User's Guide

4. Deploying a BreadCrumb Mesh Network

There are many factors which need to be taken into account when deploying a BreadCrumb mesh net-

work. This chapter describes the addressing scheme of the mesh, channel assignments and some of the

most commonly occurring environmental factors that will have a major impact on the performance of

the mesh. The final section details guidelines and methodology needed to follow when deploying the

mesh.

For information on physical installation, grounding waterproofing connections, see Installation Guide-

lines and the Appendix Technical Bulletins.

4.1 Addressing

When in gateway mode or when using its own embedded DHCP servers, the BreadCrumb mesh requires

that wireless devices use IPv4 addresses in the Class A network 10.0.0.0/8 (that is, any address that be-

gins with ‘10.’). If you are not connected to another network, or if you are bridging to one rather than

routing to it, your wireless client devices may have any address whatsoever.

Note

Any computers running the BC|Commander management application must have an address in the

same range as the BreadCrumbs they manage. Refer to the BC|Commander Version 11 User Guide doc-

ument for the details of the BreadCrumb IP address configuration.

4.1.1 BreadCrumb Device Addresses

Each BreadCrumb radio has one IPv4 address in the Class A network 10.0.0.0/8. Rajant ensures during

manufacturing that the default addresses are not duplicated between any two BreadCrumb devices. Ad-

dresses assigned to BreadCrumb devices can be viewed using BC|Commander. They can be configured

manually, or set to DHCP.

4.1.2 DHCP

Each BreadCrumb device includes an embedded DHCP server. You may safely enable the DHCP servers of

multiple BreadCrumb devices simultaneously. Address conflicts among DHCP clients are prevented by

using the unique BreadCrumb device addresses assigned at the factory as a base.

A BreadCrumb device determines its DHCP range as follows:

• Start with the first three bytes of the BreadCrumb’s IPv4 address.

• Add a low-byte range of 10 to 210.

4.2 Channel Assignments

BreadCrumb radios have default channels assigned, based on the frequency and type of the radio. See

the following table for a list of radio frequencies and their default channel assignments. When more than

one radio of the same frequency is present, there may be default channels for the additional radio(s).

This table includes radios that may be found in different BreadCrumb models, not one specific model.

Table: Default Channel Assignments

Radio Card Frequency and Type Default Channel Second Default Third Default

900 MHz 802.11g 5

2.4 GHz 802.11n 11 1

2.4 GHz 802.11g 11 1

4.8 GHz 802.11a 164 184 174