Ruckus Wireless as an Unifi alternative?

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adman_c

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Feb 14, 2016
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This is correct, I'm extending it on a r710, r510 and r500, they behave the same and basically mirror the primary port and whatever vlans that have been configured on the primary one.
One more data point to confirm this, I'm running the second port on an R610 into a small managed switch and it sees all the vlans just as they are supplied to the main POE port. It's just a straight pass-through.
 
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hmw

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Apr 29, 2019
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I wish I had read through the whole thread before making the decision to stump for a R720. Why ruckus would you stick in the 802.3bt requirement only to take it out for the R750???

I’ve been chatting with the Procet folks and it seems some of their adapters are PoE++ or pre-802.3bt. I’ve asked for further clarification - hopefully I can grab one that is properly certified. I hope there’s not much difference between the Gigabit and Nbase-T cost - but if the adapter costs more than $200 - might be worthwhile to buy a refurb Unifi XG-6 PoE ...
 

koifish59

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Sep 30, 2020
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I wish I had read through the whole thread before making the decision to stump for a R720. Why ruckus would you stick in the 802.3bt requirement only to take it out for the R750???
R750 is the 802.11ax version of R720, and I believe one of the benefit of AX platform is that they tout to be more power efficient.
 

Vesalius

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Nov 25, 2019
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Code:
ruckus> enable
## next 3 only necessary if you don’t have the name of your wlan, remember wlan name is case sensitive in CLI
ruckus#  ap-mode
ruckus (ap-mode)# get wlanlist
ruckus (ap-mode)# exit
ruckus# config
ruckus(config)# wlan My-LAN #use quotes if the name has a space "My LAN"
    The WLAN service 'My-LAN' has been loaded. To save the WLAN service, type 'end' or 'exit'.
ruckus(config-wlan)# ofdm-only  # will stop 802.11b, use ‘no ofdm-only’ to restart
    The mgmt-tx-rate will be set to 6Mbps due to ofdm-only enable.
ruckus(config-wlan)# bss-minrate 12   #will cause AP to only connect clients that have a faster rate. can choose 1,2,5.5,12 & 24
    The mgmt-tx-rate will be set to the same value as bss-minrate.
ruckus(config-wlan)# end
    The WLAN service 'My-LAN' has been updated and saved.
#confirm wlan settings with
ruckus#  show wlan name "My-LAN"
FYI for ruckus recommended ways to improve roaming on unleashed per their recent ruckus-at-home twitch and youtube channels. Was new to me and seems to working well on my network. SSH into one of your AP. Source linked below. It was definitely live and at times rambling, but had some info I found useful. Make sure you do not have any ancient 802.11b connected devices before using ofdm-only on a network.

 
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klui

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Feb 3, 2019
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I wish I had read through the whole thread before making the decision to stump for a R720. Why ruckus would you stick in the 802.3bt requirement only to take it out for the R750???
Actually you may be OK. Is your power draw of 8W typical when all wireless devices are using it? You may want to see what your max draw is.

Based on the datasheet @Vesalius posted, it states you will still be able to use the full 4x4 antenna array on both bands up to 25.5W provided by PoE+. Only if you wanted more performance (+6dBm for 2.4G/+2dBm for 5G) as well as not need the second RJ45 port/USB would you need more power.
 

hmw

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Actually you may be OK. Is your power draw of 8W typical when all wireless devices are using it? You may want to see what your max draw is.

Based on the datasheet @Vesalius posted, it states you will still be able to use the full 4x4 antenna array on both bands up to 25.5W provided by PoE+. Only if you wanted more performance (+6dBm for 2.4G/+2dBm for 5G) as well as not need the second RJ45 port/USB would you need more power.
I might just get a 48V, 1A power supply and solder a plug to a 24AWG dia run. It's only 20 feet from the nearest wall socket to where the AP would be mounted - with a 24AWG wire, the voltage drop would probably be a mere 0.2-0.3 volts. What happens when I use both PoE and power supply at the same time? Does the AP prioritize one over the other?
 

Vesalius

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Nov 25, 2019
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I might just get a 48V, 1A power supply and solder a plug to a 24AWG dia run. It's only 20 feet from the nearest wall socket to where the AP would be mounted - with a 24AWG wire, the voltage drop would probably be a mere 0.2-0.3 volts. What happens when I use both PoE and power supply at the same time? Does the AP prioritize one over the other?
Some devices, IP cameras and such, with both power options, specifically warn you that using both simultaneously could damage the device. I would check with Ruckus or find a clear answer before trying. Theoretically, that seems like one way to have redundant power supplies to the AP if the AP could handle both and switch from the full power DC plug to the lower power POE as needed, but you take a significant risk without a clear answer.

Below is another document I found that makes for easy referencing of the POE and DC power requirements and levels relative to the number of radios and ports enabled/disabled of all Ruckus' current AP lineup. The r720 and r730 seem to be the lone pair requiring 802.3bt/Class 5 for maximum function.

 
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hmw

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Some devices, IP cameras and such, with both power options, specifically warn you that using both simultaneously could damage the device. I would check with Ruckus or find a clear answer before trying.
From the manual

When both power sources are available on an AP, then DC power will take priority and override PoE power.
Link:R720

I’ve put in an order for the 10G version of the Procet PoE - will first see if that works and then try with the power supply. But it’s good to know that Ruckus is a proper enterprise brand and therefore the power systems are thoughtfully & well designed (unlike some other ‘prosumer’ brands)
 
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TXAG26

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Aug 2, 2016
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Just a thought, a 1Gbe POE adapter may pass through 2.5ghz or 10ghz just fine depending on the length of the run. I would give it a try if you already have one since the Ethernet portion may be non-active in some POE adapters.
 
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hmw

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Just a thought, a 1Gbe POE adapter may pass through 2.5ghz or 10ghz just fine depending on the length of the run. I would the the Ethernet portion is non-active.
Tried to search for some articles or reviews about this - wouldn’t an active PoE injector have to send the correct packets ? Meaning that there would need to be a retimer in the path ? That could end up making the pass thru ineffective ...
 
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FWIW, I have a R750 wt a fairly generic 1 Gig POE injector powering it and both the switch and the R750 report the port on both ends as operating at 2.5 Gig.

No 10 Gig POE devices to check that out and it is a very short distance (no more than 3'), but I suspect that wrt to the ethernet signal, it's largely a just a pass through and mostly it's adding DC power. Thus POE Injector and not repeater or amplifier.

OTOH, I have seen a number of mentions of there being an issue between 100 meg and 1 gig POE injectors, so it can't be ruled out either.
 
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TXAG26

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FWIW, I have a R750 wt a fairly generic 1 Gig POE injector powering it and both the switch and the R750 report the port on both ends as operating at 2.5 Gig.

No 10 Gig POE devices to check that out and it is a very short distance (no more than 3'), but I suspect that wrt to the ethernet signal, it's largely a just a pass through and mostly it's adding DC power. Thus POE Injector and not repeater or amplifier.

OTOH, I have seen a number of mentions of there being an issue between 100 meg and 1 gig POE injectors, so it can't be ruled out either.
I think the main issue between 100mb & 1gbe compatibility with poe injectors is the fact that 100mb Ethernet only needs 2 pairs, whereas 1gbe uses all 4 pairs, thus the internals of the injector need to be different to support 1gbe and greater.
 

hmw

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FWIW, I have a R750 wt a fairly generic 1 Gig POE injector powering it and both the switch and the R750 report the port on both ends as operating at 2.5 Gig.
That's awesome ! Could you tell us the make and model of the injector?
 

Vesalius

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I would assume the 1G rated POE injectors passing 2.5G data rates is really no different than cat 5e cables often passing 2.5, 5 and 10G data rates even though they are not officially specced to pass anything that high.
 

hmw

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I got hold of a Procet PT-PSE104GB-60-10 PoE adapter that does 10G. The adapter itself was super cheap but shipping from China was as expensive as the adapter. Still cost < $60. The nice lady at Procet explained that the Ruckus R720 doesn’t actually support 802.3bt but rather PoE++ and UPoE. Which means one has to force set the AP to 802.3bt mode and it will stop complaining about the power. Procet has a version of the adapter that does do 802.3bt and it will supposedly NOT work with the AP.

Also - the Procet passes through 2.5G/10G just fine but for some reason the Ruckus doesn’t like negotiating 2.5GbE with my Supermicro/Aquantia SFP+ transceiver connected to one of the ICX-6610 SFP ports. Try as I might I couldn’t get the Ethernet port to do anything other than 1000 Mbps. With an Ipolex transceiver - the Ruckus does 2.5GbE just fine. Weird. Also because the Ipolex isn’t the best for 2.5 GbE speeds.

I’ve set the AP to full power and set the 2.4GHz/5GHz bands to Background Scanning & Channel Fly respectively. Will post speeds after the Channel Fly algorithm has had a chance to settle down. But I noticed frequent disconnects while it was doing it’s job. The manual does point this out and says ’Channel Fly will take considerably more time than Background Scanning to settle down’ - but doesn’t give any indication as to how long that will actually take ;-)
 
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Vesalius

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Congrats glad it is working!

Not sure that any single AC WiFi device speedtest will notice the 1g versus 2.5g backhaul difference Since this AP can’t do WiFi 6. I would imagine the 2.5g would allow for a several devices connected and maxing out AC connections to download/upload simultaneously and see a difference collectively and that is only if they are connected to local machines that are not constrained by a 1g internet connection.
 
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hmw

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Congrats glad it is working!

Not sure that any single AC WiFi device speedtest will notice the 1g versus 2.5g backhaul difference Since this AP can’t do WiFi 6. I would imagine the 2.5g would allow for a several devices connected and maxing out AC connections to download/upload simultaneously and see a difference collectively and that is only if they are connected to local machines that are not constrained by a 1g internet connection.
What’s the maximum speed of a 3x3 802.11ac setup? 1300mbps? Isn’t that total throughput? So each way it would actually be 650 mbps? If that’s the case I guess buying the 10G adapter wasn’t needed :)
 

Vesalius

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Then you need to take into account the radio on your wifi device, many are 2x2, and the device's relative distance and position in regards to the AP. Lots of variables that limit max throughput. Extra backhaul bandwidth never hurts though, well except in the pocketbook and setup time.
 

Dave Corder

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Just out of curiosity, does anyone else use the Unleashed app on Android and have an issue with notifications making noise even when they're set to silent? (I currently use it to get notifications when my phone or my wife's phone disconnect or reconnect to our Wifi...helps me know when she's pulled up in our driveway with the kids and I need to take a break from work to help her unload, before she's even able to give me a call or text :)