New setup with questions

[nextrack68]

I am ordering equipment for a new home and have some questions. I am wired for ethernet (tv's, pc's, etc.) and POE cameras with a small rack setup in a conditioned closet.

I am bringing my pfSense firewall to use but have some questions on the rest of the equipment. I don't need this much capacity on day one but want to plan ahead.

I need 24 ports for general networking (VLAN capable) and 12-16 POE ports for cameras. My thinking leads me to installing a managed 24 port switch and then coming off of that with a 12-16 port POE unmanaged switch for the camera system. I could VLAN the cameras that way.

There is a need for at least two wireless access points. I have had great luck with TP-Link and already have two EAP245v3 AP's to install. However, I am learning I need an Omada setup to allow the AP's to function together across the house. This leads me to looking at TP-Link managed switches.

Finally, this is more of a pet peeve, but I would prefer the main switch have some POE capacity to allow the AP's to run without injectors. I'll survive either way, though.

To summarize:

Rack mounted
24 port managed (VLAN capable)
16 port POE on a single VLAN
Ability to have 2+ TP-Link WAP work together
POE on 2-4 ports of the main 24 port switch

Thank you

 

[LodeRunner]

Depending on where you're looking, a 48 port switch may sometimes be cheaper than 24 (used enterprise gear most of the time; more availability of the 48 port parts), for example, the ICX 6450-48P can be had from eBay for under $140 (pre tax/ship) in the US; it supports 802.3at (PoE+/30W) and has 4x 10G SFP+ ports as a bonus. The more capable 6610-48 can be had for not much more money and has up to 16x 10G ports and 2x 40G ports, with dual power supplies.

As far as Omada, if it's anything like UniFi, then there's no reason that managing the APs would also require TP-Link switches. The management stuff is just data on the wire.

 

[nextrack68]

Depending on where you're looking, a 48 port switch may sometimes be cheaper than 24 (used enterprise gear most of the time; more availability of the 48 port parts), for example, the ICX 6450-48P can be had from eBay for under $140 (pre tax/ship) in the US; it supports 802.3at (PoE+/30W) and has 4x 10G SFP+ ports as a bonus. The more capable 6610-48 can be had for not much more money and has up to 16x 10G ports and 2x 40G ports, with dual power supplies.

As far as Omada, if it's anything like UniFi, then there's no reason that managing the APs would also require TP-Link switches. The management stuff is just data on the wire.

I will look into these switches.

From what I understand on the TP-Link WAP's, the Omada is necessary to switch between them seamlessly. Like walking around the house with a phone or tablet. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

 

[LodeRunner]

Unless the Omada is doing something proprietary (I have no experience with them) then seamless handoff is handled by the controller and all the controller should care about is the APs.

Devices switch between my UniFi APs, no problem. I'm not doing fast-roaming or anything like you would need to keep a VOIP call from having a glitch though. Normally it comes down to having the signal power thresholds properly set as to when an AP will boot a client to force it to switch to the one with the better signal.