Hi Hector, Stadium wireless is common in the pros- Cowboys stadium, AT&T Park, Diamondback's Stadium, Washington Nationals, Dolphin Stadium and on and on.
The basic approaches seem to fall into - Let AT&T do it. We're (Networking and Athletics both) not liking this for a number of reasons that I don't want to really raise on the list. This is just Cisco microcell where AT&T installs and manages from their own NOC. - Your own microcell architecture. Cisco seems to have most publicized skin in the game with their 3500p and special "stadium antenna". Usually put in by an integrator because of the scale, but the stadium owns and runs it. You usually see something like "# of seats divided by 250 (or 300 or 200 or some nice round number depending on who designs it)" to get the AP count in use. - BelAir (Dolphins Stadium, I think) or Ruckus (lots of overseas stuff) or Xirrus with their BAAP (big-ass APs, multi-radio array units) deployments that replace what might be hundreds of microcells with dozens of their big boys. Yes, their are challenges, but at the same time precedence shows it's very doable if you know what you are doing and understand the RF and functional challenges of the environment. We have a very nice stadium, a basketball team that's on fire (crossing fingers that football will perk up), some wireless in place that was grown opportunistically, and lots of users appreciating current connectivity but thirsty for more. There is a DAS story for the mobile carriers as well, but not really part of the WiFi conversation. We are also providing decent wireless where practical for tailgaters as part of our natural march to campus-wide wireless, and though the pros are a whole different business model, our stadium is a true campus asset. Hence, wondering if and what others in our shoes have done. I see a couple of folks have gone down the AT&T-Does-Stadium-WiFi route, but would very much like to hear if anyone else is fully wireless in their stadiums outside of the AT&T model. Thanks- Lee Lee H. Badman Wireless/Network Engineer, ITS Adjunct Instructor, iSchool Syracuse University 315.443.3003 ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [[email protected]] on behalf of Hector J Rios [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 5:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] High-Density Stadium Wireless Just curious Lee, what's prompting this? I'm assuming you are looking at 100% coverage? Just the thought of providing wireless to an entire stadium gives me the chills. The thing I have to mention is that in your plan you better put in place a very strict RF policy and plan for a very capable frequency coordinator. Hector Rios Louisiana State University From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 1:42 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] High-Density Stadium Wireless I know there are plenty of professional sports examples, but I’m curious about peer schools who have large stadiums (we seat 33K-50K in our ours) who have done their own high-quality, high-density WLAN build outs, and what solution(s) you used. I’d like to talk in detail off list, and possibly arrange for a site visit if the venue is close enough in scope to our own to be of value. (This message is absolutely NOT an invitation for AT&T or any other vendor to call, email, show up on my door, or to try to be my Facebook or Linked-In fake friend. No offense. ) Thanks- Lee Lee H. Badman Wireless/Network Engineer Information Technology and Services Adjunct Instructor, iSchool Syracuse University 315 443-3003 ********** 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/.
