At Liberty University, we have been using VLAN pools to limit broadcasts but we 
are rapidly moving to using larger subnets (up to /16).

Aruba Networks current recommendation is to use large subnets and to drop 
unknown broadcast & multicast traffic.  We also have a couple of areas set up 
tyo Aruba’s LPV (Large Public Venue) recommendations. We figure if Aruba can 
handle the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium, they know how to set optimally provide 
LPV service.

See http://www.arubanetworks.com/solutions/lpv/



Bruce Osborne
Senior Network Engineer
Network Operations - Wireless

 (434) 592-4229

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Training Champions for Christ since 1971

From: Tim Tyler [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2016 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: Large Wireless Deployment Addressing

Chris,
   We use vlan  pools in our Aruba wireless configurations to accommodate our 
students.  Normally, the same ip address will follow a student around as they 
roam so that makes roaming easier.   We have had problems with large events 
because we simply don’t have enough AP’s in some of the large environments that 
we would need.   This means that in a large event, we over saturate our AP(s).  
 We may address that in the future, but in the meantime, it is critical for our 
support staff to have wireless access at these events.  So we created an Event 
ssid and provisioned it for an AP that we bring to the event and plug in before 
the event.  Only our support team is allowed to authenticate to this particular 
AP.    I know this doesn’t make all of the end users happy, but it makes our 
support team happy.  Technically speaking, many devices that connect are 
automatic and not intentional.  So the majority of people with a cell phone are 
probably automatically connecting even though they have no need.  But they 
still saturate.
  The bigger problem for us is to deploy more AP’s in those environments 
someday.
Tim

From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv 
[mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>]
 On Behalf Of Chris Adams (IT)
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2016 1:50 PM
To: 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Large Wireless Deployment Addressing

All,

I wanted to poll the group and see what strategies you are using at your 
Universities for client addressing on large wireless networks. We are 
revisiting how we address and segment our wireless LAN largely due to the need 
to accommodate large events and sports arenas. We have operated with buildings 
in various wireless “zones” with a VLAN/subnet per zone. Going forward some of 
our larger event spaces will need to support 3000+ clients in the same building.

What has the approach been for handling address allocations at your 
institutions? Most research I’ve found suggests either using VLAN pooling or 
very large subnets with client isolation. These won’t easily work for us, at 
least in academic areas, as we have many faculty using airplay, doceri, and 
other client to client applications. Going with large subnets per building may 
cause a lot of broadcast traffic volume issues and potential roaming issues 
between buildings (sticky clients?).

If it helps, we are an Aerohive shop and using Windows Server 2012 DHCP in HA 
configuration.

Thanks,

Chris Adams, CISSP

Director, Network & Telecom Services
Division of Information Technology
University of North Georgia
E-Mail: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | Office: (706) 867-2891

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