Thanks for that input. Can you comment on the peak level of sustained
throughput, per room; per AP? Are these measured over 5 minute intervals,
or some other kind of measurement? I suspect that casual use may in fact
work fine in dense environments.
Frank
-Original Message-
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 7:07 AM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] many clients, one room
Many moons ago when we used Cisco IOS APs for our new WLAN, we would
create picocells (knowing that the term means different things to
different people) by turning down the power to 1 mW, and also adding an
attenuator between AP and antenna to further restrict output power. Then
we'd basically fill large auditoriums with 3-5 of these, depending on
the size of the venue. It worked wonderfully for supporting a couple of
hundred casual users on 802.11b and then g.
Fast forward to LWAPP. We still provision multiple APs per large
auditorium, but these rooms are seldom islands- they also are typically
surrounded by other APs in adjacent areas(laterally, above, and below)
where they further share cells. It was a leap of faith letting RRM
decide on power and channel, but so far we have yet to be burned (that
we know of). But... we do not do voice over the WLAN formally. Or
multicast over wireless. And the typical Internet-delivered video stream
for the casual/typical client tends to be around 500 kbps, so we're
not feeling a lot of pain even when 150 users are on a small handful of
a/g APs, and thus far most traffic is to the Internet where we have
per-user caps anyway.
Then factor in that 1/3 of these are actually using 11a and the
remainder are on 11g on our dual-band APs. And at least half of all are
using some version of CCX... And we still have the occasional 11b device
pop up (around 2% of all of our 5000+ simultaneous clients), and we let
them. And there are sometimes classroom response systems in use in 2.4
GHz in these same spaces. It gets fuzzy in our real world, but we
rarely (as in almost never) hear of dissatisfaction with the WLAN
throughput. In fact, as silly as it sounds, we get written compliments
from visitors on occasion on how well our WLAN performs.
Long winded answer to a simple question- but we are basically applying
simple common-sense design for capacity and mostly ignoring much of the
hysteria and hype that comes from vendors volleying the finer points of
how they one-up each other on wireless, and doing just fine (for now)
given that our day-to-day lab is reality.
-Lee
Lee H. Badman
Wireless/Network Engineer
Information Technology and Services
Syracuse University
315 443-3003
-Original Message-
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Frank Bulk -
iNAME
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 11:49 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] many clients, one room
Can anyone on this list comment on their dense experiences with
vendors
other than Meru (and Xirrus)?
I know I may appear to be buoying Meru in this thread, but it's only
because
I haven't heard a higher-ed using another vendor talk about their own
good
experiences.
Regards,
Frank
-Original Message-
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Frank Bulk
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 2:52 PM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] many clients, one room
John's comments reflect almost exactly what I heard two years ago.
Would love to hear on this list from other shops (Aruba, Cisco,
Colubris,
Symbol, Trapeze, Symbol) what their experiences and configurations are
in
similar circumstances.
Frank
-Original Message-
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Center
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 10:48 AM
To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] many clients, one room
Hi Clint,
The AP208 have 2 radios, 11a 11b/g. We have the laptops set up to
prefer 11a, so the bulk of the connections are 11a. MathCAD is
installed locally on the laptops, but the size of the student files vary
- probably comparable to a Powerpoint presentation. We used to do this
with Cisco AP1200s had constant complaints. No more. We had the same
problem at exam times at our Law School. No more. Like I said, we are
very happy with the Meru products.
HTH
-John
Ringgold, Clint wrote:
Can you please give us more information in terms of how the APs and
Laptops were setup.
I'm no math major and on a bad day I have trouble adding (don't
laugh).
Anyway, I'm just wondering if it was setup so you have
54+54+11+11=130/250(users)=.52 or 54+54+11=119/250(users)=.476. I am
not implying a thing. I'm asking this just for my clarification.
It
