Help configuring 5Ghz backbone to multiple 2.4Ghz remote APs

zmerch · July 21, 2010, 2:37am

I would really appreciate some help/pointers configuring this setup:

The scenario: 3 outdoor dual-frequency access points - 2.4Ghz for customer access fed by a 5Ghz backhaul. No wired data access is available.

The hardware:

1 Mikrotek 532A unit with R52Hn configured for 5GHz with a 120 degree antenna for backhaul connectivity into wired network.

3 Mikrotek 532A units with dual R52Hn, one configured for 5GHz (for the backhaul) and one configured for 2.4GHz for customer access. Ethernet connection only used for PoE, no data.

All Mikrotik routers running latest stable firmware (4.1 as of this writing).

I would prefer that the 2.4GHz units mesh with a single SSID (simpler for the customer) but that’s not wholly necessary.

Hotspot access and DHCP controlled by a Juniper firewall, so no security needs to be set up. All that is really needed is for the Mikrotik routers to bridge the 2.4GHz across the 5GHz up to the network feed point.

I’ve worked with Cisco, Juniper & DD-WRT systems, but this is my first hop into the Mikrotik pool.

I appreciate any help that the gurus here can provide.

Thanks,
Roger “Merch” Merchberger

zmerch · July 21, 2010, 8:27pm

OK, well, I’ve been working on this all morning and I’m getting closer… This is what I’ve done for experimenting:

Station 1 (lone): Interface ether1 - DHCP-client to get IP address
Interface wlan1 - 2.4Ghz, IP address 192.168.234.1/24 SSID=ztest1 Mode=ap-bridge
Bridge both above connections to ‘bridge1’

I can see the SSID ‘ztest1’ on my laptop and when I connect to it, I get a DHCP address from the server, and things “just work.” Yay!

So, next I tried making a “relay station”:

Station 1: Interface ether1 - DHCP-client to get IP address
Interface wlan1 - 5.8Ghz, IP address 192.168.234.1/24 SSID=mesh1 Mode=ap-bridge freq=5825
Bridge both above connections to ‘bridge1’

Station 2: Interface ether1 - no connection
Interface wlan1 - 2.4Ghz, IP address 192.168.233.1/24 SSID=ztest2 Mode=ap-bridge
Interface wlan2 - 5.8Ghz, IP address 192.168.234.2/24 SSID=mesh1 Mode=station freq=5825
Bridge both above connections to ‘bridge1’

and from the serial console on station #2, I’ll try to ping station 1 with this command:

ping 192.168.234.1 interface=wlan2

Sometimes pings go through fine, sometimes I see something like this: 192.168.234.1 with hw-addr 00:0C:12:34:56:78 ping time = 37ms { Mac address obfuscated slightly for security and I didn’t feel like typing the whole gosh darned thing }
and the rest of the pings time out - about 90% ping loss.

So, assuming no-one stops by with a magic wand & just “makes it work” for me, I have a couple follow up questions (Yes, I do realize that my original post was somewhat wide-open, I was rather hoping for a “I have that, try this” type response. I’m not afraid of doing my own work, however. ):

I’m currently using high-gain omnidirectional antennae with my test setups, and I have both test boxes on my desk - could they be too close?
Am I on the right track? I’m making progress, but I would certainly appreciate some expert advice…
Would I be farther ahead experimenting with WDS or should I keep dealing with static IP’s as I’ve been working with thus far?

=-=

As always, any info that anyone can provide (including, of course, pointers to tutorials - I’m not afraid to RTFM) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Roger “Merch” Merchberger

briane · July 22, 2010, 8:22pm

Just wondering why you want to bridge? Why not remove the bridges and set the routings as you require them to be?

zmerch · July 24, 2010, 1:39pm

The only reason I tried to bridge the connections is because all of the tutorials I could find on setting up this type of system centered around bridging these connections.

I’ve scaled back my ambitious plan until I know more about the hardware, so I’ve reconfigured 2 units in this way:

Backbone: Juniper Netscreen 5GT
DHCP server addresses: 192.168.1.65/29 (thru 126)
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Rules to route Internet tested & working.
Note: I’m very well versed in Juniper/Netscreen devices - I’m not looking for Juniper help; I’m not trying to be off-topic, I’m just trying to provide others as much info as possible about the current setup.

Main Unit:

Mikrotik 532A with 2 each R52HN wireless cards
Ether1 - DHCP pulled from Juniper, 192.168.1.67
ether2 & ether3 - disabled; unneeded.
wlan1 - configured for 5.2GHz, configured for 10.1.1.1/24 but disabled, not in use.
wlan2 - 2.4GHz B/G, IP address 10.1.1.2/24, mode=ap_bridge, ssid=Outside, highest frequency (Channel 11 as known in the US)
ether1 & wlan2 are bridged.

Once this unit was set up, I tested connecting to the SSID and was able to surf the Internet, so the default bridge routes worked fine.

So I need to set up a 2.4Ghz standalone repeater now, and this is what I did:

Repeater Unit:

Mikrotik 532A with 2 each R52HN wireless cards
Ether1 - no IP address - not disabled just in case I need a Winbox connection
ether2 & ether3 - disabled; unneeded.
wlan1 - configured for 2.4GHz B/G, configured for 10.1.1.3/24 mode=station, ssid=Outside, highest frequency (Channel 11)
wlan2 - 2.4GHz B/G, IP address 10.1.1.4/24, mode=ap_bridge, ssid=Outside2, lowest frequency (Channel 1)
wlan1 & wlan2 are bridged.

=-=-=

Logged into the repeater, I can ping any active 10.1.1.x IP address, and the repeater can ping 192.168.1.67, but it cannot ping 192.168.1.1, so it seems to be a rather simple routing issue, but I haven’t figured out manual routing well enough on the Mikrotik units and would certainly appreciate any help that others on the forum could provide.

Thanks for all the help thus far!
Roger “Merch” Merchberger