Creating an AP object for the Meraki MR53 using NetScout's AirMagnet?

[ThomasBates]

Hello,

I'm planning an installation of a series of MR53s using NetScout's AirMagnet Survey. They don't have the MR53 available as one of their default AP objects so I'm needing to make it. One issue I'm running into is with the transmit power because the suggested method of using this AP is to let each one determine its own transmit power. Any suggestions out there as to what a decent transmit power would be to use for modeling this system? The default value in AirMagnet is 10 mWatts. Does that sound reasonable to folks?

Thanks!

[PhilipDAth]

This is going to depend on the regulatory zone you are in, weather you are talking about 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz, and how close together they are (aka are they going to overlap a lot) - and of course weather you are supplying it with 802.3at power as it needs 21W to run in "full power" mode, otherwise it will retard its own performance.

Assuming the 5Ghz band; if there is not going to be much overlap I would go closer to 100mw.  If there is going to be lots of overlap I would use a lower number.

10mw seems very low to me, and would imply a very dense deployment.

ps. You might find modelling it using a real AP and the built in heat map int the dashboard might give the best result.

[PhilipDAth]

Also check out site survey mode.

https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2015/01/simple-standalone-site-surveys/

Jump down to "ap.meraki.com".

[PhilipDAth]

Here is an example of the heat map being produced at one of our clients at the moment from the Meraki dashboard.

Not to bad for something that comes as part of the package.