System Overview
This chapter provides an overview of the system. See the following sections:
Changing Basic Configuration Information
To view or change basic system information, click the Configure button on the left side of the Web interface window, then click the System tab. See System Parameters for detailed information about the fields and selections in this window.
NOTE: System Name by default contains the actual model number. The following screenshot is for information only.
Country and Related Settings
The unit's Configure System window provides a selectable Country field that automatically provides the allowed bandwidth and frequencies for the selected country.
Units sold in the United States are pre-configured to scan and display only the outdoor frequencies permitted by the FCC. No other Country can be configured. Units sold outside of the United States support the selection of a Country by the professional installer.
NOTE: Non-US installers should not add an antenna system until the Country is selected, the unit is rebooted, and the proper power level is configured. The output power level of the final channel selected by DFS scan can be found in the Event Log.The Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) feature is enabled automatically when you choose a country with a regulatory domain that requires it. The Transmit Power Control (TPC) feature is always available.
Click the Configure button and the System tab; then select the appropriate country for your regulatory domain from the Country drop-down box.
Continue configuring settings as desired; then click the Commands button and the Reboot tab to save and activate the settings. Alternatively, if you want to save the configuration settings to the flash memory but not activate the settings, use the save config CLI command.
Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)
The Tsunami MP.11 5054-R supports Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) for European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) domains per EN 301-893 regulations. The ETSI requires that 802.11a devices use DFS to prevent interference with radar systems and other devices that already occupy the 5 GHz band.
During boot-up, the unit scans the available frequency and selects a channel that is quiet and free of radar interference. If the unit subsequently detects radar interference on its channel, it rescans to find a better channel. Upon finding a new channel, the unit waits 60 seconds to detect radar interference; if it finds no interference, it switches to the new channel.
If you are using a 5054-R unit in Europe or other applicable countries, keep in mind the following:
- DFS is not a configurable parameter; it is always enabled and cannot be disabled.
- You cannot manually select the device's operating channel; you must let the unit select the channel. However, you can specify a particular "preferred" channel that you want to scan first whenever the DFS process starts. You may also make channels unavailable by manually "blacklist" them and prevent those channels to be scanned, as well as display the Channel Blacklist Table.
- You cannot configure the Auto Channel Select option. Within the HTTP or CLI interface, this option always appears enabled.
With 5054-R units, Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) is enabled automatically based upon the country you select. You can tell DFS is in use because the frequency selection field displays only the DFS-selected frequency. DFS scans all available frequencies, starting with the DFS preferred channel and skipping blacklisted channels, to select the operating frequency automatically.
A country selection with DFS enabled causes the Base Station to come up in scan mode. It scans the available frequencies and channels to avoid radar and selects a channel with the least interference.
NOTE: Scanning is performed only on the frequencies allowed in the regulatory domain of the country selected when it is required for radar detection and avoidance.To comply with your country's regulations, change the DFS selection to specify your country. You can do this by logging into the unit, clicking the Configure button and selecting the System tab. There is a drop-down box labeled Country with all available countries from which to select. Choose your country, configure the unit as required, and reboot for the settings to take effect.
The SU also comes up in scan mode to scan all available frequencies to find a BSU with which it can register. Scanning may take several minutes. After establishing a wireless link, the wireless LED stops flashing and continues to shine green.
NOTE: Because DFS may need to scan for radar on multiple channels, you must allow a sufficient amount of time for the units to start up. This is considerably longer than when the unit is not using DFS. This is expected behavior. Startup time is within four minutes if no radar is detected, but up to one minute is added for every selected channel that results in radar detection.DFS is required for two purposes:
- Radar avoidance both at startup and while operational. To meet these requirements, the BSU scans available frequencies at startup for the presence of a radar signal on all available frequencies. If a radar signal is detected on any DFS enabled channel, the system will blacklist the channel for a period of 30 minutes in accordance to EN301-893. Once fully operational on a frequency, the BSU actively monitors the occupied frequency for radar interference. If radar interference is detected, the BSU blacklists the channel, logs a message and rescans to find a new frequency free of radar interference.
Radar detection is performed only by the BSU and not by the SU. When an SU is set to a country in which DFS is used, it scans all available channels upon startup looking for a BSU that best matches its connection criteria (such as Base Station System Name, Network Name, and Shared Secret). The SU connects to the BSU automatically on whatever frequency the BSU has selected. Because of this procedure, it is best to set up the BSU and have it fully operational before installing the SU, although this is not required. If a BSU rescans because of radar interference, the SU loses its wireless link. The SU waits 30 seconds (when the Mobility feature is enabled, the SU starts scanning for a BSU instantly rather than waiting 30 seconds); if it finds that it could not receive the BSU in this amount of time, it rescans the available frequencies for an active BSU.
- Guarantee the efficient use of available frequencies by all devices in a certain area. To meet this requirement, the BSU scans each available frequency upon startup and selects a frequency based upon the least amount of noise and interference detected. This lets multiple devices operate in the same area with limited interference. This procedure is done only at startup; if another non-radar device comes up on the same frequency, the BSU does not detect this or rescan because of it. It is expected that other devices using these frequencies also are in compliance with country regulations, so this should not happen.
Transmit Power Control
Transmit Power Control is a manual configuration selection to reduce the unit's output power. The maximum output power level for the operating frequency can be found in the event log of the unit's embedded software.
By default, the unit lets you transmit at the maximum output power that the radio can sustain for data rate and frequency selected. However, with Transmit Power Control (TPC), you can adjust the output power of the unit to a lower level in order to reduce interference to neighboring devices or to use a higher gain antenna without violating the maximum radiated output power allowed for your country. Also, most countries in the ETSI regulatory domain require the transmit power to be set to a 6 dB lower value than the maximum allowed EIRP when link quality permits, as part of the DFS requirements.
You can see your unit's current output power for the selected frequency in the event log. The event log shows the selected power for all data rates, so you must look up the relevant data rate to determine the actual power level.
NOTE: This feature only lets you decrease your output power; you cannot increase your output power beyond the maximum the radio allows for your frequency and data rate.See System Status to configure Country. See Configure the Wireless Interface to configure Transmit Power Control.
SU Registration
The list of parameters you must configure for registration of the SU on a BSU are:
See System Parameters to see the description of these fields and to configure them.
NOTES:
- The frequency channel must be the same for the BSU and the SU in order to register the SU when roaming is not enabled and DFS is not required.
- Channel Bandwidth and Turbo mode must be the same for the BSU and SU in order to register the SU.
- Roaming will automatically select a channel on the SU corresponding to the BSU channel. Roaming is the procedure in which an SU terminates the session with the current BSU and starts the registration procedure with another BSU when it finds the quality of the other BSU to be better.
Dynamic Data Rate Selection (DDRS)
The WORP Dynamic Data Rate Selection (DDRS) lets the BSU and SUs monitor and calculate the remote average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and adjust the transmission data rate to an optimal value to provide the best possible throughput according to the current communication conditions and link quality during run-time.
Each frame received in the WORP protocol reports the signal and noise level in dBm at which the sender received the previous frame from the receiver, and provides the values to calculate the SNR in dB. SNR is calculated according to this formula then averaged:
SNR [dB] = signal level [dBm] - noise level [dBm]
Both the BSU and the SUs monitor the remote SNR. The BSU monitors and calculates the average remote SNR for each SU that is registered. An SU monitors and calculates the average remote SNR for the BSU.
DDRS is enabled or disabled on the BSU only. This operation requires the BSU to be rebooted. After rebooting, the BSU sends a multicast announcement to all SUs to begin the registration process. During registration, an SU is informed by the BSU whether DDRS is enabled or disabled and it sets its DDRS status accordingly.
There are two DDRS data rates that need to be configured when DDRS is enabled:
- Default DDRS Data Rate (ddrsdefdatarate): The data rate at which the BSU starts communication with all SUs to begin the registration process (the default is 6 Mbps).
- Maximum DDRS Data Rate (ddrsmaxdatarate): The maximum data rate at which the device (BSU or SU) can operate (the default is 54 Mbps).
NOTE: The default (BSU only) and maximum (BSU and SU) DDRS data rate values must be configured in the BSU and SUs separately through the CLI or the SNMP interface.Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs)
Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) are logical groupings of network hosts. Defined by software settings, other VLAN members or resources appear (to connected hosts) to be on the same physical segment, no matter where they are attached on the logical LAN or WAN segment. They simplify allowing traffic to flow between hosts and their frequently-used or restricted resources according to the VLAN configuration.
Tsunami MP.11 5054-R and 2454-R units are fully VLAN-ready; however, by default, VLAN support is disabled. Before enabling VLAN support (by assigning a VLAN Management ID), certain network settings should be configured and network resources such as VLAN-aware switches should be available, dependent upon the type of configuration.
VLANs are used to conveniently, efficiently, and easily manage your network in the following ways:
VLAN tagged data is collected and distributed through a unit's Ethernet interface. The units can communicate across a VLAN-capable switch that analyzes VLAN-tagged packet headers and directs traffic to the appropriate ports when the units are working in their Transparent mode.
VLAN features can be managed via:
For more information about VLAN configuration, see VLAN Parameters.
Quality of Service (QoS)
The Quality of Service (QoS) feature is based on the 802.16 standard and defines the classes, service flows, and packet identification rules for specific types of traffic. QoS main priority is to guarantee a reliable and adequate transmission quality for all types of traffic under conditions of high congestion and bandwidth over-subscription.
Concepts and Definitions
The software supports QoS provisioning from the BSU only. You may define different classes of service on a BSU that can then be assigned to the SUs that are associated, or that may get associated, with that BSU.
The software provides the ability to create, edit, and delete classes of service that are specified by the following hierarchy of parameters:
- Packet Identification Rule (PIR) - up to 64 rules, including 17 predefined rules
- Service Flow class (SFC) - up to 32 SFs, including 7 predefined SFCs; up to 8 PIRs may be associated per SFC
- Priority for each rule within each SF class - 0 to 255, with 0 being lowest priority
- QoS class - up to 8 QoS classes, including 4 predefined classes; up to 4 SFCs may be associated per QoS class
Packet Identification Rule (PIR)
A Packet Identification Rule is a combination of parameters that specifies what type of traffic is allowed or disallowed. The software allows to create up to 64 different PIRs, including 17 predefined PIRs. It provides the ability to create, edit, and delete PIRs that contain none, one, or more of the following classification fields:
- Rule Name
- IP ToS (Layer 3 QoS identification)
- IP Protocol List containing up to 4 IP protocols
- 802.1p tag (layer 2 QoS identification)
- Up to 4 pairs of Source IP address + Mask
- Up to 4 pairs of Destination IP address + Mask
- Up to 4 source TCP/UDP port ranges
- Up to 4 destination TCP/UDP port ranges
- Up to 4 source MAC addresses
- Up to 4 destination MAC addresses
- VLAN ID
- Ether type (Ethernet protocol identification)
A good example is provided by the 17 predefined PIRs. Note that these rules help to identify specific traffic types:
Two different VoIP rule names have been defined for each direction of traffic, Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL), (index numbers 2 to 5). This has been done to distinguish the proprietary nature of the Cisco VoIP implementation as opposed to the more standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling found, for example, in the Vonage-type VoIP service.
Service Flow Class (SFC)
A Service Flow class defines a set of parameters that determines how a stream of application data that matches a certain classification profile will be handled. The software allows to create up to 32 different SFs, including seven predefined SFs. The software provides the ability to create, edit, and delete SFs that contain the following parameters and values:
- Service flow name
- Scheduling type - Best Effort (BE); Real-Time Polling Service (RtPS)
- Service Flow Direction - Downlink (DL: traffic from BSU to SU); Uplink (UL: traffic from SU to BSU)
- Maximum sustained data rate (or Maximum Information Rate, MIR) - specified in units of 1 Kbps from 8 Kbps up to he maximum rate of 108000 Kbps per SU
- Minimum reserved traffic rate (or Committed Information Rate, CIR) - specified in units of 1 Kbps from 0 Kbps up to the maximum rate of 10000 Kbps per SU
- Maximum Latency - specified in increments of 5 ms steps from a minimum of 5 ms up to a maximum of 100 ms
- Tolerable Jitter - specified in increments of 5 ms steps from a minimum of 0 ms up to the Maximum Latency (in ms)
- Traffic priority - zero (0) to seven (7), 0 being the lowest, 7 being the highest
- Maximum number of data messages in a burst - one (1) to four (4), which affects the percentage of the maximum throughput of the system
- Activation state - Active; Inactive
Note that traffic priority refers to the prioritization of this specific Service Flow.
The software tries to deliver the packets within the specified latency and jitter requirements, relative to the moment of receiving the packets in the unit. For delay-sensitive traffic the jitter must be equal to or less than the latency. A packet is buffered until an interval of time equal to the difference between Latency and Jitter (Latency - Jitter) has elapsed. The software will attempt to deliver the packet within a time window starting at (Latency - Jitter) until the maximum Latency time is reached. If the SFC's scheduling type is real-time polling (rtPS), and the packet is not delivered by that time, it will be discarded. This can lead to loss of packets without reaching the maximum throughput of the wireless link. For example, when the packets arrive in bursts on the Ethernet interface and the wireless interface is momentarily maxed out, then the packets at the "end" of the burst may be timed out before they can be sent.
Users are able to set up their own traffic characteristics (MIR, CIR, latency, jitter, etc.) per service flow class to meet their unique requirements. A good example is provided by the seven predefined SFCs:
- UL-Unlimited BE
- DL-Unlimited BE (same as UL-Unlimited BE, except Service Flow Direction = Downlink)
- UL-G711 20 ms VoIP rtPS
- DL-G711 20 ms VoIP rtPS (same as UL-G711 20ms VoIP rtPS, except Service Flow Direction = Downlink)
- UL-G729 20 ms VoIP rtPS (same as UL-G711 20ms VoIP rtPS, except Maximum Sustained Data Rate and Maximum Reserved Traffic Rate = 64 Kbps)
- DL-G729 20 ms VoIP rtPS (same as UL-G729 20ms VoIP rtPS, except Service Flow Direction = Downlink)
- DL-2Mbps Video
Two different VoIP Service Flow classes for each direction of traffic have been defined (index numbers 3 to 6) which follow the ITU-T standard nomenclatures: G.711 refers to a type of audio companding and encoding that produces a 64 Kbps bitstream, suitable for all types of audio signals. G.729 is appropriate for voice and VoIP applications, but cannot transport music or fax tones reliably. This type of companding and encoding produces a bitstream between 6.4 and 11.8 Kbps (typically 8 Kbps) according to the quality of voice transport that is desired.
QoS Class
A QoS class is defined by a set of parameters that includes the PIRs and SFCs that were previously configured. The software allows creating up to eight different QoS classes, including four predefined QoS classes. Up to four SF classes can be associated to each QoS class, and up to eight PIRs can be associated to each SF class. For example, a QoS class called "G711 VoIP" may include the following SFCs: "UL-G711 20 ms VoIP rtPS" and "DL-G711 20 ms VoIP rtPS". In turn, the SFC named "UL-G711 20 ms VoIP rtPS" may include the following rules: "Cisco VoIP UL" and "Vonage VoIP UL".
The software provides the ability to create, edit, and delete QoS classes that contain the following parameters:
- QoS class name
- Service Flow (SF) class name list per QoS class (up to four SF classes can be associated to each QoS class)
- Packet Identification Rule (PIR) list per SF class (up to eight PIRs can be associated to each SF class)
- Priority per rule which defines the order of execution of PIRs during packet identification process. The PIR priority is a number in the range 0-63, with priority 63 being executed first, and priority 0 being executed last. The PIR priority is defined within a QoS class, and can be different for the same PIR in some other QoS class. If all PIRs within one QoS class have the same priority, the order of execution of PIR rules will be defined by the order of definition of SFCs, and by the order of definition of PIRs in each SFC, within that QoS class.
A good example of this hierarchy is provided by the four predefined QoS classes:
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