So far I have discussed recommendations for switches and routers as well as wireless LAN controllers. Now I’ll tackle the wireless APs. There are definitely a lot of options here. The good news is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to practice the majority of the blueprint.
As you evaluate AP models, keep in mind their capabilities for both lightweight and autonomous modes. Ideally your APs can operate in either mode. For autonomous mode, not all APs can support all radio roles. For lightweight mode, not all models are supported on the lab code level of 7.0.116.0. So if you have access to some of the newer APs at work (like the 1600/2600/3600 series), you won’t be able to use those.
In the lab, you’ll see 1262, 3502, and 1042 series APs. All of these are 802.11n APs. They are also $400 and up per AP in the open market. For your home lab, you honestly don’t need any 802.11n APs. There are just a handful of configurations that require these APs. There are some AP specific 802.1n configs as well as CleanAir AP configurations that require one of these APs. But the additional cost of the APs isn’t worth it. Just schedule a rack rental session at proctorlabs.com and you’ll be able to practice those few items for hundreds of dollars less than buying your own..
I’ll talk about four different models that would be worth purchasing for a home lab. When figuring out the quantity of APs, I would consider two your absolute minimum. With two APs, you can practice most anything. But you are going to have to be constantly switching them back and forth between autonomous and lightweight mode. So you might want to buy four in order to have a pair of autonomous APs and a pair of lightweight APs to save yourself the time/effort of constantly converting them back and forth.
1242 AP
These APs have been around forever. They are dual band 802.11a/b/g APs that use external antennas. For a home lab, just use the cheap low-gain omnidirectional antennas. They should be the articulating kind that can bend 90 degrees. You technically only need a single antenna per band to make things work. Diversity is not that important in a home lab. If you haven’t use external antennas before, make sure you get a 2.4 GHz antenna and a 5 GHz antenna and plug them into the appropriate ports. You can tell the 5 GHz antennas by their blue dot (assuming you buy Cisco antennas). They are also often flattened instead of being perfectly round.
The main use case for the 1242 in my opinion is as an autonomous AP. They can perform all needed functions in terms of radio roles. So having a pair of these will allow you to practice just about any autonomous blueprint item. They also fully function on Cisco pre-standard PoE. So they would work just fine on a 3550 switch.
You should be able to find these on ebay for around $75 – $100 with antennas. When buying them, pay attention to what antennas come with them (if any) and order any extra antennas separately as needed. You can find them sans antennas for $40-$50.
1131 AP
These were the mainstay for office APs for many years. Like the 1242s, they are dual band 802.11 a/b/g APs. They also run great on Cisco pre-standard PoE. But these have internal antennas. They end up being cheaper than the 1242s at around $50 with no additional antennas to purchase. So after you buy your pair of 1242s, purchase 1131s to be your lightweight APs.
The 1131s can run autonomous code and perform most functions in the blueprint. The most noticeable feature missing would be the ability to run the root bridge / non-root bridge roles. That’s probably something that you’ll want to practice.
1252 AP
If you really want to get an 802.11n AP in your lab, the 1252 is the cheapest one out there. You can use this as either an autonomous or a lightweight AP. It does require external antennas. So you’ll want to buy at least one for each band. Again, this is just a home lab. So one per band is enough to make it work.
One downfall of using these in a home lab is that they require enhanced PoE for full radio functionality. You can still run it off of a 3550 switch and I believe both radios should be active. But you cannot support the higher speeds and you’ll get low power alarms. But it should still work. You should be able to find these for around $200 on ebay without antennas.
Due to the power needs and the additional cost of the external antennas, I’d be more likely to recommend the next AP model if you want 802.11n.
1142 AP
This is the 1131 of the 802.11n world. It was the mainstay of office 802.11n APs. It has internal antennas and can do pretty much everything that you would ever need for the CCIE lab with the exception of CleanAir. You should be able to find these on ebay in the ballpark of $250 – $300. They will work fine with the PoE from a 3550.
Wireless AP recap
In general, you can use any APs in your home lab. If you need to purchase your own, start with a pair of 1242s. Then supplement with 1131s for the rest of your AP needs. If you want to replicate our racks, use two 1242s for the autonomous APs and five 1131s for all of the lightweight APs. If you would like to do some hands on practice on 802.11n or CleanAir APs, it will be much cheaper to rent a rack at proctorlabs.com for a session or two. But if you really want your own, I’d go with the 1142 model.