Cambium V Ruckus

[sippo]

We are looking at refreshing our current trust wifi solution and moving it all to a cloud based solution.

 

We currently have Ruckus with each site having their own ZD. We like Ruckus - but the cost is a stumbling point. We have had a quote for Cambium at half the price including 5 year warranty, but the Ruckus one is only 3.

 

I know some have Cambium on here. How do you find it? Reliable? With our Ruckus APs we find that one will easily support 30 devices across 3 or 4 rooms. Are Cambium ones (CnPilot E410) just as good or do they require one in each classroom?

 

Any information appreciated.

[Net-Ctrl]

Hi Sippo - which Ruckus AP model are you comparing it with?

 

Looking at the E410 it has a concurrency of 256 users - now that would be in an Open WLAN with no encryption etc. Typically, in a real-world deployment, you will get around half that amount and that will be split over both radios. In high media requirements, that figures will approximately half again - so hopefully that approximate model helps a little. It looks pretty comparable to a Ruckus R320 for reference. Whether you need one per room will very much depend on your density, and also your built environment. Different wall materials will affect the signal - best bet is to try and get your hands on a demo unit of both models you're looking at and test it in your environment if at all possible. Ruckus is good at handling signal management down to BeamFlex, and some of their other build in tech.

 

From what we have seen Cambium have a good solution, it fits in that middle ground arena between the likes of Ubiquiti and the enterprise manufacturers.

 

If you're looking to support your trust - the Ruckus SmartZone will offer a great solution with the ability to split deployments for each site, and also delegate management access to perhaps a single site, whereas you may have access to the full estate etc. Im not so familiar with the cnPilot management capabilities across multiple sites. Hopefully the above helps a little though.

[snoerre]

I once ordered a free Cambium E410 (https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/cnpilot-free-ap/) and replaced a MikroTik cAP ac in one of our cafeterias. From this date the complaints from our students stopped. MikroTik cAP ac and Cambium E410 use the same chipset, i.e. Qualcomm IPQ4018. The Cambium can way better cope with densed environments than the MikroTik. I have never tested a Ruckus, though. In our environment I usually pur 1 access point in each class seminar room and disable 2.4 GHz radio on access points if there is too much noise. Edited April 9, 2021 by snoerre

[sippo]

This is what a supplier has offered.

 

Current AP Models Proposed Replacement AP Models

42 x 7363, 1 x 7762, 14x r710 (unleashed) 43 x r650, 1 x T310S

15 x 7363, 4 x r500 15 x r550

8 x r500 no change required

5 x r500 no change required

7 x r310 no change required

14 x r500, 1 x T300 no change required

18 x r500 additional 4 x r550 no change required

8 x r500 additional 4 x r550 no change required

 

 

At half the price, we would be silly not to even consider Cambium.

[Net-Ctrl]

Cambium have a good solution - worth testing out in your environment.

 

I'm sure you're aware, but there is a mismatch in AP models you're looking at. The R650 is a WiFi 6 (AX) 3x3:3 AP, whereas the Cambium is a 2x2 WiFi 5 (AC) model. So worth considering lifetime of the products - you would expect 5-8 years on the R650 - less on the Cambium. The nearest equivalent Cambium would be the XV2-2 for reference - less spatial streams, but their other offering is an 8x8 so would be overkill.

 

You could also look at the R550 from Ruckus - still, WiFi 6 but will come in at a cheaper price point. There are rumours of a new low-end Ruckus WiFi 6 AP on the horizon as well so if you're looking at going into primaries, or small secondaries, unless you need this now, might be worth waiting.

[simpsonj]

Also check you have the required PoE specification for the APs from your switches. When I looked at Cambium, they required the higher rated PoE specification (802.3at rather than the old standard 802.3af).This could be the same for Ruckus, I'm not sure.

[snoerre]

At half the price, we would be silly not to even consider Cambium.

 

I am curious about your prices. The standard pricing from my distributor:

 

R650 unleashed: 460€

R750 ZoneFlex: 590€

R720 ZoneFlex: 550€

R610 ZoneFlex: 380€

R510 ZoneFlex: 290€

R550 ZoneFlex: 580€

R550 unleashed: 340€

R710 ZoneFlex: 540€

R320 ZoneFlex: 170€

E410 (802.11ac Wave 2, 2x2): 170€

E600 (802.11ac Wave 2, 4x4): 280€

XV2-2 (802.11ax, 2x2): 300€

XV3-8 (802.11ax, Tri Radio, 8x8): 820€

plus taxes

 

For each classroom with ~30 pupils I´d take one XV2-2.

Edited April 11, 2021 by snoerre

[sippo]

Would anyone mind writing a few words for me as a reference for Cambian? Doesn't have to be anything in detail.

[MS2011]

How does support work Cambrian? Direct with them ?

[nathan3388]

We recently updated out wifi point from the ruckus 7363 to the R650 this has improved the wifi considerably and also we went for the Virtual Smartzone director and can manage multiple sites under one instances. currently have 8 sites with different wifi setting VLans, in a day with average about 1500 devices across the wifi network and copes extremely well. We only had a 3 year support contract with ruckus as well. Also with the R650 I like that it is AX and 4 4x4 antennas so coverage is better and also that it has 2.5Gb port for when we upgrade the switches to cater for more speed in the future .

[Alawil]

Hi

 

We moved from Dell w-IAP105s to Cambium e410s over a year ago all managed via cnmaestro - never had an issue with them in all that time. We are only a 12 class primary and have about 20 APs altogether.

 

I’m fact we had not touched them for over a year and decided to do a firmware upgrade last week to 4.2 - went very smoothly.

 

Best bit was for Unify pricing we got Cambium with 5year warranty and cloud management.

[nathan3388]

We recently updated out wifi point from the ruckus 7363 to the R650 this has improved the wifi considerably and also we went for the Virtual Smartzone director and can manage multiple sites under one instances. currently have 8 sites with different wifi setting VLans, in a day with average about 1500 devices across the wifi network and copes extremely well. We only had a 3 year support contract with ruckus as well. Also with the R650 I like that it is AX and 4 4x4 antennas so coverage is better and also that it has 2.5Gb port for when we upgrade the switches to cater for more speed in the future .

 

Sorry forgot to put the quantities down we currently have 113 r650 aps for 1 high school and 7 primaries

[Reverend_Dan]

Shifted over from some old cisco AP's to to 59 x e410s (couple mounted outside in waterproof boxes for yard coverage) same as Alawil said. Not really touched them since install and upgraded the firmware last week all went smoothly.

They were a bit power hungry on the install so make sure you have enough PoE Switches to cope only managed about mid 20's per 48 port switch before seeing some issues with power drops on some phones on the same switch.