Using the Ascom VoWiFi Communication System with Meru Networks Platforms This document outlines the necessary configuration steps in order to optimally configure the Meru Networks WLAN Controllers and AccessPoints along with the Ascom VoWiFi system. This guide should be used in conjunction with the corresponding Meru Networks and Ascom VoWiFi product and system manuals.
Configuration and Product Summary WLAN Software Version 3.3-146 Meru Products Tested MC500, MC1000, MC3000, AP201, AP208 Radio Mode 802.11bg Security Modes Tested Clear, WEP, WPA Personal, WPA2 Personal,
WPA Enterprise, WPA2 Enterprise QoS Modes Tested Automatic Meru QoS CallAdmissionControl CAC was configured and tested for SIP. Ascom Products Tested i75 Medic, i75 Protector VoIP Protocols Tested SIP, H.323 Ascom PDM Version 2.0.2 Ascom Firmware Version 1.2.19 The software version listed above is available for the Meru Networks Controller and AccessPoints which is available from the Meru Networks support FTP site (ftp2.merunetworks.com) or by contacting Meru Networks Technical Support at 1-888-MERU-WLAN or [email protected]. Please contact Meru Networks support if you want to use an alternative software version to verify if there are any known interoperability issues. Additionally it is recommeneded to install the software version listed above for the Ascom VoWiFi system which is available from www.ascomwireless.com/pd or by contacting Ascom Technical Support at 1-877-71ASCOM. Please contact Ascom Technical Support if you want to use an alternative software version to verify if there are any known interoperability issues.
Summary of Maximum Recommended Call Density The following table provides a summary of the maximum recommended number of calls per RF region in a VirtualCell, depending on the encryption used. Note that if you stack multiple channels (e.g. 1, 6 and 11) then you can further increase the number of calls in a physical location. If you expect the network to reach peak capacity then we recommend that you utilize the Meru Networks Call Admission Control (CAC) feature to prevent this number of calls being exceeded and instead either give busy tone or invoke Load Balancing to move the new call into an alternate channel/VirtualCell. Security Mode Maximum Recommended Number of Calls Open / None 40 WPA / TKIP 36 WPA2 / AES 36
System Overview The following diagram depicts the typical components of a deployment of the Ascom i75 with a Meru Networks WLAN system. The VoIP Gateway is required when interfacing to TDM-PBXs and utilizes H.323 VoIP protocol with the Ascom i75. Alternatively, an Ascom i75 can interface to a compatible IP-PBX utilizing SIP VoIP protocol. It is recommended that the data and voice clients be separated into different VLAN’s either by using RADIUS-assigned VLAN or ESSID-based VLAN assignment in order to separate the voice and data traffic within the wired network. The AccessPoints and Controller may be connected on the same IP subnet or spanning different IP subnets.
Interoperability Testing The following major features have been tested for proper interoperability between the Meru Networks WLAN platform and the Ascom i75 Medic and Protector handsets.
• VirtualCell Association and Handoff within single BSSID
• Roaming between two AccessPoints on different Controllers
• Dynamic Quality of Service for SIP
• Configured Quality of Service for H.323
• VSM Call Admission Control for SIP
• Controller/Access Point Connectivity within layer 2 network and across subnets using layer 3 (IP) connectivity
• E(z)RF system setup and installation for rapid deployment
• Verification of the phone and phone call tables (“show phones”, “show phone-calls”)
Design Considerations 1. When designing a large network which requires multiple WLAN Controllers, each
controller which will have AP’s within range of each other (for example on a floor boundary) should be configured so that the Controllers are configured on a different non-overlapping channel for the VirtualCells. For example, Controller 1 may utilize channel 1 on floors 1-6 and then Controller 2 may utilize channel 6 on floors 7-12. In this scenario you would have two large VirtualCells, one on channel 1 and another on channel 6.
2. In order to provide QoS on the wired LAN, you should setup the Meru QoS rules to apply DSCP tags to the voice packets with class EF (Expedited Forwarding). Your wired switches should then be configured to process the DSCP values and map these to Layer 2 CoS.
Configuration Overview The following sections describe how to configure the Meru and Ascom systems for a basic deployment. The Meru Networks examples given are for the WebUI interface. A summary of the CLI configurations for the same settings is given at the end of this document for reference.
VLAN For security reasons, it is recommended to separate the voice and data traffic onto different VLANs when possible. The following is an example of how to create a new VLAN for the voice traffic from the Meru Networks WebUI.
Security The system supports many diverse security profiles for use with the Ascom i75. The following subsections show how to configure each type of security.
The first step for WPA Enterprise, WPA2 Enterprise or 802.1X (Dynamic WEP) is to define a RADIUS Profile which will be used for authenticating users. This step is not required for other security modes.
WPA2 Enterprise In order to setup a WPA2 Enterprise (RADIUS authentication) profile, the following settings are required, making use of the RADIUS Profile we had created in the prior step above.
WPA Enterprise The configuration for WPA Enterprise (TKIP) only differs from the WPA2 Enterprise example shown above in the settings shown for L2 Modes Allowed and Data Encrypt.
WPA2 Personal (Pre-Shared Key) In order to setup a WPA2 Personal (Pre-Shared Key) profile, the following settings are required. When you enter the Pre-shared Key, you may enter either as alphanumeric characters (length of 8-63) or hexadecimal (length of 64) with prefix of 0x.
WPA Personal (Pre-Shared Key) The configuration for WPA Personal only differs from the WPA2 Personal example shown above in the settings shown for L2 Modes Allowed and Data Encrypt.
WLAN (ESS) After you have setup the chosen security profile and VLAN for your voice traffic, then you need to create and ESS Profile to start broadcasting service. Following is an example for WPA2 Enterprise and a VLAN. Note that the following settings are mandatory:
Wireless Interface (AcessPoint) Set the RF Band selection to 802.11bg or 802.11g mode. The channel should be set to the same channel for all AccessPoints on each Controller unless you have a high density deployment where you are stacking multiple channels on top of each other in areas for increasing call density 2x or 3x.
Quality of Service (QoS Rules) Since the i75 handsets support both H.323 and SIP protocols, there are two alternative configurations of QoS rules as shown below.
SIP To enable DiffServ Codepoint (DSCP) marking of the SIP voice packets, you will need to modify the existing/default SIP QoS rules since the default settings do not mark the packets with an EF (Expedited Forwarding) code point for providing QoS on the wired network. The system does not support editing of existing QoS rules so you will need to first delete and then re-add the two QoS rules 3 & 4 as shown.
H.323 In order to provide QoS for H.323, the existing rules for H.323 protocol must be deleted since these only support H.323 Version 1 and the i75 handsets utilize a later version.
Then you will need to Add two QoS rules for the IP Subnet of the i75 handsets and VoIP Gateway (therefore you are recommended to put all phones one a VLAN with data traffic on an alternate ESSID/VLAN). The first rule is configured for packets to the i75 IP subnet.
Then a second rule with duplicate fields except for those shown below is also needed.
i75 Device Configuration The Ascom Portable Device Manager needs to be utilized to configure the service settings for the Meru Networks WLAN.
The ESSID, IP and security settings are configured in the SYSTEM parameters and you can define up to four profiles (A/B/C/D) that the end user will be able to choose from on the i75 device. Since the Meru Networks AccessPoint does not currently broadcast the country using the 802.11d mechanism, you must select the world mode regulatory domain to match where you are deploying the network, such as USA in this example below.
In order to configure the system for either H.323 (default setting) or SIP, you must select the protocol and appropriate coder in the PDM as below.
Finally, you will configure the SIP or H.323 phone number (Endpoint number) and display name (Endpoint ID) as shown. Please note: With a VoIP Gateway configuration, the endpoint ID is extracted from the user configuration defined in the Gatekeeper. Please leave this field empty for initial configuration.
![[ QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE | EN ] - Ascom Healthcare ... QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE | EN ] ASCOM i62 VoWiFi HANDSET INCLUDING SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS 1 PT IT Display Icons Signal strength Battery](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5ab9a61a7f8b9ac1058e1e05/-quick-reference-guide-en-ascom-healthcare-quick-reference-guide-en.jpg)
