WiFi hardware Vendors, Choices & Procurement Sebastian Büttrich edit: September

Goals To be aware of important criteria for selecting wireless products To be able to tell “marketing talk” from the truth To be aware of the price ranges and sources of common wireless products

Agenda Scope Criteria for selecting standard and hardware Types of Wifi hardware Anatomy of an Access Point / Router Features to consider Some recommended products Procurement tips

Scope – what wireless? WiFi is a trademark that applies to all IEE sub- standards that are certified by the WiFi Alliance We focus on the WiFi standards: a / b / g / n We are looking at low cost hardware, mostly In addition to WiFi – you might consider WIMAX and proprietary alternatives where needed – there are other (non-WiFi) ISM bands that might be relevant, e.g. 868 / 915 MHz – You might use (zigbee, 6lowpan,..) in wireless sensor networks

Scope – WiFi standards

Criteria I What do you want to do? Usage of your network, expectations, user stories – For example: are you building infrastructure or reaching end users? Take into account all results from a site survey, e.g. existing wireless signals

Criteria II Legal considerations, regulations, licensing – standards, frequencies, applications e.g. VoIP What equipment is available and serviced? What is your budget, including maintenance budget? – What costs are you causing for others, e.g. the user needing a client device?

Criteria III Robustness Indoor vs. outdoor Power consumption (any Watt counts... and costs!) Environmental considerations (temperature, humidity, dust,...) Speed, data throughput Short vs. long links Local skills and capacity

Types of WiFi Hardware THE RADIOS Access points (AP), routers, bridges Mesh nodes External cards (PCI, PCMCIA,... less important today because of integrated clients, embedded cards) Internal cards (MiniPCI card, PCI card) USB devices plus Antennas, Cables and Connectors

Types of WiFi Hardware There is no strict line between types of hardware like AP / router / mesh node – The firmware decides what the hardware acts as You may build and modify yourself (e.g. change AP firmware, integrate wireless cards into custom PCs) Think of a general device as radio + chipset + surrounding hardware + software + all externals (antennas, power supply)

Inside a wireless router / AP Linksys WRT54 radio card chipset (here: Broadcom) antenna connector power supply (unless PoE) LAN ports WAN or Internet port unused connectors (sometimes)! pigtail status LEDs reset button :)

Features of a WiFi router I Bandwidth / Data rate Reach/Coverage Output power Receive sensitivity (!) Antenna (internal/external, gain)

Features of a WiFi router II Chipset (e.g. Atheros, Broadcom) – determines software compatibility Security features Roaming features Power over ethernet (PoE, IEEE 802.3af) Outdoor readiness, environmental factors

Side comment: the importance of Rx sensitivity <----

Some recommendations Examples are a personal pick of the author(s) based on an overview of many international projects We like to flash and customize – we like open, low cost technology. But that does not have to apply to your project! Pricing info is only a rough first orientation Prices change fast and are extremely dependent on quantity, country, negotiation skills Local availability, pricing and “human factors” easily can be the most important reasons for your decisions

Linksys WRT54G(L) Type: Wireless Router b/g Price: EUR 60 / USD 80 Still one of the best low cost devices GNU/Linux firmware and a great variety of firmware choices (e.g. OpenWRT and variations) Great for mesh networks Great for experiments and training Quite robust Watch the version number!

Still a favourite Linksys WRT54GL

Still a favourite Linksys WRT54GL

Ubiquiti Type: a/b/g products, ISP grade AirMax: TDMA MIMO technology, 150 Mbps Price: from USD 40 (Bullet) to USD 180 (Powerstation) Clearly leading in Performance/Price GNU/Linux based firmware (AirOS) and a great variety of firmware choices (e.g. OpenWRT and variations) Great for mesh networks Innovative embedded designs Biggest problem: availability

NanoStation, PowerStation, PicoStation, Bullet.. Ubiquiti

Type: Wireless Router b/g Price: under EUR 30 Low cost alternative 4 port switch, Atheros SoC Power consumption around 2 Watts D-Link DIR-300

Type: Wireless Router b/g Price: ~ $60 Another low cost alternative 4 port switch Only 1 antenna OpenWRT-ready Buffalo WHR-HP-G54

Type: Dual Band AP/bridge Price: > $600 Example for Backbone/Access separation in one device SMC2890W-AG

Microtik Type: a/b/g products Price: approx USD 200 (Board + Interface + Enclosure etc) great radios Popular for outdoors, rural, long shot RouterOS, Routerboard Captive portal integrated however software, proprietary extensions and license enforcement may be seen as problematic

Cisco Type: a/b/g products Prices: from approx USD s for APs (Aironet), USD 5,000-30,000 for WLCs Cisco Unified Wireless, managed platform Thin APs controlled by WLC Proprietary technology

Aerohive Type: a/b/g multiband products Prices: from approx $1000 (Hive20) to $1500 (340) Roaming and auth without manager Revenge of the fat AP? Roaming by means of tunnels between APs (leaving user session on initial AP)

Strix Type: a/b/g products, – Multi radio Mesh backhaul (802.11a) + access AP (802.11b/g) Price: from USD 3500 for OWSs Enterprise level mesh Power hungry! e.g OWS2400 needs AC 30 W typical, 65 W max

Strix

Other vendors The following vendors may be interesting to look at – some of these are WiFi, some non-WiFi: Motorola Canopy (proprietary, high performance) Redline Senao Smartbridges Engenius Deliberant Aerohive And many many more

Side comment: Mesh The GPL firmware of the original Linksys WRT54 has been improved and forked into many types of excellent mesh firmware, e.g. OpenWRT, Freifunk, EWRT, DD-WRT, AfriMesh This is the reason we put focus on flashable / OpenWRT compatible hardware Examples of Hardware suitable for OpenWRT: Linksys WRT54G(L), Ubiquiti, Asus WL500G, Buffalo WHR-G54S, D-Link DIR and many more:

Open-mesh mini router Type: mesh node Price: USD 30 Hardware: Accton MR 3201 OpenWRT based Central control web dashboard available, but not mandatory Low price shows in compromises in power supply

Other mesh approaches, not always quite so free: Fonera & Meraki

PCMCIA cards Disappearing from market, as most laptops, smart phones come with inbuilt WiFi Still interesting because of – external antenna option, for measuring / site survey – use of old (pre WiFi) laptops Cards with external antenna connectors include Avaya/Orinoco/Proxim, Senao/Netgate (200 mW)

New freedom: open hardware Extending the idea of “Open Source” software, there is a growing number of “open hardware” projects Designs and specifications are open Examples: Arduino, an Open-source electronics prototyping platform Mesh Potato mesh node and ATA, for VoIP meshes

Mesh Potato “The Mesh Potato is an Open Hardware project to create a wireless Access Point (AP) combined with an Asynchronous Telephony Adapter (ATA). This project is designed to address the needs of developing countries. In particular, the delivery of affordable voice is a critical service. Also, the Mesh Potato is being designed for rugged environments so that it can be housed indoors or outdoors and can be easily secured.”

Mesh Potato

Buying WiFi hardware Buying options vary from country to country Online shopping gives access to good prices, but mostly depends on credit cards. Not everybody has one! Some providers will accept other payment methods, e.g. bank transfer. Cutting out the middle (wo)man from USA or Europe (or your own country) may make sense – you may get better prices buying directly from the producing country

Buying WiFi hardware There might be conflicts of interest – On the one hand, you depend on local service and would like to strengthen local IT business (or even run IT business yourselves) – However, local prices are often too high – and “informal import” more feasible Ultimately, the decision depends on your best knowledge of your local conditions

That was it... Thank you! Sebastian Büttrich, wire.less.dk/NSRC edit: September