50 APs - 50 SSID's (1 SSID per AP) - How to best do it?

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TomMc
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50 APs - 50 SSID's (1 SSID per AP) - How to best do it?

Hi, college dorm with 50 apartments. Want to do 1 AP per apartment and each AP to have their own SSID.  With the limitation of 15 SSIDs on a Meraki MX, are there any ways to achieve this?  Multiple vLANs? Only need 1 SSID per AP (2 at most).  

 

Thank you,

1 Accepted Solution
KarstenI
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As @rhbirkelund said. This is what WPN was developed for.

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BlakeRichardson
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You would almost have to create one network per apartment which would be a lot of work.

 

What is the requirement around seperate SSID? Could you not use 802.1x or iPSK to see who is connected?

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TomMc
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Thanks Blake.  I don't know the requirement (working with the construction team not the college who is requiring it). 

 

With this quantity 50, for example, would it be less work to create 5 or so networks and 10 SSID's per network then assign a unique SSID to each particular AP?  (a lot less work to create only 5 networks vs 50 networks?) 

rhbirkelund
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Why exactly do you need to create 50 SSIDs, one per dorm room? Why does each room need to have their own?

LinkedIn ::: https://blog.rhbirkelund.dk/

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rhbirkelund
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If it is because you need to separate each student in their own network, without them being able to reach eachother over the network, I think you should probably look in to using WiFi Personal Network - WPN.

 

Essentially it's iPSK, where you create one SSID, and assign different group policies according to which PSK is being used.

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TomMc
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Yes, on the 1 per dorm room (apartment). Per my above comment, it is a requirement of the college, not exactly sure why but asking us to implement it this way.  

 

As mentioned to Blake above- 'With this quantity 50, for example, would it be less work to create 5 or so networks and 10 SSID's per network then assign a unique SSID to each particular AP?  (a lot less work to create only 5 networks vs 50 networks?)'  

 

Appreciate any thoughts / guidance.

rhbirkelund
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Kind of a big deal

In my opinion you should push back on the requirement to provide one SSID per dorm room. This will resullt in a very poor Wireless network experience due to the many SSIDs wasting airtime. It is up there right next to "APs in the hallways for dorms/hotels".

 

As mentionend, I think you should look into using WPN for the deployment.

LinkedIn ::: https://blog.rhbirkelund.dk/

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Purroy
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Having 5 different networks (with 10SSIDs and 10APs in each network) will result in a really bad solution. AutoRF works by coordinating transmission power and channel assignment with the APs in a single network. This design will severely break AutoRF and it is a bad design overall. 

For this scenario we have WPN which will solve the challenges that the customers on this type of spaces have and is a robust and secure solution. 

Friends don’t let friends do bad designs. Please educate the customer on why this path is a horrible idea and the benefits and simplicity of WPN. 

KarstenI
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Kind of a big deal

As @rhbirkelund said. This is what WPN was developed for.

If you found this post helpful, please give it Kudos. If my answer solves your problem, please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
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