Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] WLAN Operating costs

[Mike Hochstein]

It depends on the vendor and age of AP in my experience.  We originally installed our campus-wide wireless network in 2000 with the intention of replacing it in three years.  Due to having a two-year cycle on notebook computers (we provide all students and faculty with notebooks), we extended the life our wireless network by one additional year.  The first three years of maintenance on our wireless network which consists of 150 access points was extremely minimal.  We have Avaya/Proxim AP1000s.  The first couple of years, they came out with updates about every quarter.  Depending on what the code addressed, we would remotely update the APs about three times a year.  Over the past three years, we've had to physically touch about three access points due to card burnouts.  Once the AP1000 became a "mature" platform, they stopped releasing updates so even that minimal aspect disappeared.  We installed AP2000s in new construction since 2000 and have had identical results/performance.   The past several months have shown uncharacteristic reliability problems with about 5% of our access points.  The wireless interfaces will lockup and our polling doesn't catch it due to the Ethernet interface still being alive.  It's always just a matter of remotely rebooting the AP, but it can cause some signal weakness in our dorms or other area when you have an AP go out.  (We have enough overlapping coverage that students will still receive weak signal from the next closest AP.)   All-in-all, the amount of effort in my opinion has been no greater than the wired network.  We have had APs in attics running constant for the past 3.5 years and with Iowa summers and winters, they still provide flawless service.  We will be tearing out the entire wireless infrastructure this summer and will start the entire process from the beginning again.   Mike   Mike Hochstein Buena Vista University   >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3/4/2004 12:40:49 PM >>> I�m trying to get a sense of the costs associated with operating a WLAN, specifically as it relates to �physical� maintenance of a network with 100s of APs. In other words: How often does one need to �touch� an AP for maintenance purposes (upgrade, replacement, configuration, debug, reset, etc.) ? How much time does one typically �spend� with the AP in the above cases and how is that time impacted by the fact the AP is in a hard-to-reach place (e.g. ceilings) ?   Can anyone share their experience and/or statistics ?     Yair ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/cg/.