Wireless/Redundant Edge Services xl Module Management and Configuration Guide WS.01.03 or greater

5-38

Radio Port Configuration

Configuring Client Roaming

A mobile station may roam back and forth between several RPs. Ideally, such

roaming is hidden from the wireless user, who need not know when he or she

connects to a new RP.

At the Physical Layer, wireless stations can easily roam between ProCurve

RPs depending on which currently provides the best signal strength. Gener-

ally, you should deploy RPs so that their coverage areas overlap slightly: RP

radios should not interfere with each other, but stations should be able to roam

between them without losing the signal.

While a detailed discussion of wireless network design is beyond the scope of

this management and configuration guide, you should understand that the size

and pattern of an RP radio’s coverage depends on several factors, including:

■ the radio’s power level

The higher the power level, the larger the coverage area. An external

antenna raises the power level (to the degree that you may need to

manually lower the radio’s power in order to comply with your country’s

regulations). See “Setting the Desired Radio Power” on page 5-14 for more

information on configuring this setting.

■ the antenna type

The RP 210’s and RP 230’s internal radios use omni-directional diversity

antennas, which send out the signal in all directions equally. The two

antennas of the diversity antenna ensure even coverage over the area.

You can install a variety of external antennas on the RP 220. These

antennas can be diversity or non-diversity. They can be omni-directional,

providing a sphere of coverage like that of the RP 210 and 220 antennas,

or directional, providing a cone of coverage directed toward a specific

area.

See “Setting the Antenna Mode” on page 5-19 for more information on this

setting.

■ the supported data rates

An RP radio supports the highest data rates only at close proximity. If you

want your wireless network to provide faster connections, then you must

lower RP radios’ power levels and space the RPs more closely together.