Ruckus or Aruba

[Techie2000]

Hi, I'm struggling to decide which solution to go for. I have the option to go with either Ruckus or Aruba - either solution will be the controller-less version.

 

We are a high density environment with anything from 20/30 to 70/80 devices per room at any time - mainly Apple iPads/ iPods.

 

The building is fairly old with walls 3-4 brick thick.

 

Given the options, what solution would you advise?

[Steve21]

How many APs are you looking at? Ruckus was limited to 25APs on it's controler-less when I looked (unless you mean virtual controller?)

 

Steve

[Techie2000]

We're looking at 20 following a Ruckus survey.

[Steve21]

And how many devices? Think 500~ was max again on Ruckus.

 

Might want to have a flick through here - http://www.connectdata.fr/files/documents/Ruckus/comparatif-unleashed-instant-aruba.pdf was reading it before when looking at mine, seems Ruckus beats it everyway generally until you hit the caps on the Ruckus kit

 

Steve

[Techie2000]

Thank you! I found this very helpful! I think Ruckus is the way forward for us!

[Net-Ctrl]

Ruckus will be able to handle your user counts.

 

The ZoneFlex R500 for example is capable of supporting up to 500 clients per access point, this equates to 250 users on each radio (2.4GHz & 5GHz) and this is with no encryption overhead(Open WLAN).

 

When there is encryption overhead, such as WPA2, AES etc, this number will drop to approx. 100 per radio, 200 in total. In heavy media usage situations this will again drop, but we have seen these comfortably support 100 (50 per radio) media heavy laptops at any one time in a school environment.

[zag]

We use Aruba (with a controller) here and I can't fault it. Its crazy fast and very reliable.

 

I can't comment on their controllerless setup, but once you learn the interface its very nice.

[MatthewL]

I've used Aruba in the last, 2 controllers one at each data centre managing some 500+ AP's across some 50 sites and never had an issue. Their RAP's were good for remote workers/remote sites.

 

Good solid product with no faults that I can remember.

[k-strider]

I can't comment on Ruckus controller less setup. but we have had Ruckus in here coming up for 3 years its been flawless and fast.. mix of older ZF7982s (dull band N) and some R700s in the new block around 31 APs.. we have lots of laptops (300) and plenty of BYOD phones and tablets floating around the school