Chapter 2c – Installation
02c-WaveCore-Installation
The reboot is now complete. I can tell physically looking at the WaveCore units, all four LEDs are now solid green. The alignment LED could change depending on what you would have for an RSSI in between the units. But the radio LED went from flashing to solid, so the two units are synced up. Back in our browser we’re gonna change our IP addresses. Now it’s gonna be to 0.249. Since we did change our IP address, if I change that. In our browser, we’re still gonna use admin and admin as our login and password. We’ll click login.
As soon as we log in, we can see that we have our two units and that we do have a successful link in between the two. We changed our IP address of our controller node, so it is at 0.249 where we can see that our subordinate node is still at the default of 0.250. If we wanted to go through and make similar changes to it, we could easily go under configuration network and ethernet to make adjustments there.
That way both of ’em would be set up on static IP addresses. But just to show you the concept of how to make that connection these are the software settings that you would need to adjust to, make your network configured and ready to be deployed.
Once you successfully log in, the below image will be on the dashboard view and denotes a successfully linked configuration. Visually on each WaveCore, the radio LED will begin blinking green during the boot up process where the controller node and the subordinate node are searching for one another.
Once the link is established, the radio LEDs will be solid green. The WaveCore and where to make configuration changes will be covered in an upcoming chapter.
When mounting the controller node, these steps should be noted. It is recommended to mount the controller node and the subordinate node at locations where both units will be best aligned. Mount the controller node to a solid, secure structure that can safely accommodate the weight of the unit, which is five pounds with a short mounting brackets.
Refer to the data sheet for weight without or with long mounting brackets. The controller node should be deployed closest to the core or distribution domain of the network. While the subordinate node should be closest to the access or end device domain of the network. Use the appropriate type of screws that are suitable to attach the WaveCore Node to the internal wall or ceiling.
Be sure to use both brackets of the attached WaveCore device with six screws or bolts to firmly secure it to the ceiling or wall to minimize any risk of the device coming loose or falling, which can be a hazard that can cause an injury. Attach network cabling or SFP+ module to the WaveCore. And then finally attach your 12 volt power source or POE power source to power on the device.
Similarly, when installing the subordinate node, these steps should be followed. Decide on the location for the subordinate node that should be mounted closer to the access domain of the network. Mount the subordinate node to a solid, secure structure that can safely accommodate the weight of the node.
If it’s safe to do so, you can validate the link connection prior to mounting the subordinate node by holding a powered on subordinate node near the mounting location and point the subordinate node in the direction of the controller node.Use the align LED and software interface to validate the connection and improve its performance.
Sometimes a suboptimal connection can be easily fixed by mounting the subordinate node to a slightly different location to clear any unforeseen obstacles between the path of the RF signal. For example, in raised ceilings, there could be ventilation ducts, equipment, or other obstructions that a minor adjustment in the radio location would address.
Use the appropriate type of screws that are suitable to attach the WaveCore node to the intended wall or ceiling. Be sure to use both brackets to attach the WaveCore node with six screws or bolts to firmly secure it to the ceiling or wall to minimize any risk of the device coming loose or falling, which can be a hazard and cause an injury. Attach your networking cable and or SFP+ module to the unit. Attach a 12 volt power source or POE Power source and power on the device.
As we mentioned prior, the WaveCore nodes are designed to be mounted to a wall, ceiling, or floor where the orientation will vary based on the installation site requirements. The WaveCore antennas are directional and need to be oriented where the controller and subordinate antennas are facing each other. For best performance, both WaveCore nodes should be mounted in the same orientation for the antenna elements to align properly and achieve optimal performance. The antenna, horizontal and vertical beam width is plus or minus 10 degrees.
Performing the antenna align process is important to increase the performance and reliability of the wireless link. Aligning the antenna involves moving and positioning the radios so that they directly point to one another to increase the overall signal Strength between nodes. Alignment can be completed in two different methodologies.
Method one, the external aligned LED. If you navigate to the configuration, wireless, align metrics tab and click on the start alignment mode button, this will change the LED refresh rate from every 15 seconds to every two seconds for the next five minutes, the LED refresh rate will change only for the node that you enable it on. If you refer to the table shown on the screen, you’ll see the different RX levels based on the LED state.
Method two, VineManager WebGUI, navigate to the same configuration, wireless, align metrics tab, which contains the RSSI and click on the start alignment mode button. This will change the LED refresh rate as well as the RSSI refresh rate from 15 seconds to two seconds for the next five minutes. Adjust the radios to achieve the less negative value, which means the link is performing better.
If needed, you can reset the max hold button to see what the strongest RSSI value was achieved. Your cell phone’s web browser can be used to access the web GUI or download the AirvineMobile app from your iOS or Android app store. Check the RSSI values on both WaveCore nodes to ensure that similar values are achieved on both nodes.
Method one is good to get the WaveCore basic alignment and proceeding to method two being used for fine tuning the alignment to have the best RSSI between nodes. Many future firmware enhancements will include making the alignment of WaveCore bridges even easier.
To start the alignment mode begin by logging into the WaveCore network. Come over to the configuration section. We’re gonna click on Network to drop that menu down. Then we’ll select the wireless tab from here. We’re gonna select Align metrics. Here we’re gonna see our RSSI gauge and what our current RSSI value is.
To start the alignment mode, we will click start alignment mode. So now for the next five minutes, the LED on the side of the WaveCore as well as this RSSI value is gonna update every two seconds to give us that max value that we’re seeing but be able to see it in close to real time. If you need to reset your max achieved, feel free, you can click on the reset button, that’ll reset it for a moment.
After two seconds, you’ll have a new value. From here, we’re gonna take the WaveCore and we’re gonna be able to move it slightly and get our strongest RSSI value. Once you have found the max RSSI value, this is where you’re gonna wanna lock in, where the WaveCore is gonna be mounted. From here, you would also want to go through and just validate with the other WaveCore node, and you should be receiving a very similar RSSI value. But it’s always a best practice just to validate and check.
This table includes a theoretical over the air layer one data rates based on a minimum RSSI in the columns with the blue headers. Each value can show you a potential pipeline available based on a given RSSI value and bandwidth configuration.The columns on the right in gray are measured results from the Airvine engineering team showing testing results at each available bandwidth per given MCS rate.
As you can see when you double your bandwidth, the throughput is roughly going to double as well. Our testing results are utilizing, iPerf using TCP with bidirectional syntax, so both uplink and downlink are tested in this scenario.One thing to note, especially if you’re doing work in Europe, the smaller channels may help with co-location of radios as well as increases the system gain and reliability.
When you switch from a 320MHz to a 160MHz channel, you gain 3dB in system gain. You’ll gain another 3dB switching to 80MHz. If your link is marginal at 320MHz going to a lower bandwidth can increase the link reliability. WaveCore bridges display the RX signal under the monitoring section, device, wireless tab, which can be seen with the image on the far left of the screen.
Here’s an example of a riser diagram that was done for a customer that had their MDF on the sixth floor and was using the WaveCore bridges as a riser backbone as there was not an open pathway for cabling to be run and cost for core drilling was out of their budget.
Each floor has stacked IDF closets, so the WaveCore is being deployed with one link on each floor or ceiling with an access switch deployed between WaveCore links for connectivity on the floor. This building is also using our WaveTunnel product to reduce cabling and provide POE to the access points.
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