EST ESTeem Horizon 216An, Руководство пользователя

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CHAPTER 7
REPEATING FEATURES
Revised: 19 Jan 16 7-1 EST P/N AA107-Horizon
To increase the wireless network’s area of coverage
for both indoor and outdoor applications, the Horizon
utilizes a custom repeating feature that allows
increased coverage areas without the added
expense of hard cabling or adding an additional point
to point radio link.
With a conventional IEEE 802.11g or 802.11a
Access Point (AP) network, all of the APs have to be
interfaced to a common network either by hardwire, see Figure 1, or a separate, dedicated RF backbone. The Model
Horizon can create this RF backbone, bridge Ethernet networks connected to the wired Ethernet port and provide the
wireless canopy for 802.11 clients simultaneously.
When programmed in any of the three Access Point (AP) Repeater Modes, the Model Horizon will create a wireless
network with other Model Horizon units in radio range that are programmed in the AP Repeater Peer table during setup.
This feature adds the increased functionality of repeaters to the typical Ethernet Bridge configuration.
ESTEEM MESH NETWORK
One of the most powerful features of the AP
Repeater Mode is the ability to input multiple
communication routes and designate the priority for
each of these routes to create a wireless Mesh
network. The ESTeem Horizon will automatically
change communication routes in the network if a
route has failed. The new route will be based upon
the priority level set during configuration. This
wireless Meshing technology allows the RF network
to “self-heal” if any of the communication paths fail.
The routing priority is manually set during the
configuration of the Horizon. A manual path
configuration is far superior to standard “self-
discovery” networks, because you have direct control
over the best RF paths and can easily identify any
failed routes for easy troubleshooting. For example,
Figure 2 shows a typical wireless Ethernet system
used in the Water/Waste Water Industry. The
problem with a standard “self-discovery” Mesh network is the selection of routes. Notice that the communication
between the Water Plant (Site A) and Pump Site D has a marginal link, but it is the most direct route between the
Ethernet devices.
This scenario poses the question, which path will the network select? The ESTeem Mesh Network takes out the
guessing games by allowing the user to select and prioritize all communication routes in the system. In our example
we would want the primary link to go through Tank B (Repeater) and use the direct link only if this primary link fails. The
following sections will show how this completed.
Configuration
The configuration of the repeater paths is completed during setup of the Access Point modes. All three Access Point
modes support repeating and Meshing features. The Mesh network configuration using the ESTeem Network
Configuration (ENC) Utility is shown in detail in Chapter 3 of this User’s Manual.
Figure 1: Conventional Access Point Diagram
Figure 2: Small Mesh Network Diagram