Tom,
I would like to start of by saying that we
also are a big Aruba networks shop. We
replaced out FAT 802.11b AP’s with Aruba
a/b/g AP 70’s and it could have been any easier if we tried. (2 people) Some
here my lead you to believe that controllers are PC’s but each company
they quoted has a dedicated appliance. I know that the Aruba
5000/6000 controllers have dedicated processors for each wireless process for
example Firewall, encryption, etc. Aruba also just announced a code upgrade the
will enable the controllers to handle and I quote here “A single Aruba WLAN system is now capable of supporting up to 1000
simultaneous 802.1X authentication transactions per second” They also
have plans to handle 802.11n as well. Don’t be lead down the path that
thin AP’s are proprietary that is just not the case, they adhere to the
same standards as the FAT’s. IMHO the deep frying of AP’s is going
to be in the FAT AP’s, just ask me I have 500 802.11b AP’s ready to
drop into the fry-O-lator. :-)
Brian J
David
Network
Systems Engineer
Boston College
From: Zeller, Tom S
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 9:43
AM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Controller
Architecture vs FAT APs
I would be interested in other opinions on the following
analysis of this issue:
- Using AirWave’s AMP
management platform has almost eliminated the management advantage of the
controller-based architecture (CBA). AMP monitors, reports, and
updates Fat APs just fine. Also, some CBAs don’t yet have a
single management platform for multiple controllers.
- CBA is considerably more
expensive, in the 1.5 – 2.0 x range compared to Fat APs
- The other advantages of CBA
boil down to the following. If others I’d like to hear.
And if these are fictitious, also of interest:
- Roaming, theoretically across
an entire campus, without requiring a single vlan
- Significantly faster handoff
between APs due to 802.1x keys on the controller, important for voice
support.
- Automagic dense AP deployment
from radio feedback to and adjustments from controller (or Meru’s
approach).
Obviously I’m considering
sticking with Fat APs for another few years and allowing the CBA products to
mature, but I ain’t got no religion here, and would welcome
success/horror stories from large scale CBA deployments.
Tom Zeller
Indiana University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
812-855-6214
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