Edge closet design

[DJaquays]

We’re getting ready to refresh a significant number of edge closets and are looking to change up a few things. Our primary goals are:

• Support 2.5/5gbps links for our WAPs.
• Reduce/eliminate total downtime of the wired network and wireless network
• Save money

The current thought is to do something like the following:

• Place 2 higher-end switches capable of multi-gigabit links to handle the WAPs (max ~20 APs/closet)
• Fill out the remaining port needs with lower-end PoE switches

The question is, what’s the best way to accomplish the first 3 points following the second two. My initial thought would be to take the two higher-end switches (either 5520s or x465s) and set them up as an MLAG and the lower-end switches (either x440s or v400s) as a “stack” (with the understanding that V400s don’t actually stack and assuming that V400s can be uplinked to an MLAG). This should allow any one of the 3 entities to go down for whatever reason (hopefully just firmware updates) without taking the other 2 down.

Diagram of what I think is a good idea until people tell me why I’m being dumb:

Am I missing anything? I understand that nothing benefits from the MLAG except for the stack and the uplink to the core. Is there a better way to accomplish what I’m after?

[James_A]

In that case I’d chat with your wireless team and ask when they expect to refresh the APs and what channel size they expect to use.

[DJaquays]

I was about to say that MU-MIMO support is non-existent outside of phones, but now I see the Intel AX200 supports MU-MIMO so perhaps that will change. Do remember that 2.4Gbps is the data rate, not the achieved throughput. I also tend to discount 80MHz channels and 2.4GHz but the former will become relevant with wifi 6E APs. You’ll be upgrading your APs before 7 years BTW, Extreme drops AP software support 2 years after end-of-sale (which is too early IMHO, but that’s another argument). But if your switches need to last that long then 2.5Gbps ports for APs are probably worth it

We don't purchase extreme wireless products, it's all HPE/Aruba and they do not APs that quickly. Our current APs were purchased in 2013.

[James_A]

I was about to say that MU-MIMO support is non-existent outside of phones, but now I see the Intel AX200 supports MU-MIMO so perhaps that will change. Do remember that 2.4Gbps is the data rate, not the achieved throughput. I also tend to discount 80MHz channels and 2.4GHz but the former will become relevant with wifi 6E APs. You’ll be upgrading your APs before 7 years BTW, Extreme drops AP software support 2 years after end-of-sale (which is too early IMHO, but that’s another argument). But if your switches need to last that long then 2.5Gbps ports for APs are probably worth it.

[StephanH]

Hello,

now I have a final answer from GTAC:

The AP510 supports redundant power via PoE.