Ruckus Wireless as an Unifi alternative?

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Sealside

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May 10, 2019
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I was using yours!
I was just asking out of curiosity if there were any features available in the python api that are not available in openhab. I could add those. The openhab add-on has no support for ZD, but other than that I don't see any features missing that are useable from a home automation perspective.

Best regards s
 

ms264556

Active Member
Sep 13, 2021
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I've been running an R610 as a Dedicated Master for the past day on Unleashed 200.13.

Performance is good: I get 670Mbps through a tunneled WLAN, 210Mbps with tunnel encryption turned on.
As a bonus, the code which disables WiFi doesn't work, so the Dedicated Master is also available as an AP (but perf suffers if you try to enable tunneling on this AP - I guess it doesn't like traffic hairpinning back to itself). :)

Only bug I can see so far is that the power LED stops working (but the other LEDs are fine) when you spoof the model name to "R750" to get this working.
 
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tubs-ffm

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Sep 1, 2013
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I've been running an R610 as a Dedicated Master for the past day on Unleashed 200.13.
Are you talking about dedicated master or are you talking about the function Disable WLAN service on Master AP in combination with Preferred Master?

To be honest, I cannot explain the difference. But in unleashed settings under the point "dedicated master" is written:

The Dedicated Master mode can be enabled only on AP models R750/R850. The radio function of Dedicated Master AP will be disabled and Wi-Fi service cannot be provided. Please refer to Online Help for details.
 

ms264556

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Sep 13, 2021
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I'm talking dedicated master, not preferred master.

There is no real reason to limit this to R750/R850 or disable radios. I assume the limitations are so they can match the performance of the ZoneDirector.

So once Unleashed 200.13 was installed on the R610, I just popped into a root shell and ran "bsp set model R750" then "bsp commit". The model name isn't used for much in Unleashed, apart from enabling/disabling this feature.

Dedicated master gets you L3 support and tunneling (so you can use APs as a cheap VPN alternative).
 

tubs-ffm

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Sep 1, 2013
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There is no real reason to limit this to R750/R850 or disable radios. I assume the limitations are so they can match the performance of the ZoneDirector.
Thank you very much.
These kind of information are the reason me beeing here in this forum.

As a bonus, the code which disables WiFi doesn't work, so the Dedicated Master is also available as an AP (but perf suffers if you try to enable tunneling on this AP - I guess it doesn't like traffic hairpinning back to itself). :)
This sentence is confusing me. So far my understanding was, that in mode "Dedicated Master" the AP's WiFi radios are switched of and it is working like a Zone Director. Looks like this was a wrong understanding and the AP can do both: provide WiFi radio and act as controller. Correct?
 

ms264556

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Sep 13, 2021
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Officially, the radios must be turned off for Dedicated Master. This might be for performance, but also might be because things like hairpinning weren't able to be tested in time for the 200.13 release. I have zero contacts at Ruckus so I have no idea.

Since Ruckus never intend an R610 to be running Dedicated Master, the code to do the radio disabling isn't working and Ruckus won't care. Actually, the 5GHz radio turns back on after every reboot, even if it's disabled. Buggy.
 
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epicurean

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Sep 29, 2014
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What is the advantage of having a dedicated master, as compared to a preferred master? Would it contribute to the stability of the network in any way?
 
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ms264556

Active Member
Sep 13, 2021
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Not much.

Basically L3 and tunneling. So if you're finding the single-subnet restriction for all APs is a problem then there's that. Or if you want to drop APs at friends/family and have them managed from your home, with selected SSIDs tunneling traffic via your network (for e.g media players) then there's that.

The controller failover is faster, but you've got to dedicate 2 APs to being masters, so definitely not something I'd do at home.

(I only converted the R610 because I needed a dedicated master for testing when I get complaints about my guides, and I was sick of wasting expensive APs on this)