For those that have already migrated some buildings to 802.11ac, what are your general findings for AP placement?
We have an Aruba environment. Based on guides and virtual surveys using VisualRFPlan it seems like I am coming to the conclusion that an AP per classroom (depending on size - mostly medium sized 20' by 20') would provide sufficient performance. Also is your goal to provide full ac coverage, or full n coverage with ac capabilities in classrooms? Thanks. Damien Cameron Network Engineer Norfolk State University Office of Information Technology Marie v. McDemmond Center for applied Research Room 401 555 Park Avenue Norfolk, VA 23504 O: (757) 823-9123 -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Kell Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 11:27 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] 11ac migration question I sort of "missed my conclusion"... so my apologies, let me add that part... On 3/17/2014 11:04 PM, Jeff Kell wrote: > Well, some client drivers will let you tweak the "advanced" settings. > I know I can "prefer 5Ghz" and I can "prefer N" on my aging laptop > (yeah, it was my Dell below, trying to track a client issue back to > the wiring closet where we hung a leftover Aruba AP65 (a/b/g only), > and my own freaking laptop was hanging on to an "n" on a floor below). > It also appears that iOS 7.1 update changed the "captive portal > detection" on Apple devices... so if you're having issues with your > "registration portal" for new devices, you might double-check their > captive portal site check. I suppose you can provide the "option" for user-selectable advanced settings (perfer 5Ghz, perfer N, turn off wireless upon wired connect, etc) all have their benefits, but also mean that any user that can find the right buttons can shoot themselves in the foot :) And when the vendors make less than ideal choices (if Apple is "choosing 5G" or "choosing "n" or "ac" if available) it shoots many of their users in the foot. That would clearly be a design decision that nobody can really universally be happy about (just look at Bonjour, mDNS, AppleTV, etc... fine for home, lousy for campus/enterprise). As personal (BYOD) things continue to grow in popularity, we need to EXPECT them to be optimized for home use. I suppose not until the density of these devices get to the point where apartment neighbors are fighting with each other by pushing content to the other's AppleTVs... and we have some controversy / conflict / court cases, they're not going to get the hint either :( There is no "universally" predictable model to follow, but (hint, hint...) if you have authenticated to a wireless network via 802.1X/WPA2/Enterprise, hey, you're probably not in somebody's house :) Waiting on DHCP options to support some of these ideas... assuming they would be supported afterward (e.g., DNS suffix search list finally approved, and still not accepted by any windows clients). But oh wait, DHCP... in IPv6 days? What WAS I thinking of... :) Jeff Jeff ********** 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/.
