Not all Wi-Fi points are the same.
At work, I often have to deal with different network pieces of iron:
- Wi-Fi hotspot
- GSM gateways
- IP phones
and other switches / routers.
Sometimes for a respected boss I write tedious reports that intelligently describe the strengths and weaknesses of a particular piece of iron. But the soul asks to write honestly and without censorship. Therefore, I registered here as a platform where I can honestly write my opinion.
')
Actually, the article - let's go!
In my experience, all the “professional” Wi-Fi points can be divided into 3 classes:
1. Low cost
Such points contain a SoC chip, which is simultaneously responsible for Wi-Fi, and for routing, authorization, ... By and large, such points work well in SOHO offices, where 5-10-20 people sit and quietly smoke bamboo.
But when you connect 30+ users to one point at the same time, the combined brains go crazy. Users either do not log in or log in, but very slowly, or all of them catastrophically begin to drop speed to unacceptable values. This is DLINK, TPLINK, Edimax, Ubiquty, ...
It is important to remember that any point cheaper than 100 UE is not designed to work in an average business and it doesn’t matter how many spatial MIMO streams a given point can pass through itself and what theoretical speed it can develop in ideal radio conditions for a single user. Managed only through a web interface, applying changes every time causes a reboot, etc.
I promise to tell you about the Deshman points in the following articles (I have a lot of them disassembled lying under the table). By the way, not so bad. Often they can find many useful features.
Typical inexpensive access point - 2 Qualcomm Atheros chips, they are responsible for user registration / routing and Wi-Fi
2. Access points with a productive processor
In devices of this class, user authentication is handled by a separate stone. Radio interfaces are only needed for working with a Wi-Fi environment, beamforming, coding, etc.
Such points usually cost significantly more. 250 - 400 UE.
They hold a good load of 50-100-150 users at the same time. Often (but not always) a point can act as a full-fledged controller - control itself with such points. What is characteristic is that such access points swallow and apply the configuration on the fly without rebooting. Usually they have a console.
A typical access point based on the Broadcom BCM53016 ARM processor. Keeps 100 users at the same time
3. Points “thin clients”
Some manufacturers prefer to literally put the brains out of the device. The point, like a media converter, wraps the entire data bus from the radio chip into the VPN tunnel to the controller. In this case, the controller is built on the basis of a powerful multi-core server on which specialized software rotates. Without a controller, the point turns into a “brick” and it is good not only to hammer in its nails.
Such solutions are more interesting for big business and trade networks. But sometimes the controller software is virtualized and thrust on an external hosting or even on an industrial PC.
Wi-Fi controller based on an industrial PC with an ATOM processor
If the article seemed useful - write in the comments on which of these three types of devices you would be interested to read the detailed report. Thanks for attention!
- Wi-Fi hotspot
- GSM gateways
- IP phones
and other switches / routers.
Sometimes for a respected boss I write tedious reports that intelligently describe the strengths and weaknesses of a particular piece of iron. But the soul asks to write honestly and without censorship. Therefore, I registered here as a platform where I can honestly write my opinion.
')
Actually, the article - let's go!
In my experience, all the “professional” Wi-Fi points can be divided into 3 classes:
1. Low cost
Such points contain a SoC chip, which is simultaneously responsible for Wi-Fi, and for routing, authorization, ... By and large, such points work well in SOHO offices, where 5-10-20 people sit and quietly smoke bamboo.
But when you connect 30+ users to one point at the same time, the combined brains go crazy. Users either do not log in or log in, but very slowly, or all of them catastrophically begin to drop speed to unacceptable values. This is DLINK, TPLINK, Edimax, Ubiquty, ...
It is important to remember that any point cheaper than 100 UE is not designed to work in an average business and it doesn’t matter how many spatial MIMO streams a given point can pass through itself and what theoretical speed it can develop in ideal radio conditions for a single user. Managed only through a web interface, applying changes every time causes a reboot, etc.
I promise to tell you about the Deshman points in the following articles (I have a lot of them disassembled lying under the table). By the way, not so bad. Often they can find many useful features.
Typical inexpensive access point - 2 Qualcomm Atheros chips, they are responsible for user registration / routing and Wi-Fi
2. Access points with a productive processor
In devices of this class, user authentication is handled by a separate stone. Radio interfaces are only needed for working with a Wi-Fi environment, beamforming, coding, etc.
Such points usually cost significantly more. 250 - 400 UE.
They hold a good load of 50-100-150 users at the same time. Often (but not always) a point can act as a full-fledged controller - control itself with such points. What is characteristic is that such access points swallow and apply the configuration on the fly without rebooting. Usually they have a console.
A typical access point based on the Broadcom BCM53016 ARM processor. Keeps 100 users at the same time
3. Points “thin clients”
Some manufacturers prefer to literally put the brains out of the device. The point, like a media converter, wraps the entire data bus from the radio chip into the VPN tunnel to the controller. In this case, the controller is built on the basis of a powerful multi-core server on which specialized software rotates. Without a controller, the point turns into a “brick” and it is good not only to hammer in its nails.
Such solutions are more interesting for big business and trade networks. But sometimes the controller software is virtualized and thrust on an external hosting or even on an industrial PC.
Wi-Fi controller based on an industrial PC with an ATOM processor
If the article seemed useful - write in the comments on which of these three types of devices you would be interested to read the detailed report. Thanks for attention!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/401437/
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