Chapter 3 – Configuration
03-WaveCore-Configuration
In this chapter we will take a look at the configuration options available with the WaveCore.
WaveCore nodes communicate using the IEEE 802.11BE protocol dubbed EHT for extremely high throughput over 6GHz, but will not link to any other 802.11BE device on the network. The 6GHz unlicensed spectrum added 1.2GHz of bandwidth operating from 5,925MHz to 7,125MHz designated for Wi-Fi use. When planning the bandwidth and channel for the WaveCore link, make sure this aligns with your channel planning for current or future network upgrades with Wi-Fi seven products. In the US U-NII-5, 6, 7 & 8 are all available for use where if we look at the 320MHz bandwidth options, we can see that only three non-overlapping channels are available. In Europe, only U-NII-5 is available, so they only have one non-overlapping channel with one additional 160MHz channel available. Careful consideration should be taken when deploying channels to reduce or eliminate interference.
The default channel bandwidth set for the WaveCore is 320MHz to maximize link throughput. In environments where there may be 6GHz interference or overlap channel bandwidth may need to be set to 160 or 80 megahertz. The default channel frequency is set to auto, but manual configuration is allowed.
Note: the channel shown on the right are 20MHz “beacon channels” and are not involved in the main 80, 160 or 320MHz “bearer channels”. if manually configuring a channel, look up the correct “center channel” for the configured frequency bandwidth. At boot up, the WaveCore controller node will scan the 6GHz frequency for interference. Once the scan is complete, the controller node will settle on a 320MHz channel that is free or has the least amount of interference. The subordinate node will boot and scan the available 6GHz frequency for the controller node and settle on that frequency.
The 802.11be protocol includes channel bandwidths of 20, 40, 80, 160, and 320MHZ. The WaveCore is designed to utilize the 80, 160 or 320MHz bandwidth options. In the US and Canada regulations stipulate the max EIRP of 30dBm for 320MHz channel low power indoor bridges. For 160MHz, that drops to 27dBm and to 24dBm for 80MHz. Due to this regulation, the EIRP loss of 3dB is offset by the 3dB threshold gain. So no improvement is noticed to the system gain with lower bandwidths. In Europe, there’s a 24dBm EIRP for all 80, 160 & 320MHz bandwidth, so the lower bandwidth does receive better system gain.
EIRP, or effective isotropic radiated power by definition is a measure of the maximum power that an antenna can radiate in a specific direction. This table shows just a few select countries and how regulatory bodies vary on how much power a controller and a subordinate node are limited to.
EIRP Limits can vary based on deployment location. A full list of EIRP limits by country is available in Appendix B of the WaveCore installation guide available on aWaveCore’s website. Transmit power + MIMO gain + antenna gain is the formula to calculate eIRP. Cable loss would be included in this equation, if an external antenna was used, but is not applicable with the WaveCore.
The maximum EIRP a WaveCore can transmit is 30dBm, or 1W. This includes an antenna gain of 18dBi plus the MIMIO gain of 6dBi, and a transmit power of 6dB. The transmit power is adjusted to account for proper regional base limits.
The WC-1000RH-RW world version of the WaveCore will have a popup window the first time successfully logging into the WaveCore WebGUI, requiring you to select the country of operation from a dropdown list. The US version does not require this step as the configuration is locked for the region.
This step is ensuring that the radio operates in accordance with the radio regulatory requirements for that specific country. A reboot is required upon completion. To initiate a software reboot, navigate in the WebGUI to system, operations, system operations section, and click on the reboot button.
The 802.11be protocol allows for WPA3-Enterprise, WPA3-Personal or opportunistic wireless encryption, also known as OWE. The WaveCore Bridges will link and encrypt data using the WPA3-Personal, also known as WPA3-SAE for simultaneous authentication of equals .
Encryption is enabled by default and cannot be disabled.
Updating the firmware should be one of the first things completed. Once the WaveCore link is powered up. To update the firmware, we’ll follow these steps. Visit Airvine’s website at Airvine.com and select support from the top menu. To open the dropdown menu, click on downloads. Download the latest version of Vine OS firmware and release notes.
Log into the WaveCore with the appropriate credentials. On the left side menu, expand the system, operations dropdown menu and select firmware update. Select local file from the download slash upload firmware section and click choose a file button and find the firmware which was downloaded.
Click upload to transfer the file. Note: The firmware can be updated also via HTTP, FTP, and TFTP as well if desired. Once uploaded, verify that both set is primary and reboot after update are selected, and click “write image”. In the confirmation window. Select yes to begin the firmware update process.
Log back in the WaveCore to verify the new firmware version . Verify the new firmware version is shown as active and primary. Repeat this process for each WaveCore. We’re gonna show a live demo of updating our firmware. For starters, we’re gonna go to the WaveCore website. If we come over to the far right and click on support, we can see the dropdowns. And if I click on downloads. Now just to note, there are WaveCore and WaveTunnel firmwares that are available on here.
So we can click on the left hand side, click on WaveCore. We only see the WaveCore product, which we’re gonna be working on. And now we can see, we do have our release notes that we can click on to download. And then our firmware version, if we will select that. We’ll have to scroll down and accept our end user license agreement, which of course we’re gonna read in detail.
Click accept. Just take note of where this is going to be downloaded so you know where the file’s gonna be. Click on save. Once the download is complete, you’re gonna want to extract that zip file so that way we can get direct access to it. Once you have it extracted, we’re gonna log into the WaveCore using our standard admin/admin login and password.
Unless you’ve gone through and made that change, then you’d be using whatever credentials you modified it to. Here on our main opening screen, we have our dashboard. We will come down to the system section. We will click on operations to drop that down, and we’ll come to firmware Update, select that. As we can see, our current version and backup version are 1.0.1.131, which is the only version of firmware since these are brand new units, we’re gonna come down to step one, the download upload firmware version.
So we can do HTTP, FTP, or TFTP if you have servers that are set up for that. But for simplicity, we’re gonna do local file. So I select that radio button. I’m gonna choose a file. This is where you’re gonna want to navigate to the file location that you saved and you extracted the file to, I’ve got mine here.
I’m gonna select the file. We can see that we have our bin file loaded. I’m gonna click on the upload button. That’s just gonna take a moment to upload. Once it’s uploaded, make sure that both set is primary and reboot after update are both selected, which they should by default. We’re gonna click write image.
And now we’re gonna say yes to our confirmation that we do want to make this version our primary, and that we’re gonna put our old version as a backup. We will select yes. From here we’re gonna see that it is writing an image. It’s gonna go through, it’s gonna update the firmware, and then it’s gonna initiate a reboot.
So once that reboot is complete. We’re gonna be able to log back in. We’re gonna go back to this screen. I’ll cut out and cut back so we save a little bit of time, but we’ll be able to see that we have a new version of firmware.
Our devices now completed the reboot, so we can re-add in our login and password. We’ll log in. We can see a few changes with the new firmware if we come down to system operations for more. Update again. We can now verify that our active and primary version is the new 1.1.0.24, which I loaded. And we do have a backup of the original that was on here.
So now the next step would be updating the firmware of the second node. So if I did the controller node first, I would be doing the subordinate node. Next, go through those exact same steps, get it updated to the latest and greatest firmware, and then you’re ready to deploy these in the network. This is the live view of how to do the firmware update.
Inside the interface bay there is the reset button, which can be used in two methods. If you press and hold the button for less than five seconds, it’ll do a soft reboot. If you press and hold the button for greater than five seconds, you’re going to factory reset the WaveCore units back to the default settings.
The reset button can be pressed with a standard paperclip.
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