WiFi In Education

[_techie_]

Well we run trapeze ap's with a trapeze controller which seems to be working fine. Only ever had two problems, one was sorted by a controller reboot (first one in two years), the other by a faulty ap. Its great not having to configure each AP.

 

Downsides - very expensive controller, and installing the management console which needed java (well java was the problem)... Think the latter was probably our issue.

 

Otherwise very pleased!

[soveryapt]

Reading this thread with great interest as currently we have a number of thick AP's plugged in, but the problem is that they are the home ones not designed for heavy traffic at all, so the connectivity is hit and miss at best.

 

So, I've mentioned this to the HT and, because we've just updated the staff laptops which means they all have shiny new ones with WiFi built in, I'm seeing an increase in traffic, and with the fact they are now wanting to push out another trolley of laptops for the school (a second or third ICT suite just isn't possible in our building) I've got them to seriously consider a WiFi option.

 

Now, one of my suppliers (some guys I've used for the past 10 years in my various roles for different companies) have suggested a Motorola solution. I'm awaiting pricing ideas back from them about this (sent over the school plans and all that jazz) but just wondered if anyone has any experience of the Motorola system?

 

[pantscat]

Have just gone from the "inherited" (e.g. it was here when I arrived) 120-ish fat-AP based wireless system that could be summed up in one or two choice four letter words to a 50 AP Ruckus system.

 

Not really using it with a high denisty of machines - maybe 15 users per AP - but it's working very well indeed!

 

I'm chuffed with it.

[apeo]

Hate laptops and hate wireless... We have 29 Ruckus APs here and we still get the random problem. Just a few days ago we were informed that there were problems but as usual we were told a few days after the fact so cant really do much. It seems our issues are environmental.

[DMcCoy]

Hate laptops and hate wireless... We have 29 Ruckus APs here and we still get the random problem. Just a few days ago we were informed that there were problems but as usual we were told a few days after the fact so cant really do much. It seems our issues are environmental.

 

Tell everyone it's due to solar activity

[apeo]

Tell everyone it's due to solar activity

 

I have in the past stated that the problems with wireless connectivity was due to weather

[CyberNerd]

I have in the past stated that the problems with wireless connectivity was due to weather

 

If the wireless isn't good enough then it probably is due to weather. 2.4GHz is in the microwave band which is absorbed by water. More water, rain, humidity = less signal. Luckily our Meru network allows us to plug in multiple AP's on the same band, we can add more access points to give a very high signal everywhere without worrying about antenna overlap.

Edited October 21, 2010 by CyberNerd
spel

[paulfinlay]

If your wireless is indoors it's highly unlikely that the weather is affecting it. Much more likely are:- Interference, Multipath or simply to many access points all contending for the same airtime. A scan with Airmagnet analyser can go a long way to identifying what your issues are, although it's not cheap.

[drevil]

Meru - Overinflated installation prices and a closed loop partner channel.

 

Keep sweet-talking Boys from Belfast ........

[Wes]

Distributed intelligence and processing in WLANs is the future. No wireless vendor is putting more intelligence into their controllers, the trend is towards the edge the AP with a central management interface and distributed control accross intelligent APs. Look at any of the major vendors and you will see they are doing less and less in the controller but yet you still have to have one, it's still a major expense when considering wireless deployments and it's still a single point of failure. The war is over, distributed WLANs won. In the future, you'll all have one!

 

Beamforming is great in open spaces but it's debatable whether it's of any benefit in a school. It's a one way, transmit only deal at the moment. When you think you have 30 or more clients on any one AP, the clients are where the majority of the airtime traffic is coming from. An IEEE standardised version of beamforming is coming, but it'll be a both way deal with new chipsets in both the AP and the client.

 

Single channel plays on the myth that multi channel WLANs don't work. They do, ask anyone with one. Most managed multi channel systems will allow for densely packed APs, automatic RF and power settings mitigate against channel conflict.

 

All vendors have at least one, slick function that makes them different. I truly beleive the only one that really matters right now and can bring a real benefit to all deployments are the distributed control players.