We are considering a forklift replacement of our Meru wireless infrastructure since a significant portion of it is approaching end-of-support life (all the controllers and over 2/3s of the APs) and we've had our share of problems with Meru. I was wondering if any of you who have recently re-bid your wireless have a set of requirements or an RFP you would be willing to share - either publicly to the list or privately to me directly - so I'm not starting from scratch.
FWIW, we currently have six MC3000 controllers and 424 APs providing ubiquitous indoor coverage (admittedly with some weak spots). Bradford Network Sentry provides the NAC (wired and wireless). I do not intend to have a full site survey done as part of the bid, but will increase density in some known problem locations. I also lean toward continuing with the controller-based/thin-AP architecture. Some flavor of Apple Bonjour support will be a requirement (Meru and Apple TVs are not happy bedfellows). As for positioning us for 802.11ac down the road, it seems that the best I can hope for (and afford) at this point is a controller that will support 11ac with a future software/firmware upgrade rather than wholesale replacement. I would phase ac in over time by replacing a portion of the APs each year, starting with high use/capacity areas, and beginning that project after the 11ac products have matured... and dropped in price. :) Anyway, any recent RFP or requirements documents would be much appreciated. Regards, -- Harvard Townsend Manager of Networking, Systems, and Storage Wheaton College, IL Email: [email protected] Voice: (630)752-5528 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
