does no t identify po tenti al install ation constraint s within the custo mer site, nor do es it recommen d AP and antenn [...]

Requ esting a S ite Su rvey 7 Site Electrical Cons idera tions AirConne ct APs draw power fr om wall outlet s or over CA T 5 cabling us ing the AirCon nect PowerBAS E-T adapter . AP performance is subject to degradati on due to inher ent or rando m elec trical pro blems or s ite-sp ecific distur bances. The followin g A irConn ect AP electr ical in[...]

2 C ONDUCTI NG A S ITE S URVEY Int r o d u c t i on The AirCo nnect Site Surve y u t ility is used to estab lis h a two - wa y data n etwo r k usi n g b o t h st a t i o n ar y an d m o b i l e d ev i ces at v ari o us po i nts wit h in t h e p r o p ose d r a d i o cov e r a ge a r ea. Asses s AP sig n a l s t r en g t h u si n g var i ous AP conf[...]

Starting the S ite Survey Utili ty 9 T o insta ll a trial AirCon nect wirel ess network, use the fol lowing pr ocedur e. 1 Mount the AP s. Mount APs at the locat ions r ecommended on the floor pl an drawing. Start wi th the most dif ficult coverag e area first. Positio n the APs so that their antenn as are not obstru cted. 2 Power on the APs. Use t[...]

10 C HAPTER 2: C ONDUCTING A S ITE S URVEY Site Surve y File Menu Use the Fil e menu to creat e a new sur vey area workspa ce, open an exis ting surve y workspace, def ine a new surve y are a, save the survey workspace, up load/ download ex isting survey workspace data, import survey workspace dat a, and display recent su rvey info rmation. Creatin[...]

Site Su rvey Ed it Men u 11 Site Survey Edit Me nu The Sit e Survey ut ility Ed it menu conta ins Site Survey , Ar ea, and Sett ings pull -do wn me nus. Use th ese menus to edit an open A irConne ct site su rvey , di splay a li st of coverag e area s within the sur vey , and use the Se tup, Meter Set tings, Sou nds and Logging pro perty pages to co[...]

12 C HAPTER 2: C ONDUCTING A S ITE S URVEY Editing Setup Properties Select Setting s in the E dit men u to acce ss the Se tup, Me ter Setti ngs, Sou nds, an d Logging tabs. Us e these d ialog boxes to change d efault settin gs for the current site survey workspace. Setup Property Page Select the Setup tab to change the fol lowing d efault site su r[...]

Navigating the View Menu 13 Loggin g Proper ty Page Select the Logging property page to change the fol lowin g defau lt site su rvey worksp ace log ging in format ion. Enab le L ogging. Select Enable Logging to enable Sh ort Logg ing For mat or Detai led Logg ing F ormat. If un chec ked, no lo ggin g take s pl ace d urin g the ping tests. The defau[...]

14 C HAPTER 2: C ONDUCTING A S ITE S URVEY Viewing Access Poin t Info Select K nown APs in the V iew m enu to di splay AP s in rang e of the t arget wi reless client . Use the Kno wn APs dialog box to v iew the AP BSSID, numbe r of associated wir eless clie nts, wir eless cl ient type, and stat us an d data r ate. An icon nex t to e ach AP indi cat[...]

Navigatin g the Area Menu 15 Editing the Note File for an Open Su rvey Ar ea Select Edi t Note in the Area menu to display the notes fil e for th e active sur vey area. Use t he Edit N ote op tion to e dit or delete th e surve y test not es entered for the active survey wor kspace. Runnin g ICMP or WNMP T ests Select Run ICMP T est or Run WNMP T es[...]

16 C HAPTER 2: C ONDUCTING A S ITE S URVEY Use the Site S urvey T otals dial og bo x to di splay survey a rea final test results, includin g test start time, t otal numb er of tests, total n umber o f runs, to tal test roundtrip time, av erage test roundtrip time, and to tal num ber of t imeou ts. The two checkbo xes indicate if the use r cancelled[...]

A A IR C ONNECT O VERVIEW Intr oducti on AirConnect fr om 3Com is made up of a seri es of pr oduc ts that wor k toget her to del iver high -speed digita l wirele ss networ king. Th is technology pr ovides connecti vity betwe en wir eless cli ents and netw ork node s in a variety of indoor envir onments , and also provides bri dging ar chitectur e b[...]

18 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW Peer -T o-Peer N etwork The simplest AirConn ect topology cons ists of one AP pr oviding a sin gle-cell networ k for wireless clients. I n this scenario , as shown i n the follo wing fig ure, the wir eless client s (lapto p and desktop co mputers with the AirCo nnect NI C installed) communicat e thr ough the[...]

AirConnec t Network T opologie s 19 Single AP B ridge Another po ssible AirConn ect topology is a s ingle AP bridg ing an Eth ernet and wireless network . As show n in the next fig ure, the AP , wired to a networ k server or LAN thr ough an Ethernet cab le, serves as a network node and pr ovides the link between th e server and t he wir eless clie [...]

20 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW Multiple -AP Full Coverage Network This ne twork topo logy will be use d in most enterpr ise envir onments: mu ltiple APs wired to an exi sting LAN to provide com plete wi reless network cove rage. In this scenario, as shown in the next fig ure , wireless clients can r oam seamlessly between di ffer ent cove[...]

Theor y of Opera tion 21 The AP removes from its da tabase d estinatio ns or in terfaces n ot used fo r a specifie d time. The AP r efreshe s its database when it transmits or r eceives data from t hese destinat ions and inte rfaces. Filter ing an d Acces s Cont r ol The AP pro vides facilities to l imit the wir eless clients that associ ate with i[...]

22 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW The radio interf ace confor ms to I EEE 802.11 HR spe cifications . The interfac e operat es at 11 Mbps using dir ect-se quence radi o technol ogy . The AP suppor ts multip le-cell ope rations wit h fast, tran spar ent roami ng between cells . With the dir ect-s equence s ystem, each cell operate s indepe nd[...]

Theor y of Opera tion 23 The PPP implem entation in the AP uses the NCP as descr ibed in RFC 1220: PPP Extension s for Bridgin g t o encapsul ate packets at the Ethernet le vel. The PPP pro vides IP bridg ing contr ol as def ined by RFC 1172 and MAC-le vel bri dging. The pr otocol p rovide s suppo rt for PPP negotiati ons co nformi ng to RFC 16 61.[...]

24 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW Straigh t-through cabl e pin out: When usi ng a modem connect ion, o ne AP r epr esents t he or iginat ing AP and t he other repr esents t he answer ing AP . When using a PPP link, do not use the ser ial port to access the UI. Access to the UI requires establishing a T elnet session with the AP . Dir ect-Seq[...]

Theor y of Opera tion 25 Wirele ss Client Association P rocess APs recog nize wir eless clients as they associate with t he AP . The AP keeps a list of the wireless clients it services. Wi r eless clients associate with an AP b ased on the followi ng conditions : ■ Signal s treng th between the AP and wir eless cli ent ■ W irel ess clients curr[...]

26 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW ■ The rat io of good -transmitted packet s to attempted -transm itted packets fa lls below a thr eshold. ■ The wir eless cl ient detects an imbalance in the number of wir eles s clients associate d with available A Ps and roams t o a less loaded AP . A wireless clie nt selects the b est available AP and [...]

Theor y of Opera tion 27 The AirConnec t Mobile IP (roamin g across r outers) feature e nables a wir eless client on the Internet to move fr om one subnet to anot her while keepi ng its IP addre ss unchanged. The scanni ng and ass ociati ng pr ocess cont inues for ac tive wir eless clients. This a llows the wireless clients to find new APs and disc[...]

28 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW A TIM is a compr essed virtual bitmap iden tifying the AP a ssociated wi reless clients in PSP mode t hat have buf fered dir ected messages. wir eless clients is sue a poll re quest when APs is sue a TIM. A beacon wi th the br oadcast- indic ator bit s et causes th e wir eless cli ent to note DTIM C ount fie[...]

Theor y of Opera tion 29 Pro gramma ble SNMP T rap Suppo rt The SNMP pr otocol def ines the met hod for obta ining in formation ab out networks operati ng characteri stics and cha nging r outer and gateway par ameters. The SNMP pro tocol consists of thr ee elem ents: ■ Manageme nt sta tions ■ Manageme nt info rmation ■ Manageme nt prot ocol ([...]

30 A PPENDIX A: A IR C ONNECT O VE RVIEW Using the User Interface The User Interface (UI) i s a tex t-based main t enan ce tool integrated into the AP . It pr ovides stati stical displa ys, AP conf iguratio n options, an d firmwar e upgrades . Access to the UI r equires one of the following : Method Description Telnet C lient Gain access to the AP [...]