Turn Off your MR WiFi Transmissions

Turn Off your MR WiFi Transmissions

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1. Purpose of the MT30 + MR integration

no_wifi_zone.jpeg

This project aims to tackle the new "bee" law (loi Abeille) in France where all wifi transmissions must be turned off unless being used in computer class.

 

However, this integration has many different use cases: from sustainability (with transmissions off, power consumption of the MR is greatly reduced) to security (turning off wifi when not needed and avoiding unwanted guests in the network). 

 

2. Challenges

I've been working on this project before MT30 was first announced. The main challenge was to get the right API created in Meraki. In the beginning, we could only turn off SSID but not wifi transmissions (which was incompatible with the law). After raising an FR, the MR team created a PM-gated NFO "has_rf_profiles_transmission_api" to enable the possibility to disable all wifi transmissions through an RF profile.

 

The integration piece was very smooth between MT30:

- Short pressed MT30 = turn on wifi transmissions

 

PUT {{baseUrl}}/networks/:networkId/wireless/rfProfiles/:rfProfileId
Body   
   {  "transmission": {
        "enabled": true
    }

 

- Long pressed MT30 = turn off wifi transmissions 

 

PUT {{baseUrl}}/networks/:networkId/wireless/rfProfiles/:rfProfileId
Body   
   {  "transmission": {
        "enabled": false
    }

 

 

3. Meraki Gear

I was using an MR46 with the MT30 to test this project but the idea of this project is to take it into classrooms.

The proposed kit will be as follows per class: 

Loi Albeille (1).png

 

- 1 x MT30 -> to turn on/off wifi transmissions

- 1 x MR30H/MR36H -> spare LAN ports to connect classroom equipment (TV, phone, etc.)

- 1 x MT14 -> to ensure air quality is suitable for students

 

 

 

 

 

4. Future Plans

The market for this integration of MT30 + MR is huge in France with all schools required to comply with the law. I'm really hoping this integration will be made available out of the box once MT30 is launched. Not only will be very interesting for schools but also for every single company looking into sustainability, reducing their power consumption, and increasing security 🙂 

 

 

 

Comments
David-H
Meraki Employee

Great project and use case!

redsector
Head in the Cloud

But: don´t you get error emails because Meraki accesspoints are not available any more, and dashboard misses them?

David_Jirku
Meraki Employee

@weluchen  Do you know if the turning off of radios can be done on a per-band basis? My customer would like to keep 2.4G for Meraki as "back up" if their 5G Wifi Cisco infrastructure goes down.

weluchen
Meraki Employee

Hi @David_Jirku 

 

Sorry for late response, Yes it can be done! 

For example from the Dashboard directly, you can turn off the 5G band in 
RF Profile/Radio Settings > Create RF Profile > Turn off 5G

weluchen_0-1671545068556.png

or via API https://developer.cisco.com/meraki/api-v1/#!create-network-wireless-rf-profile 
- band operation mode "2.4ghz"

 

weluchen
Meraki Employee

Hi @redsector 

No, you don't as the AP is still active, all we are doing is turning off:
- 2.4Ghz radio
- 5 GHZ Radio
For example, the following radios
- BLE radio

- Security radio

are still active 🙂