Cisco-Aironet 1300 Series Wireless LAN Access Point/Bridge

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

The Cisco Aironet® 1300 Series Outdoor Access Point/Bridge (Figure 1) is an 802.11g access point and bridge that provides high-speed and cost-effective wireless connectivity between multiple fixed or mobile networks and clients. Building a metropolitan-area wireless infrastructure with the Cisco® Aironet 1300 Series provides deployment personnel with a flexible, easy-to-use solution that meets the security requirements of wide-area networking professionals.

Figure 1. Cisco Aironet 1300 Series

The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series supports the 802.11g standard-providing 54-Mbps data rates with a proven, secure technology while maintaining full backward compatibility with legacy 802.11b devices. Cisco Systems® makes the maintenance and installation of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series easy by integrating it with your wired network via the Cisco Structured Wireless-Aware Network (SWAN) framework. Based on Cisco IOS® Software, the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series provides advanced features such as Fast Secure Roaming, quality of service (QoS), and VLANs.

The flexibility of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series allows it to operate as a wireless bridge, access point, or a workgroup bridge.

Access Point

Engineered specifically for harsh outdoor environments, yet also capable in indoor deployments, the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series is ideal for wireless LANs (WLANs) requiring external access points. The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series is WiFi-certified as an access point and also supports the innovative features available with Cisco Aironet and Cisco Compatible client devices.

Bridge

The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series supports either point-to-point or point-to-multipoint configuration to cost-effectively interconnect remote, temporary, or mobile networks. It can serve as an upgrade or replacement to the Cisco Aironet 350 Wireless Bridge by providing over-the-air compatibility with existing Cisco Aironet 350 Series wireless bridges. While in bridge mode, client associations are also accepted-effectively providing simultaneous bridge and access- point capability.

Workgroup Bridge

As a workgroup bridge, the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series quickly connects any Ethernet-enabled device, such as a laptop or other portable computer, to a WLAN. By adding a standard Ethernet hub or switch, you can connect up to 255 of these devices to any Cisco Aironet access point or wireless bridge.

	USERS AND APPLICATIONS The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series can provide an ongoing savings of leased-line expenses, a method to connect networks despite physical barriers such as lakes or highways, and rapid deployment of network connections-often while waiting on other facilities such as fiber-optic installations. Typical organizations that will benefit from the advantages of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series include: education, enterprise, government, healthcare, military, public safety, transportation, and WLAN service providers. These organizations have a variety of possible applications (Figure 2) that are discussed in the following paragraphs.
	Campus Networks Whether a typical college campus or corporate offices with multiple buildings, IT professionals are faced with interconnecting local area networks in each of the buildings. These LANs require cost-effective, high-bandwidth connections with the flexibility and control often not available via leased lines or cable installations requiring trenching.
	Nomadic Networks and Users More and more, networks are "on the move." Vehicles such as buses, trains, ambulances, and patrol cars are being equipped with their own LAN-supported devices such as notebooks, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cameras, and scanners. These mobile networks need to be interconnected to provide information-sharing for more informed decisions, improved public service and operational efficiency through more personnel time in the field, and new passenger services.
	Outdoor Public Access The proliferation of WLAN hot spots has allowed users to stay connected while in hotels, airports, and even coffee shops. As more users desire ubiquitous connectivity, outdoor hot spots are being added-some of which include multiple city blocks or even town centers. These outdoor hot spots can be cost-effectively deployed with equipment designed for the outdoor environment.
	Temporary Networks The variety of temporary solutions is limitless, with applications such as remote military campaigns, short-term office leases, temporary buildings such as trailers, or even parking lot tent sales. These deployments require a temporary network infrastructure that is rugged, portable, easy to install, and flexible.

Figure 2. Cisco Aironet 1300 Series Example Applications

BENEFITS

Industry-Leading Performance

Low Total Cost of Ownership

Flexible and Easy to Install

Wired and Wireless Integration

Enhanced Network Security

PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE

A flexible outdoor wireless-bridge or access-point solution is provided through the combination of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series, a power injector, and options for both antennas and mounting. Figure 3 shows how the units connect.

Figure 3. Network Diagram with Power Injector

Cisco Aironet 1300 Series

The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series provides the 802.11g interface for access-point capability or bridge connections. By placing the unit outdoors, close to the antenna, you can minimize the wireless cable losses-thereby maximizing the range of the network. The unit is available with either an integrated antenna, or with connectors for external antennas (Figure 4). The high-gain integrated antenna is designed for easy installations of point-to-point links or non-root nodes of point-to-multipoint networks. The nonintegrated antenna version provides professional installers with an RP-TNC connector that allows the deployment of omni-directional, sector, or high-gain dish antennas for specific application requirements.

Figure 4. Cisco Aironet 1300 Series Connector Options

Power Injector

The Cisco Aironet Bridge Power Injector converts the standard 10/100BASE-T Ethernet interface that is suitable for weather-protected areas to a dual F-Type connector interface for coaxial cables that are more suitable for harsh outdoor environments. The power injector also provides power to the outdoor unit over the same cables with a power-discover feature and surge protection. To support longer cabling from your wired switch or router, the power injector enables total cable runs up to 200 meters (Category 5 [Cat5] and coaxial). The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series ships with the Cisco Aironet Power Injector LR2 (Figure 5) and an AC power supply.

Figure 5. Cisco Aironet Power Injector AIR-PWRINJ-BLR2/AIRPWRINJ-BLR2T

The optional Cisco Aironet Power Injector LR2T takes power from any +12 to +40 VDC source not supplied by Cisco. Typically the DC source is a vehicle or solar-power source (Figure 5). This power injector provides the flexibility needed when an AC power source is not available.

Figure 6. Network Diagram with Optional Power Injector

Mounting Hardware and Antennas

In addition to having a variety of antennas available from Cisco, the Cisco 1300 Series also has different mounting options (Figure 7). These optional mounting kits are available for mounting to a roof, wall, or pole. The quick-hang mounting bracket allows a simple one-person installation. For more information on available antennas, please contact NAS Wireless

Figure 7. Cisco Aironet 1300 Series Mounting Hardware and Antennas

FEATURES

	Antenna Alignment Assistance The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series provides an autoconfiguration and installation mode for quick deployment of point-to-point links without the need for a configuration via Telnet, FTP, or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). This mode provides LEDs with signal-strength information used in the installation and alignment process. This frees up the installers to perform their installation process and verify the link quality without requiring Cisco IOS Software or data-networking knowledge.
	Automatic Channel Selection The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series determines and selects the least congested channel to provide the least interference possible.
	Automatic Rate Scaling The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series scales down the data rate to maintain connectivity at outlying distances.
	Cisco IOS Software Using Cisco IOS Software, the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series provides end-to-end solution support for intelligent network services. This provides predictable and consistent network behavior with uniform applications and services.
	Cisco Wireless Security Suite The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series secures the network with a scalable and manageable system featuring the award- winning Cisco Wireless Security Suite. An enterprise-ready, standards-based, WLAN security solution, the Cisco Wireless Security Suite gives network administrators confidence that their data will remain private and secure. The solution provides the following benefits:   • The Cisco Wireless Security Suite supports Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) providing access control via per-user, per-session mutual authentication and data privacy via strong dynamic encryption. • Only legitimate clients are allowed to associate with legitimate and authorized network RADIUS servers via authorized access points. • Stronger encryption is provided by WPA with TKIP enhancements such as message integrity check (MIC), per-packet keys via initialization vector hashing, and broadcast key rotation and by WPA2 with AES. • A variety of IEEE 802.1X extensible authentication protocol (EAP) types are supported including Cisco LEAP, Protected EAP-Generic Token Card (PEAP-GTC), PEAP-Microsoft Challenge Authentication Protocol Version 2 (PEAP-MSCHAPv2), EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS), EAP-Tunneled TLS (EAP-TTLS), EAP-Subscriber Identity Module (EAP-SIM), and EAP-Flexible Authentication via Secure Tunneling (EAP-FAST) • The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series in bridge role supports LEAP for mutual authentication and both Cisco TKIP and WPA TKIP algorithms. However, Cisco TKIP is recommended when the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series is configured as a bridge to support concatenation. • A wide selection of RADIUS servers, such as the Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS), can be used for enterprise-class centralized user management. RADIUS accounting records for all authentication attempts are supported.
	Client Address Resolution Protocol Caching The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series in access-point role will respond to Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests on behalf of IEEE 802.11 Cisco Aironet, Cisco Compatible, and most Wi-Fi certified wireless client devices. This facilitates IP address resolution without requiring the wireless client device to leave power-save or idle modes, which extends battery life.
	Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series automatically obtains an IP address from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server.
	Fast, Secure, Non-Root Bridge and Workgroup Bridge Layer 2 Roaming Fast Secure Roaming allows authenticated non-root bridges and workgroup bridges to roam securely from one root bridge to another without any perceptible delay during reassociation. Fast Secure Roaming supports latency-sensitive applications such as wireless VoIP, enterprise resource planning (ERP), or Citrix-based solutions, without dropping connections during roaming. Fast Secure Roaming requires a Wireless Domain Services (WDS) server that can be provided by other Cisco devices such as the Cisco Aironet 1130 AG and Aironet 1230 AG Series access points. WDS is a collection of Cisco IOS Software features that enhance WLAN client mobility and simplify WLAN deployment and management.
	Fast Secure Roaming (Access-Point Role) Fast Secure Roaming allows authenticated client devices to roam securely from one access point to another without any perceptible delay during reassociation.
	Support for Port Aggregation Protocol and Cisco Fast EtherChannel Technology Bandwidth can be increased between bridged networks through the aggregation of multiple bridges at each site via Cisco Fast EtherChannel® technology, Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), or routing protocols.
	Hot Standby The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series in access-point mode supports failover to a standby device, thus increasing network uptime.
	Load Balancing The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series distributes user connections across available access points to optimize aggregate throughput.
	QoS Support The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series supports WMM. WMM improves the user experience for audio, video, and voice applications over a Wi-Fi wireless connection. WMM is a subset of the IEEE 802.11e QoS draft standard, supporting QoS-prioritized media access via the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) method. The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series also supports prioritization of traffic based on 802.1P tags and 802.1Q priority values and applies QoS policy accordingly for different application requirements, thus improving the voice and video user's experience.
	Radio Network Roles The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series supports the following radio roles:   • Root Access Point • Root Bridge, with client association (Bridge & Access Point) • Non-Root Bridge, without client association • Workgroup Bridge
	RADIUS Server per Service Set Identifier (SSID) The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series allows specification of RADIUS servers on a per-Service Set Identifier (SSID) basis by taking advantage of multiple SSID capabilities. This is beneficial for multi-tenant deployments, such as airports, where each tenant needs a separate RADIUS server for user authentication.
	VLAN Support The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series can manage up to 16 VLANs, which allows customers to differentiate LAN policies and services-such as security and QoS-for different users. The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series also supports 802.1Q trunking.
	Wireless Link-Distance Adjustment The link-distance parameter allows the user to tune the Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) parameters for the particular range in use to maximize performance.
	Wireless Packet Concatenation The concatenation of smaller packets into larger ones allows the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series to more efficiently use the wireless medium and provide higher overall data throughputs.
	Wireless Programmable Clear-Channel Assessment With a programmable clear-channel assessment, the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series can be configured to the particular background-interference level found in your environment for reduced contention overhead with other wireless systems.
	CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine (or AirWave AMP Management Platform) The CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE), a component of Cisco SWAN, is available as a management tool for the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series. CiscoWorks WLSE has an HTML-based management interface. It uses SNMP and Secure Shell (SSH)/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for managing Cisco Aironet access points and bridges via a Web browser. For more information on CiscoWorks WLSE, visit: NAS Wireless Cisco WLSE Appliance

SUMMARY

The Cisco Aironet 1300 Series is a flexible outdoor 802.11b and 802.11g access point and bridge that provides high-speed and cost-effective wireless connectivity between multiple fixed or mobile networks and clients.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

Product Compatibility

Table 1 outlines the products that are compatible with the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 1. Product Compatibility

Protocols

Table 2 lists the protocols supported by the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 2. Protocols

Components

Table 3 lists the components available for the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 3. Components

Interfaces

Table 4 lists the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series interfaces.

Table 4. Interfaces

Memory

Table 5 lists the memory requirements for the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 5. Memory Requirements

Performance

Table 6 lists the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series performance capabilities.

Table 6. Performance Capabilities

* The distances referenced here are approximations and should be used for estimation purposes only.

Reliability and Availability

Table 7 shows the reliability and availability of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 7. Reliability and Availability

Network Management

Table 8 shows the network management capabilities of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 8. Network Management

Physical

Table 9 lists the physical specifications of the Cisco Aironet 1300 Series.

Table 9. Physical Specifications