University of Michigan has over 13,000 access points and we're continuing to install for the next 9 months to reach a goal of about 16,000. We have about 8 FTEs assigned to this but some have duties that aren't specifically wireless and so that's why the number is approximate. We have also employed an external contractor to perform pre-installation site surveys and design for the majority of this project. Engineers are responsible for design and design reviews, development of scope of work, in-depth troubleshooting, new product testing, etc. Network analysts are responsible for overseeing installation, turn-up, and day to day operations. Conduit, cabling and installation is handled by our plant operations and facilities groups respectively.
As to whether we have enough people, I think the answer is yes under normal circumstances. We could use a few more people right now in order to relieve the folks with more technical expertise so they can spend time thinking about the myriad requests we get on a daily basis that are outside the scope of this project. Mostly this is exceptions requested by departments, one off projects, the growing demand to handle IoT, etc. I will add that before we undertook this project we had almost daily negative input from campus about their WiFi experience. In the past year we've had almost no complaints. Instead we've seen a number of tweets from people who've left the university and who are missing their UofM WiFi experience. Details on the project here: http://its.umich.edu/projects/wifi-upgrade/ On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 5:03 PM, Hector J Rios <[email protected]> wrote: > Need your help. What is the number of network engineers you have dedicated > to wireless? Please indicate the size of your network, the scope of your > wireless team's responsibilities, whether you rely on other resources (like > contractors or other internal groups) to complement your efforts, and the > most important question, is this enough people or do you need more (if so, > what would the ideal number be)? > > Not sure if this has been done before, if so, please let me know. > > Here at LSU, we have 3600 APs, and two wireless engineers. The scope of > their work includes plan reviews (designing WLANs for new construction), > requests for additional coverage, site surveys, Tier 3 level of support, > Controller/AP config/monitoring/maintenance, lifecycle replacements, > testing/evals/research of new technologies. We rely on cable contractors to > run cable and mount APs , NOC personnel to install some switches, APs, and > troubleshooting, and student workers to configure APs and minor > deployments. Two wireless engineers is not enough for us. We need at least > one more. > > If you think there is value in this information and would prefer a better > format let me know. > > Regards, > > 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. > -- Daniel Eklund Network Planning Manager ITS Infrastructure 734-763-6389 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
