topic Re: Access Point Recommendation in M and MSM Series

Access Point Recommendation

Usaia Tawakevou — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:03:52 GMT

I'm in the process of researching access point for our infrastructure. Need recommendation on the HP brand as my infrustructure is purely using HP switches. Got 6 VLANs running with VoIP on one of those VLAN. I need just a basic AP that can hook up clients (who will be on the client VLAN) and guest users (who will need to be on the guest VLAN)

Hope someone helps

Re: Access Point Recommendation

Sietze Reitsma — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:22:13 GMT

depending on the number of AP's you want to deploy and also if you want to control the guests via a guest portal login I would recommend the following:

<10 AP's
MSM710 mobility controller + MSM422 or MSM410

>10 AP's
MSM765 or MSM760 mobility controller + MSM422 or MSM410.

Choice of the AP MSM410 or MSM422 depends on which radio band you want to support. Like 2.4Ghz 802.11b or g and 5Ghz 802.11a 802.11n.

If you want to support both then the MSM 422 is recommended.

If you want to deploy just one AP without guest portal services. a MSM AP like 422/410 can also be used in autonomous mode.

Re: Access Point Recommendation

Fred! — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:30:51 GMT

Good product suggestion. I just want to add the following (in hope that might help you chosing between one or the other).

The 410 is a single radio 802.11n AP.

The 422 is a dual radio product with one that is 802.11b/g or 802.11a and the other radio that is 802.11n.

So it really depend on the kind of clients you want to accomodate in your environment. Especially if you still have legacy 802.11b/g or 802.11a clients to accomodate and that you plan to have 802.11n clients in the near future.

The 410 as a single radio product would have to be configured in compatibility mode to accomodate let's say b/g client and 11n client. The issue is that you are not benefiting from the full extend of the 11n performance in this scenario. You will have to set your radio in 2.4GHz and use the 11n compatibility mode. Which means that your b/g clients will drag the performance for your 11n clients down.

The 422 might be a good choice in this situation for the fact that you can put typically the legacy radio in b/g mode (2.4GHz) and the 11n radio in pure 11n (5GHz). Now you benefit from the full extend of the performance for both your legacy and new clients...

Now, if you plan that in your network the legacy clients will go away and phase out pretty soon, the 410 might be still a good/cheaper option.

Re: Access Point Recommendation

Usaia Tawakevou — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:48:32 GMT

Thank you both for you recommendation. I guess I will go for the 422 for the time being. It is just a single installation. We are planning for the near future where we remove all the other brand AP and use that mobility controller

Thank you very much for the reccommendation

Re: Access Point Recommendation

Usaia Tawakevou — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:02:25 GMT

By the way, am trying to locate configuration/setup notes on this model but couldn't get it. Any pointers ?

Thanks

Re: Access Point Recommendation

Fred! — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:54:38 GMT

Look here: http://www.procurve.com/customercare/support/manuals/index.htm

Search for MSM in the page, you will find the different manuals for the products. The ones of interest are: HP ProCurve MSM7xx Controllers, or the two HP ProCurve MultiService Mobility Implementation Guide and HP ProCurve MultiService Mobility Design Guide. The last 2 are in fact on the myprocurve portal and you need to have an account there to access them. That might help you get started.