POE injectors!

[wtm]

Since you already have the power supply, and the network POE ports already worked out, the basic software works good, you have the chassis and hardware molds?

It would be an easy step to bring out a "Managed" POE injector unit ! NO switch! AC/12/24/48 volts in, 24/48 volts out for 100/1000 Mpbs connections.

2 models, 1 with 8 (pair) ports, another with 12 (pair) or 16 (pair) ports. One port POE, one port Data.

Basically a DLI POE-24, but I feel you can do it better !

No need to charge batteries, just power the POE's ! This would most likely be used for powering AP's and would not need the higher amperage that the PtP radios use.

Should be a good addition to your product line.

We use your switches, which are usually before our routers. Behind our routers are all our AP units. Each one needs to have a POE for it.
If we use the factory AC POE blocks, we have no battery backup on them. If we use hard wired DC injectors, we have NO management on them for re-boots, etc.

[Dave]

hmmmm, interesting idea...

[wtm]

Dave,
should be beyond the interesting.......you already have all the pieces to the puzzle, just have to put it together !

Would be a great additional product line!

Might even have one unit that has some lightning arresters on the POE side going to the AP's ?

[Dave]

wtm

What do you think a MRSP would need to be for this to sell good?

Dave

[sirhc]

Why would you want to do that?

Hook the switch to the router via 1 or 2 ports. 2 ports if you want a LAG to break up Pause Frames generated by the APs

You create VLANs so that every port on the switch is now a virtual POE extension port of your router.

You have a T on the port(s) facing the router and a U on the port going to the AP that way the packets going to the AP are un-tagged normal packets as though they left your router port directly.

Back haul radios use a 2 port VLAN creating a mid-span poe injector that you can now monitor the traffic going through your back hauls and these 2 ports are not affected by all the pause frames generated on the APs.

[wtm]

Wouldn't mind paying about the same price as a comparable switch unit (i.e. number of ports on it)!
You don't need the switch part in the unit, but will need double the row of jacks on the chassis.

You will need the AC/DC power supply. But even if you put in the AC power supply, and then have a small power terminal on the back for DC input,
going to a diode bridge inside. (Or just have separate AC and DC units available)

Easy peasy, would be just a DC jack, say 24/48 volts in, then supply that exact same voltage out to the POE's. I don't think that you would need more than .5 to 1 amp per POE jack. I know the UBNT AP's use a 1 amp AC POE, but they pull less than that.

[wtm]

We basically use the Router LAN's, as a separate and individual subnet for that particular AP.

The network and your switch feed the router, and then the router is broken down into separate subnets. These keep each AP's users separate from each other. If we have a problem on one AP, it does not effect the operation of another AP.

From the router, we have to feed each AP with POE.

Either using a AC POE block, of DC injectors, or DLI POE-24 to do this with!

Figured you could do it BETTER !

[sirhc]

Setting up the Netonix as a mid-span does use the VLAN configuration to achieve this but it does NOT require your network to use VLANs.

For instance say you want to make a midspan injector with a Netonix Switch.

In this example I am using a WS-8-250-AC

I create a VLAN to define the mid-span.

Now if you are only going to pass Untagged packets the VLAN ID is not important and in this case I called it 999 but since it will only pass Untagged packets this ID is never really used and is just there because an ID is required, you could call it any number 1 - 4095

I simply selected the 2 ports I want to be used for the mid-span and in this case I use Port 1 and Port 8.

So I simply exclude ports 1 & 8 from all other VLAN definitions by putting an E on ports 1 & 8 in their definition.

Then I create the VLAN rule/definition, in this case I called it 999 but as I said since it will not pass VLAN's the ID is not used.

Now I can turn POE on Port 1 and power a radio and use port 8 to go to a router and I now have a manageable mid-span injector. Ports 1 and 8 are seperated into a little 2 port logical switch / mid-span injector that you can manage.But since I used U on Ports 1 and 8 the ports will only accept Untagged packets and will not allow VLAN tagged packets to pass.

So if I wanted the mid-span to allow both Tagged and Untagged packets I would simply use Q instead. And once again since it is a Q on both ports the ID does not matter as it will not care what the packet coming in is Tagged as and will encapsulate it inside the ID number you give the rule but the outter VLAN ID will be stripped when the packet leaves the other port. So in a sense using a Q on both ports tells the switch to accept any packet in regardless if it is a Tagged or Untagged packet and when it leaves the other port it will be the same as when it came in.

So you could take a WS-24-400A and configure it to handle 13 mid-spans since there are really 26 ports including the 2 SFP ports.

Once setup your done.

[wtm]

Yes, I understand that we could do that!
But, we have techs who don't have degrees in router, and we have tried to keep the system as simple as possible!

Basically, from the router, every LAN is separate going all the way to the AP.

That way if your switch goes bad in the middle of the night, they don't have to figure out all the intricate programming that would take to swap in another one, OR maybe a dumb switch temporarily (Has happened) with some POE's for the radios!


Just figured this might be a great product for you.......but, if you aren't interested, that's OK.
I was thinking of you, because I have to order another DLI POE-24 for a new site !

(Still might ask, and see how many would be interested in it though?)
Wayne

[rebelwireless]

just to chime in here... 'simple as possible' <- this is the VLAN configuration suggested by Chris. This other stuff you mention is the convoluted version.

It really is that simple to setup an uplink port to the router (or a LAG group) and then do a VLAN per port. Your router has a VLAN called SW_port_1 so that it is super clear what goes where.

I do this with RB850Gx2 units to Netonix switches. It's very good. The routerboard has SW_port_1...SW_port_10 making it very easy to manage.

As far as ease of swapping on devices, just make routine backups so the tech can drop a replacement in and import the config. You can still drop in a dumb switch and injectors if you need and it will work exactly the same except the VLANs will bleed between APs until you get a replacement in.

I'm never going back to single injectors or midspans. I carry a netonix with me and the other guy does too. It takes just a few minutes to set it up from scratch. All sites have essentially the same config, port 1 is VLAN101, port 2 is VLAN102, and add up from there so only very minor changes are needed. I reserve the last 24v output for the router and drive it from the netonix, and use a mikrotik SFP<>Copper module to gain a free copper power to LAG. It's extremely simple, requires just 2 devices to drive a site, and the rb850Gx2 can be swapped out with a CCR1009 if more horsepower is needed. A lot of experimenting got us here and we now have a design that is very very simple.