I'm curious what info led you to see Cisco as lagging behind in this area? Although there may be differences within enterprise class wireless vendor's current hardware/feature sets, I think the success of a dense-client setup shifts an emphasis onto the constraints of the local environment and the support structure.
We've successfully added to our Cisco infrastructure for such large one-time events. Your implementation sounds like it would be a permanent install. To me, the day in/day out support of a 500-1000 client space seems the larger hurdle compared to building it with today's technologies (given an appropriate budget). The hundreds of dynamic client radios/drivers are the more daunting aspect, and users will likely have more than one device. As one interfering source or misbehaving client can make it unsuccessful for many, I think overall success can become dependent on the ability to proactively support it. I assume there are others out there supporting such rooms day in/out today - any thoughts on that? Although we are a happy Cisco user, the Aruba VRD mentioned looks like a great resource - also nice to see it reinforce some things we've done. -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Palmer J.D.F. Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 8:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] High client density WiFi? Hi, Apologies for the delay in replying the list, the long weekend break over Easter being the guilty party there. Thank you all so much for your replies, and some very interesting discussion too. The outlook for being able to achieve this is goal seems to be quite positive, it does appear that Cisco are behind the rest when it comes to providing this kind of service, which is a bit annoying as we've recently re-procured for .11n and the decision was to stay with Cisco. I expect there is the option that if Cisco not suitable to use an alternate vendor for these areas, though not ideal. Many thanks, Jezz. > -----Original Message----- > From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Palmer J.D.F. > Sent: 21 April 2011 16:12 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] High client density WiFi? > > Hello, > > I've been posed a tricky question by someone on a planning committee > for a new campus building. > "...is it actually feasible for 500 simultaneous WiFi connections in a > lecture room?" > > I was hoping that there would be someone that might have experience of > answering (or providing a solution to) such a question who could offer > some input as to whether this is possible, or how close to the figure > of > 500 could we realistically achieve with the technology currently > available? > > We are Cisco a site so ideally any solution would need to be one Cisco > is capable of delivering, but if there are other vendors that are > proven to be able to provide this kind of coverage to good effect, > then I'd be > glad to hear of your experiences. > > All the best, > Jezz Palmer. > > ------------------------------------- > Jezz Palmer > Library & Information Services > Swansea University > Singleton Park > Swansea > SA2 8PP > ------------------------------------- > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE > Constituent Group discussion list can be found at > http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
