best budget solution with Omada

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best budget solution with Omada

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best budget solution with Omada
best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-09 17:59:03 - last edited 2024-05-20 06:33:16
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Hello Everyone,

 

We would like to use Omada for a small hotel on 3 floors with (5 rooms on each floor) and we are looking for the most budget way for hardware(excuse us in advanced for requesting the cheapest hardware, but we are tight with budget)

The solution for now as we see it:

We would need to have mesh , so the guests wll not get disconnected when they move up and down and in the restaurant. 

 

The topology is like this:

there is LAN cables on each floor, so we can use wired backhaul

 

Here is what we think for now (all suggestions would be aprecitated)

using 4 archer c80 routers with EasyMesh

(1 router for basement and the rest on each of the floors)

Idea is all the users to have mesh.

 

We think that Deco would not be apropriate as it needs to cover many rooms and floors and would require a lot of Decos 

 

Omada

1 router c80

1 oc200 controller 

After that we are not sure which one to use from here

https://www.tp-link.com/en/omada-sdn/product-list/#b2b-smb-wifi-ceiling-mount

 

Note: there is lan cables in front of the parking so maybe 2 antenas outside 

 

idea is to have the cheapest mesh available so guests can have internet everywhere with a single connection.

 

Thanks in advanced and I apologise for such request.

M

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-09 21:39:39 - last edited 2024-05-09 21:46:31

  @userM 

It’s difficult to advise something when you don’t see a picture with a building plan, precise cabling and budget for equipment with links to specific stores

In general, in such cases, you usually invite network engineers to assess the situation and locally, an accurate calculation of the required equipment and work is carried out.

for hotels it is best to have one point in each room. there will definitely be good coverage both in the corridor and directly in the room itself.

and if the point freezes, the Wi-Fi in a particular room will not work well, you can simply reboot the access point remotely based on this number without disturbing the operation of other points in the rooms, which means the rest of the guests will not complain at this time

But most likely you have a maximum of 2 twisted pairs on each floor, and this will still be good, because most likely there is only one pair per floor)

Therefore, most likely the points will have to be located in the corridor.

You can take points EAP650

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap650/

approximately 2 points per floor will most likely be needed

if you also need to cover the street with a wireless network, then also take external access points 

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap650-outdoor/

you will also need a poe switch to connect access points, it would be better if it was more or less smart and included in the omada infrastructure:

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/smart-switch/tl-sg2218p/#overview

Well, for a gateway and raising an Internet connection/dhcp server, at least such a router:

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-router-wired-router/er605/

its filling is based on the popular MT7621AT processor (2 cores/4 threads 880 MHz)

in principle, this is enough to serve approximately 150 clients with an Internet connection speed of 200 megabits (of course, without additional loads, like VPN)

controller wifi tp link OC200 you already have

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-09 22:52:21

  @Godlike66 Thank you for your answer. There would not be so many guests and usage will be limited, so i was thinking more of:

3 EAP115

1 EAP110-Outdoor

Found these items have omada available for them from https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-wifi-ceiling-mount/

What do you think would this work with oc200 and enabled mesh for these devices ?

 

Thank you in advanced,

M

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-09 23:53:58 - last edited 2024-05-10 00:03:13

  @userM 

It would be good to forget about 2.4 GHz altogether

Now this frequency range is not only very polluted, but also dies from any sneeze, like turning on a microwave

plus this frequency range does not support any modern technology

the minimum that is worth taking is a dual-band EAP225 or its version for external use:

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-wifi-ceiling-mount/eap225/

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/omada-wifi-outdoor/eap225-outdoor/

there is no point in taking something cheaper and going lower

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-10 07:00:54

  @Godlike66 Thank you for this valuable advice. I completely agree on this.

Thanks for the recommendations as well. Just a last question if I may.

Would it be okay to have 2 outdoor eap225 to cover the whole place (it is just a large house i would say) rather than 3 indoor eap 225 on each floor ?

Not sure if the outdoor eap would work fine indoor between walls or it is better the indoor ones.

Idea is to have less devices and the same coverage.

 

Thanks in advanced,

M

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-10 08:07:59

  @userM 

indoors, of course, it is better to use internal access points

eap 225 has an antenna configuration of 2x4dBi at 2.4 GHz and 2x5dBi at 5 GHz

at the same time, its external version has an antenna configuration of 2x3dBi at 2.4 GHz and 2x4dBi at 5 GHz

and in general, the antennas of the internal ceiling access point are laid so as to optimally cover the space around them

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-13 09:05:21

  @Godlike66  Thanks a lot for your valuable advices.

As far as i understood i would need eap225 (because it supports the 5 GHz band) , EAP115 is only 2.4 ghz

eap225v3 supports only mesh functionality ? (as far as i understood from reading the forums)

Due to the availability that I have lan cables everywhere i would not need mesh functionality, so i can get eap225v1 even

My goal is to have seamless/fast roaming between clients so the network looks like a single one and as far as I understood i would need:

oc200 controller to manage the clients for fast roaming

several eap225v1 (i am referring to v1 as it is cheaper than v3) 

do eap225v1 support fast roaming seamless roaming ?

 

Thanks and i think this might be the last posts of this topic as thank to your advices i will be getting these products. 

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-13 19:36:53 - last edited 2024-05-13 19:37:09

  @userM 

I do not recommend that you buy old access points; they will most likely be incompatible with new controllers and software:

https://community.tp-link.com/en/business/forum/topic/218572?sortDir=ASC&page=1

buy at least v3 version of eap225

as I said earlier, you also need a Poe switch and a router for the main gateway

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-14 20:49:19

  @Godlike66 Got it, just one last question.

In your last post you mentioned that i would need a POE switch.

I have a switch already but it is not a tp link nor it is POE

Do the eap225v3 come with passive poe adapters or i need to use a specific switch which is omada controlled ?

My idea is this:

router -> switch (unmanaged and no poe) <-oc 200 controller and eap225v3 access points.

 

Thanks in advanced,

M

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-16 18:46:47

  @userM 

adapter/poe injector included in eap225

but I don’t recommend contacting passive poe

Among the obvious disadvantages, nuances may emerge with the length of the cable, connection to the point at a speed of no more than 100 megabits

Well, sooner or later someone will unplug the adapter from the socket in order to connect something of their own.

buy at least a simple unmanaged gigabit poe switch

https://www.tp-link.com/en/business-networking/unmanaged-switch/tl-sg1218mp/v3.20/#overview

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Re:best budget solution with Omada
2024-05-20 06:33:03

  @Godlike66 Thank you for all of your answers and suggestions.

Now i have a better view what exactly to get from omada and which products.

They were very informative and helped me choose the right products.

I will for sure use the forum if i have any more questions and again thank you for the fast response and answers. Really helpful.

We can close this forum post.

 

Thanks

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