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| airPoint XO Series™ Frequently
Asked Questions
[sB5200] airPoint XO
[sB5100] airPoint XO2 |
| About
airPoint XO Series™ |
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| Common
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| About
airPoint XO Series™ |
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How does the airPoint XO differ from some other available products?
The airPoint XO Series is designed with built in Bandwidth Management function on the Access Point mode. On the traditional wireless the Bandwidth Management function for the clients are configured using external hardware and software solution on the NOC.
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| 2. |
What is the advantage of handling Bandwidth Management in the Access Point?
Doing bandwidth control at the Point of Service (at individual access points) (A) obviates the need to bring back all the backhaul from multiple access points in the WISP network to the central NOC and process it there. This frees up valuable network resources. (B) Distributing the bandwidth management function also ensures that incidental bandwidth throttling failure at NOC does not cripple bandwidth management across the entire network.
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Do we need to buy additional software to use Bandwidth Management with airPointXO series?
You do not need to buy additional software to do bandwidth management as this is built-in with airPoint XO products.
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Am using the airPoint XO at the NOC for backhaul connection, to extend the wireless link do I need to use the XO series??
The airPoint XO series is built to work with all standard client devices. For instance, an airPoint XO can provide bandwidth limiting to airPoint Outdoor access point, deployed further down the network.
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Is it possible to set minimum and maximum bandwidth?
It just provides rate limiting so you only specify the maximum bandwidth. Bandwidth can be throttled in steps of 1Kbps, till a maximum of 5 Mbps, to suit the WISP’s requirement. The airPoint XO series allows upstream as well as downstream bandwidth control. The service provider can set up different categories based on bandwidth purchased. Users can be grouped by profiles, based on allowed bandwidth limits. This opens up customer segmentation and optimal pricing possibilities.
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Does the airPoint XO series support Radius authentication?
Yes, the airPoint XO series supports RADIUS based authentication and it is based on MAC address for username and password. The authentication is solely for Radio Association Authentication. The same RADIUS server can be used for bandwidth control as well.
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Is it possible to do the bandwidth throttling by using radius profiles?
Dynamic RADIUS based control is supported for large networks. Bandwidth control can be implemented using static Mac list (Internal Mac) for small networks.
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In airPoint XO2 , does each radio have independent WEP key, ESSID, and channel. Is it possible to set it differently? ?
Yes. Each radio parameter can be set differently. This significantly enhances the flexibility of configurations that the airPoint XO2 can provide.
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What is built-in temperature sensor used for?
The built-in temperature sensor helps to monitor the device temperature at any point of time. This is extremely useful in maintenance/ management and troubleshooting purpose.
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Can the upstream and downstream be set with different values for each client?
Yes. Asymmetrical bandwidth control is possible with the airPoint XO series.
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Does it support multi-mode function?
Yes. The airPoint XO series supports multi-mode functionality. The aPXO can be configured as an access point, wireless bridge or client-bridge. The aPXO2 can be configured as a twin access point, access point- backhaul, full-repeater or access point-standby.
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Does the airPoint XO Series lock the radios at different speeds or does it throttle the speed via IP?
Bandwidth control is done using the MAC address. A static table can be used in the unit (similar to MAC authentication table) or an external RADIUS can be used to authenticate and provide rate control for each client.
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How the radio is protected from weather, surge and spikes?
It is housed in a NEMA 4X weatherproof casing, and using industrial grade components and is built to perform reliably under all climatic conditions, withstanding temperatures anywhere between -40 C and +60 C (-40 F to 140 F). The product has heavy duty/built-in Gas Discharge Tube for surge suppression capability. it is tightly shielded. Grounding studs also presents on the back of the radio case as well as on the PoE, so it is well protected.
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Can we upgrade airPoint Pro seres to airPoint XO?
No. The existing airPoint PRO Outdoor is essentially different from the airPoint XO. The latter uses a 48V power supply and supports bandwidth management. Hence, the airPoint Pro Outdoor cannot be upgraded to an airPoint XO.
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Sample of Bandwidth Parameters Configuration in the Radius Server?
Support for RADIUS on the airPointXO needs the following important parameters on the RADIUS server.
a) smartbridges dictionary support for the XO Attribute Value Pairs (AVP).
b) Configuration of the users database for the respective AVPs.
a) AVP - dictionary support
The dictionary file in the standard SMI format is provided along with the distribution for use. Please use the standard inclusion
procedure in the RADIUS server installation for making the server aware of the AVPs specific to XO.
In case of freeRADIUS (http://www.freeradius.org/) the finest of freely available RADIUS servers, this file is typically included
through the $INCLUDE directive in the main dictionary file. The steps needed to do so include
- Copy the file dictionary.smartbridges into a folder where other dictionary files distributed with the server are installed. This could be /usr/share/freeradius/ for instance. In the same directory you would see other typical dictionary files such as dictionary.cisco etc.
- In the main configuration directory such as /etc/raddb or /etc/freeradius, locate the 'dictionary' file. Append a line after the main
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Example:
$INCLUDE /usr/share/freeradius/dictionary |
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Example:
$INCLUDE //dictionary.smartbridges |
A simple reload or restart of the server shall suffice to get the AVPs installed for the server.
b) User Data provisioning
The main two parameters which are specific to XO, and above the normal RADIUS protocol are
Limit-Rate-Downlink, and Limit-Rate-Uplink.
These are defined in the dictionary above via the SMI specific numbers which are passed as the standard Vendor Specific Attribute(VSA - 26). The only thing which needs to be done for XO in the users database is to add the above two Response-Items per the RADIUS installation. So for example if you use
| 00301a00ebba Auth-Type := Local, User-Password == "00301a00ebba" Service-Type = Framed-User |
as the specification for MAC authorization in the RADIUS server, the only thing to add is two more values in the return values
fields, such as below:
00301a00ebba Auth-Type := Local, User-Password == "00301a00ebba" Service-Type = Framed-User,
Limit-Rate-Downlink = 512, Limit-Rate-Uplink = 128 |
When the RADIUS server refreshes the database, it would take care to send the extra Attributes to the device. The same
settings can be used with normal APs also, who would duly disregard these attributes.
A sample file is supplied alongwith for the 'users' file typically used with clear text password setting in PAP.
Though the above examples are specfic to FreeRADIUS, any other RFC2865 compliant RADIUS server should be able to use all of these settings smoothly, though the means of setup might be slightly different.
Sample dictionary.smartbridges File
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# smartBridges dictionary.
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VENDOR smartBridges 14882
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# smartBridges Vendor Specific Extensions
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#
ATTRIBUTE Limit-Rate-Downlink 1 integer smartBridges
ATTRIBUTE Limit-Rate-Uplink 2 integer smartBridges |
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In simpleMonitor 1.8, there is BW Reset Timer, is it necessary to enable the BW Reset timer?
It is recommended that the BW Reset timer is enabled. It will do a soft reset to the bandwidth controller at the specified interval. The reset is transparent to the customers and will not impact the data traffic.
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Is there any better way of testing the airPoint-XO speeds other than the file transfer/download?
Yes indeed, there are plenty of useful network metrics software available for free download on the public internet, most notable of these are:
- Iperf from http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/Iperf/ works wonders when multiple sessions are running at the same time over the same link.
- RUDE/CRUDE from http://www.cesnet.cz/doc/techzpravy/2001/01/ are best suited for UDP packets etc, but they can give a very accurate outlook on the precision of the traffic shaping implemented in the airPoint-XO.
Note: The above was used for testing in-house in conjunction with the development of the airPoint-XO with very satisfactory results.
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Which Mac address need to input in the Internal Mac or Radius user table to control Bandwidth?
You need to use the client device MAC address to control Bandwidth. If the client device is a transparent bridge (eg. using aPP in Client Bridge mode), then you need to enter the Mac address of the machine behind the client device. When using airBridge, you need to use the computer's MAC address.
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| Common
Problems and Solutions |
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This is my first time configuring the XO, I seem to have problem login to the simpleMonitor, how can I get it working?
By default (firmware 1.0 onwards), XO is configured with the following static IP addresses:
- Supervisor: 192.168.0.200
- BWC_A: 192.168.0.201, BWC_B 192.168.0.202 (XO2 only)
- Radio A: 192.168.0.25, Radio B: 192.168.0.26 (XO2 only)
- Connect the airPoint XO directly to the computer which should be on the same subnet and try to ping all the IP addresses as indicated above. Proceed to step 3 only when ping to all IP addresses are success
- If you are unable to get the Reply please ensure the cable connection and try again. Double check your PC IP address, it should be configured with IP as 192.168.0.x also.
- Launch the simpleMonitor, key in the Supervisor IP address and the default Community name and click Connect.
- Once successfully login, you can change the IP Address in the Setup menu *
In case you still not able to login to the device, please power cycle the device. Wait for all LEDS (except BW) to be ON and try again. You might need to perform factory default by depress the reset button on the PoE Injector or PoE Outdoor for 10sec until its BLUE light is OFF and back to ON.
For older units loaded with old firmware version, XO is preconfigured to DHCP client setting to obtain IP addresses from the network. As soon as you power it ON, it starts looking for the DHCP server. We recommend you to connect the XO device to your network with DHCP server for automatic IP address assignment and will be easy to set it up.
If you get error message "Unable to get Radio Name", please see the next question below.
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Unable to get Radio name?
Is the RF (radio) LED ON? If off, it could means the radio does not have proper IP address or not on the same subnet with Supervisor/BWC. At times, when you make configuration change to the Radio or Bandwdith settings, it will reset and you have to wait a while before it is active. As such you will notice this error message but still able to login to the XO, ie you can see the Setup & RadioGroup menu except the Radio configuration page. Make sure you are able to ping all the IP addresses (Supervisor, BW, Radio) before login.
You can use this utility APSearchMgr (running in DOS prompt) to search for the Radio IP address. By default it has IP address of 192.168.0.25 and 192.168.0.26 (XO2).
Please try to change the Radio IP to be on the same subnet as the Supervisor & BWC. You may like to use static arp method to temporary assign IP address to the radio, eg arp –s 192.168.0.25 00-30-1a-00-ff-03. Do a continously ping until you can get the response (power reset the device may needed to get this working). Once the IP is responsed to the ping, try login to the XO at this point.
If the problem persists, you have to restore to factory default by depressing the reset button for 10 sec.
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Can I assign the same IP address for Supervisor, BWC andd Radio?
No, each processor (Supervisor, BWC and radio) requires unique IP address and must be on the same subnet. Should there be any IP conflict between them, you will not be able to login and an error will appear as "Unable to get the IP Settings of the airPointXO, please check the Community Password!".
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The BW LED is always OFF, is this normal?
Yes, the observation is correct as it is not programmed to function at this moment.
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What does this error "Unable to reach Device IP : x.x.x.x please check your connectivity to the Device" means?
The XO's Supervisor is not reachable. You may have just changed the Supervisor IP Setting to different IP address/subnet. It is important to assign proper IP address which is part of your network IP subnet. If your intention to change IP address to different IP subnet, you can click OK on the error "Unable to reach Device IP : x.x.x.x please check your connectivity to the Device" and continue to change IP for BWC and Radio under IP Settings in Setup menu.
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If I have wireless clients on the same Radio, will there be any bandwidth control among them if I turn on bandwidth managment?
Wireless clients associate on the same radio communicate with each other through radio interface and does not pass through the bandwidth controller and thus no bandwidth management. To work around this, configure the client on different IP subnet and this will force them to route via gateway/router in order to have bandwidth control. You might want to turn on “Disable Client-to-Client communication” if you want to block communication among them.
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How to do Firmware upgrade? ?
- Download and Install the latest simpleMonitor 1.8 from http://www.smartbridges.com/support/apxo.asp . The firmware is included in the software
- Please ensure you will be able to ping all the IP addresses (Supervisor, BWC and Radio)
- Launch the FWUpgrade Utility from the Start->All Programs->smartBridges->airPoint-XO program menu.
- Enter the Supervisor IP address and the password and press “Download Firmware”
- Once the Firmware Upgrade successfully completed, launch the simpleMonitor
- In the latest simpleMonitor from ver 1.8), initially it will prompt you to key in the Supervisor IP address, BWC A IP address, BWC B IP address (XO2 only), Radio A IP address. In XO2, after you successfully login and click Manage radio B, it will prompt to key in the Radio B IP address.
- Now you will be able to configure the Device for your Network.
Note: It is highly recommended to perform the firmware upgrade through the Ethernet connection of the XO.
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My XO device was running on older firmware version and once upgraded to firmware 1.4, the Bandwidth Client list show different bandwidth information. Is there any issue with the new firmware and how to resolve it?
We have improved the bandwidth algorithm to provide more accurate bandwidth throttling. It is best to save the bandwidth table before the firmware upgrade and load it to the device after the firmware upgrade. Once the table loaded it would show the accurate information. Alternatively you can adjust the bandwidth information for the clients in the BW control window.
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The reset button on the Wall Mount is not restoring the settings to default when there is PoE PoE Outdoor connected to the XO? ?
This is applicable for older units that shipped with PoE Outdoor.
The observation is correct. The reset button on the wall mount would allow to reset the XO only if the PoE Outdoor is not connected. The only option would be to use the reset button on the PoE Outdoor. However, if the XO unit is powered directly from the wall mount without PoE Outdoor then this reset would work.
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Is it adviced to change the device password thru wireless connection to the XO?
No, this should be prevented. Changing the device password through wireess conenction will cause password lockup. This should be done through the LAN connection to the XO.
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| 11. |
I enabled the Bandwidth and configured 1024kbps for a specific clients but the throughput results achieved only 640kbps. There is no other client on the airPoint-XO. Why?
The bandwidth shaping algorithm in the airPoint-XO has been designed to guarantee a rate limiting of the channel or the spectrum available to the specific MAC to the set rate. In your case you have set it to 1024kbps. This translates into 128KBps for the total wireless spectrum available to the MAC.
The airPoint-XO shall ensure that the specific MAC would never go above that limit, in the relevant direction. However, when the channel is not fully utilized due to the inherent upper level protocol deficiencies and inefficiency, for any single flow you may observe only a fraction of the available channel in use. This can be confirmed by actually monitoring the network performance using the Network Performance Monitor in most of the MS Windows Operating Systems via the System Monitor.
The way to ensure that the airPoint-XO is delivering the right amount of bandwidth as allocated to the MAC, please try to have multiple download sessions going at the same time, so that even if the application layer ( Web browser or FTP ) software stack, reduces the TCP-IP window size to too small for intermediate periods, thereby reducing the individual flow speeds, you would be able to observe that the net flow is curtailed to almost exactly the specified limit, in your case 1024kbps, and not much lesser such as 640kbps that you observed.
When setting the download rate limit to anything, ensure that you have a comparable upload speed allocated too. This is crucial for the ACK packets and other network protocol related packets. So for instance when the download speed is 1024kbps, an advisable upload speed setting would be anything above approximately 512kbps or more. A rule of thumb will be the half setting, though you may get by with around one fourth setting for upload too.
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| 12. |
The number of clients in BWC client list is not the same as authorized in BW control (Internal Mac)?
Yes, this can happen if multiple clients is connected behind the device and also include other clients which are not authorized in BW conrol that uses default speed. By having a default speed of "0" you can deny traffic to all unauthorized clients except the one listed in BW control.
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The bandwidth shows in the BWC client list is not the same as authorized in BW control?
The observation is correct. As XO does rate limiting and doesn’t guarantee the Bandwidth, it displays the bandwidth that is currently controlled. It can be less than but not more than what is input in the authorized BW Control.
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