WiFi bridge in Device Level Ring (DLR)

Contr_Conn said:

I would question "PRP" note on your drawing as Stratix 2500 does not support it.
PRP requires physical separation between two LANs in configuration called PRP RED BOX. This is only supported on Stratix 5400.

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Thanks. That was a leftover from a previous edit. I've corrected it.

tduryee said:

Thanks George. In fact I speak with the Prosoft people frequently and have had good successes with their equipment for many years (mostly Modbus devices). The radios you mentioned (outdoor version) are exactly what I have in mind for this project. They actually mentioned the radiating cable and I plan to discuss that with the client as well.
The old WiFi units are definitely not what I would call industrial, and my first suggestion to the client was that we just do a simple replacement, tune the network a bit, and see if it solves the problem. C'est la vie.

A little update on my thinking...

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While I don't know the specifics of this application, and all the possible physical, mechanical and interference complexities, my experience and faith in ProSoft's gear tells me that it's most likely that a non redundant solution will work here. You/they "may" be trying to over complicate this? What did ProSoft say on the notion of using redundancy with their Hotspots? Did you run it by them? I would be of the mind here to just try replace with ProSoft and see how that performs before looking at redundancy.

tduryee said:

...they've asked me to spec redundant WiFi...

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It's just these kind of "tail wagging dog" statements often make wonder, as we sometimes can become inadvertently driven by customer requests, especially when we don't have the answers there and then to say otherwise.

If not already, I would advise you to get and keep ProSoft involved in the design process.

Regards,
George

Geospark said:

You/they "may" be trying to over complicate this? What did ProSoft say on the notion of using redundancy with their Hotspots? Did you run it by them?

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I did. They didn't initially have a solution other than access point failover from a single client. But the main person I want to talk to from Prosoft is on vacation at the moment. I'll be chatting more with him soon.

The client is perhaps trying to over-complicate this, but that's half the reason I created the thread. As mentioned, redundant wifi is not my area of expertise, so tapping the shoulders of people who know more will help steer me in the right directions and allow me to advise the the client more intelligently. Plus I'm very interested in best practices for redundant wifi even if for my own education and future projects that do warrant it, and hopefully this thread will shed some light for others in the future as well. (I didn't see any other threads on the topic.)

I really appreciate everyone's input.