Daisy chaining MR30H

[rhbirkelund]

Does anyone have any experience with daisy chaining MR30H APs? Is it possible at all?

I'm not expecting that it can fully power tiered APs, but with a power injector, it should be possible power-wise. 

Can the ports on the MR30H trunk?

[Nash]

What's your goal here? Is this theoretical, or do you have a specific reason to want to avoid using an actual switch on these APs? 

[NolanHerring]

I would imagine in theory it would work, but I'm not sure I would recommend it.

[MerakiDave · Accepted solution]

No dot1q trunking on MR30H LAN ports, but there is a Feature Request in the system for it, and apparently the MR team would consider development with additional use cases and demand.  Get with your local Cisco Meraki reps to capture your use case for this and have them add you to the FR for additional prioritization.  As for power, I haven't done that but perhaps that would work with one power injector per AP but I don't think that's going to be a best practice or even supported configuration.  

[DrewF]

@MerakiDave, Would definitely like to piggy pack on the FR for adding VLAN trunking to MR30H LAN ports (Have wish listed it a number of times).  Simple use case in a hotel environment is having a SIP phone plugged into the POE port which also supports guest data off the SIP phone data port.  

@rhbirkelund,  Without VLAN trunking capability it all but kills the this unless your network is completely flat.  The POE output for port 1 is only supposed to function if it receives 802.3at power in.  When testing this though, the 2nd MR30H in the chain did power an IP phone off port 1 when it was being provided 802.3 af power from the first MR30H.  My guess is that although it powered, it would have trouble at some point if the power consumption went above a certain threshold of wattage.  I wouldn't recommend daisy chaining MR30H's as it sits today.

[MerakiDave]

Thanks @DrewF just added that to the Feature Request comments/notes section.  Also best to ping your local Cisco Meraki team and have them add your account/opportunity to the FR.

[rhbirkelund]

I had a discussion with a customer and Account Manager the other day, whether this was possible or not, and whether the solution would be "good".

From what I read, the MR30H requires 802.3af but with .3at recommended, and gives .3af out the LAN ports.

The customer is having a scenario where he would like to run two MR30H in daisy chain from one switch, rather than running them both down to the switch.

I kept trying to say that I doubt it would work, yet I was unsure completely. Usually the AM only hears "maybe" and automatically assumes that as a "sure, it works". 

[MerakiDave]

If I understand the earlier power question correctly, then no, the MR30H should require 3at power on its uplink port in order to come up AND be able to pass through 3af power on port 1.  It should NOT be able to uplink with 3af power and simultaneously have 3af passthrough on port 1.

[rhbirkelund]

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@MerakiDave wrote:

If I understand the earlier power question correctly, then no, the MR30H should require 3at power on its uplink port in order to come up AND be able to pass through 3af power on port 1.  It should NOT be able to uplink with 3af power and simultaneously have 3af passthrough on port 1.

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That is also what I meant, I believe. I was just unable to word it properly. Thanks. 🙂

Inorder to power 3af out it's LAN ports, it must be power itself with 3at. 🙂

[GreenMan]

Why wouldn't you use one of the other ports on the MR30H for the Guest data?   That's why it has 4 LAN ports.

[DrewF]

You could absolutely do just that and wired data would work.  There are customers that expect the data port on the phone to function as well and/or if the MR30H isn't installed in the same location as the VOIP phone.

[rhbirkelund]

@DrewF; If the LAN port is set to the same VLAN as AP management, you could run an Guest SSID with MEraki DHCP on a daisy chained AP. I think. Without having tested it.

Meraki DHCP NATs directly on the AP, with the APs mgmt IP address. 

So assuming your AP mgmt vlan is 10, setting that as access port on the MR30H LAN port, would allow for the daisy chained AP to NAT to that address and vlan. 

Again, without having tested it.

[PhilipDAth]

One thing to keep in mind if you do daisy chain them is that if something early in the chain breaks (aka a guest unplugs it), everything downstream will also be broken.

[rhbirkelund]

Of course. 😊