Wifi Network Long Range CPE 220
Hello,
I have not a lot of networking knowledge, and I am looking for a solution to the following problem.
I need to be able to access from several Smartphones and tablets to a set of IOTs located at a maximum distance of 1000 meters (see image 1). Smartphones and IOTs are in restricted areas (<30m), outdoor therefore accessible to conventional WiFi.
I looked for long range Wifi solutions, and I came across CPE220 Tp-link products.
On the documentation, it gives a diagram of long range Wifi transmission architecture, but which concerns the communication between 2 Ethernet networks (image 2) (the Wifi replacing the cable which would have been necessary between the 2 networks). One CPE220 is in Access Point and the other in Access Point Client.
Can this configuration work with the same Wifi network on both sides?
Thanks for your help.
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Simplest way to visualise this link is as a very long ethernet cable. So the CPE220 point to point link extends the connection from your router or switch where your smartphones are connecting, to the remote location hosting your IOT devices, it does not then provide the local WIFI as well .
You will require another device at the remote site to act as the wifi access point (AP) for your IOT devices. Something like a TL-WA801ND or TL-WA901ND would be a suitable AP for your remote IOT devices unless you need an outdoor model like an EAP225 Outdoor. You need this additional AP device because the CPE220 has a very directional antenna and wont provide good coverage for your devices also it will be in client mode and not acting as an access point, use it just for the long link as designed and shown in your diagrams. Adding a connection to the switches shown in your second diagram to an AP at each end would provide the local WiFI.
Such a solution is shown in the scenario at this link, it shows a local AP in the second building as I describe above.
You asked if it could be the same wifi at each end, yes as you can configure the same SSID on the access points at each end of the link and they will effectively be connected together via the CPE220 behaving as a long ethernet cable (in reality it will be better than a long ethernet as the bridging function built into the CPE220 will prevent non-broadcast traffic from being needlessly sent over the link).
The Advanced Techy bit:
For traffic isolation you might wish to configure a different SSID and VLAN or different physical subnet for the IOT devices and configure yout firewall or router to allow the smartphones to access the IoT devices but prevent the IoT devices from connecting to the internet or other devices on your network.
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Thank you for your reply.
If I understand correctly, you need a WiFi router on the IOT side to ensure good local coverage of Wifi, because of the directivity of the CPE220.
But the problem is it not the same for the SmartPhone side?
In this case it would take a CPE220 on each side.
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Thats correct, think of the CPE220 just for the point-to-point and use an Access point (AP) for the local WiFi exactly as your last picture shows.
If you want internet access as well connect the devices at the smartphone end to your internet facing router/switch, the router will also provide DHCP to allocate IP addresses to your devices so they can talk to each other unless you plan on them all being statically addressed?
If you do intend to use the EAP225 outdoor as your picture shows you can also use the POE passthrough on the CPE220 to power both the CPE220 and EAP225 from a single source (but check the power consumption and specification of your power supply first!)
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Thank you for your reply.
I assume that all APs (CPE220 and EAP225) must be on the same SSID.
And WIFI modes:
CPE220 Smatphone side: Access Point
EAP225 Smartphone side: Client???
CPE220 Iot side: Client
EAP225 Iot side: Client???
Is it correct ?
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jlalexief wrote
I assume that all APs (CPE220 and EAP225) must be on the same SSID.
No. The direct link (CPE to CPE) should use another SSID and another WLAN channel as those used by the EAPs to avoid interferences. You can even hide the SSID for the directional link, so it's not visible to other clients.
Both EAPs can have the SSID as used in the rest of your network if you want kind of roaming between those APs. Alternatively, they can have different SSIDs. It depends on what you want your clients to see as the name for the WLAN.
And WIFI modes:
CPE220 Smatphone side: Access Point
EAP225 Smartphone side: Client???
CPE220 Iot side: Client
EAP225 Iot side: Client???
CPE220 #1: AP mode
CPE220 #2: Client mode
EAP225-Outdoor: both are running in AP mode (there is no other mode for EAPs, they are just APs).
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Ok I updated my schema.
Thank you again for your help.
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jlalexief wrote
Ok I updated my schema.
Thank you again for your help.
You're welcome. Make sure to use different 2.4 GHz channels for the EAP225-Outdoor APs and the CPEs.
Please remember to mark my post as »best solution« so that others with the same question can find it faster. Thanks!
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