External access point solution requirement

[Americana-Merak]

For the labour camp project, customer requires external access point, kindly recommend a Cost effective and best solution from Cisco Meraki.

The requirement is to configure 6 - SSID , users have to access with their registered MAC address, the AP should cover 60M radius and support 50 to 60 users.

 MR70 or MR74, which is the best solution for the above requirement ?

Do we need Meraki Dual-band Omni external Antennas ?

kindly suggest.

[Seshu]

Hello @Americana-Merak 

On the Meraki dashboard, we can configure 15 SSIDs but it is recommended to not use more than 4 SSIDs per AP at one time. You can, however, configure 6 and it would still work, though it's not recommended. I am not sure what you mean by "users have to access with their registered MAC address". A MAC address is a physical/burnt-in address of any device that the user has. They always have access to the MAC address. 

The coverage of the AP depends on the physical environment in which the APs are placed and also the direction of the Antennas (depending on the model). The recommendation for Omni-Directional or Directional Antennas can be made after a site survery. The same applies to the AP's model recommendation. 

Check out some of the documentation that would be helpful - 

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/WiFi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Multi-SSID_Deployment_Considerati...

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/WiFi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Channel_Planning_Best_Practices

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Meraki Team

[Americana-Merak]

In Meraki  wireless, MAC address based authentiation is possible ?

how much radius the external AP will cover, how many end user one AP will support ?

[GIdenJoe]

I'd recommend two access points for that amount of users.
MR74 if most of your end devices have no more than 2x2 radios.  MR84 if you want more speed and you have devices with 3x3 or better radios.

Antenna choice will depend on your coverage area.
In most cases you can get way with 2x a set of MA-ANT-20 per AP.  If your AP is mounted on a pole in more centrally in your coverage area this would be the way to go.  However if your AP's will be mounted against a building you could use a semi-directional patch antenna MA-ANT25 to have the coverage point away from the building. (1 per AP)

There is MAC authentication possible but the builtin solution is not sufficient.  You'd need an external radius server where you can point your AP's to where the MAC addresses are stored.

[Americana-Merak]

AP is mounted on a pole, we will use MA-ANT-20.

The Customer doesn't have radius server, is there any alternate solution for end user authentication.

[GIdenJoe]

There are plenty of different approaches but simple MAC filtering is dirty on Meraki.
In that case you need to enable splash login without valid users and just whitelist certain devices (based on MAC address) or give them a group policy that bypasses the splash screen.  Other people will be able to join the SSID but will get a splash page where they can't login to.

Else you need a radius server, or Meraki MDM if all your endpoints are Windows, MacOS,iOS or android.

I think you'll need to do some extra homework on this 😕

[andersensam]

Hi @Americana-Merak

I'm posting the Meraki Sales number here: US and Canada: +1 (888) 490-0918.

The team will be able to dig a bit further into requirements, size the AP, and get antennas configured for you, consulting with a Systems Engineer if needed.

Cheers!

[Americana-Merak]

I am from AbuDhabi, UAE, could you please share the Support number.

Customer required MAC authentication support. 

[andersensam]

Hi @Americana-Merak ,

Here is the international number: +1 (415) 432-1000

Cheers