According to a wireless engineer at Disney, the WLAN infrastructure in Orlando consists of about 3,500 Cisco and Aruba APs across resorts, 4 theme parks etc. Airmagnet and Aircheck manager (Netscout stuff?) are used to keep things under control.
AT&T has also installed DAS stuff at some resorts, primarily for staff, according to this piece<http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/at-t-completes-disney-das-and-small-cell-rollouts> <http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/08/02/disney-rolls-out-free-wifi.html> Disney apparently rolled out the free wifi …quietly…in 2012<http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/08/02/disney-rolls-out-free-wifi.html> This topic also arose on Reddit last year<https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/49twry/disney_world_wireless_network/#bottom-comments> though sheds little light on the matter One thing that is kind of interesting, for otherwise closed-mouth Disney, is that Disney Research out of Zurich published a paper last year evaluating 802.11ac<https://www.disneyresearch.com/publication/indoor-wlan-an-empirical-study/> In fact, Disney Research has published quite a few papers on wireless<https://www.disneyresearch.com/research-areas/wireless-and-mobile-computing/>, including one earlier this month on wireless power transmission for charging devices<https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-02/dr-wpt021617.php> Bob Brown Online Executive Editor, News T: 508.766.5418 LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbrownboston> | Twitter: @alphadoggs<https://twitter.com/alphadoggs> | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/NetworkWorld> | Instagram<http://instagram.com/nwwinstagram> NETWORK WORLD 492 Old Connecticut Path | PO Box 9002 | Framingham, MA 01701-9002 NetworkWorld.com<http://www.networkworld.com/> | idgenterprise.com<http://idgenterprise.com/> media kit | Conferences & Events<http://events.networkworld.com/> (PR pros: Thanks for taking the time to message me. No need to follow up on unsolicited email pitches by email or phone – I read all of my emails and follow up on those of immediate interest, sock those away that might be useful down the road or forward pitches to more appropriate contacts here who will follow up with you if they are interested.) From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv <[email protected]> on behalf of Dexter Caldwell <[email protected]> Reply-To: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv <[email protected]> Date: Friday, March 3, 2017 at 12:36 PM To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Disney's Free Wi-Fi Funny you noticed that too. We had a Wifi project in the works and so I called them last year, to ask about their solution because I was impressed with the performance for an installation of that size and crown density. (Yes, I tested it while I was there). Unfortunately they would tell me absolutely nothing. “For security reasons.” I wasn’t surprised, but if anyone else has any better luck, I’d be interested too. Took about 20 minutes of calling around to get that answer I think. Their IT people at that level are not easy to get without inside information. Dexter Caldwell Dir. Systems & Networks From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hector J Rios Sent: Thursday, March 2, 2017 4:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Disney's Free Wi-Fi I just came back from a trip to Disney World and I was blown away about the availability of their Wi-Fi network. It covers all the Disney Hotels, parks (I believe with the exception of the water parks) and the Disney Springs district. From the MAC address of a couple of WAPs, it appears they use Aruba. The coverage is impressive, and the connectivity is good; although reliability is decent, but I can forgive them knowing what a humongous task it takes to deploy such a massive network. Does anybody know any more details about how this network was deployed? I looked and looked for places where I could see WAPs but didn’t see a thing. However they did it, it is impressive. Oh BTW, I did enjoy the park too. ☺ Hector Rios Louisiana State University ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
