Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks And How It Can Be Helped

[bertster]

Came across this article which compared six wireless contenders against 65 clients:

 

Apple AirPort Extreme: Dual-band 802.11n (3x3:2), standalone, version 7.5.1

Aruba AP125: Dual-band 802.11n (3x3:2) with Aruba 3200 controller running ArubaOS (ver. 6.0.0.1)

Cisco Aironet 3502i: Dual-band 802.11n (2x3:2) with Cisco 4402 controller (ver. 7.0.98.0)

HP E-MSM460: Dual-band 802.11n (3x3:3) standalone running version 5.5.0.0-01-9514

Meraki MR24: Dual-band 802.11n (3x3:3) running Meraki Enterprise Cloud Controller

Ruckus ZoneFlex 7363: Dual-band 802.11n (2x2:2) with Ruckus ZoneDirector 1106 (version 9.1.0.0.38)

 

Makes for an interesting read...

 

Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks And How It Can Be Helped, Part 2 : Welcome To The Wi-Fi Cage Match

[AngryTechnician]

Always nice to see an independent review that rates the wireless you've just bought (Ruckus) highly...

 

Also very interesting to see how badly Meraki fared in their interference tests. This actually tallies with my own experience, so I'm glad it's not just me.

[gshaw]

Good to see the 7363 at the top of the ratings seeing as I bought 12 of them this summer

[SuperfluousAdjective]

Always nice to see an independent review that rates the wireless you've just bought (Ruckus) highly...

 

Also very interesting to see how badly Meraki fared in their interference tests. This actually tallies with my own experience, so I'm glad it's not just me.

 

When this article was written the MR24 was brand new and had some firmware issues. You can see that with the report that they had trouble running 5 concurrently connected clients. This is not representative of its current performance. I was at a symposium recently where Meraki provided wireless access to 65 connected users in the same room with a single MR24 flawlessly. They invited 120 people, 65 clients authenticated to the wireless. Meraki showed up with a single MR24 and a power injector to handle the event, that is how confident they are with their product. One presenter was an audio/video Skype for 45 minutes. Not a single hiccup or moment of choppiness.

Edited November 16, 2012 by SuperfluousAdjective

[AngryTechnician]

I saw poor performance myself with them this summer, a year later, which was solved as soon as I forced it onto a different channel that didn't have local interference from neighbouring equipment (unlike the channel that Meraki picked on automatic). I have also seen them work brilliantly as you describe, but not when there is channel interference.

 

What the article describes may not be representative, but it still bears some resemblance to what I saw.

[psydii]

And now they are being bought by cisco: Cisco to acquire Meraki for $1.2bn ? The Register

[chazzy2501]

I have an MR12 (2.4ghz, MIMO, Beamforming blah) here, and with only minor interference (from 3 other APs all below 80db) I can say that it's throughput is 1/3 (1MB/S) that of my current G standard APs. Meraki's technical support was to turn off my other wifi network...[durr]

 

I saw this article as it was posted to me when I trialed the ruckus points. (which are fab but work out a £1000 an AP when you purchase licensing and central management)

 

EDIT: Also Meraki only support channels 1-11 so you can't employ 4 channel spacing and have to use 3 channel spacing

Edited November 19, 2012 by chazzy2501

[dave.81]

Good interesting read! Ruckus school here so pretty pleased with the results, justifies some of the arguments i've made to go that route.

[timbo343]

Aggy at net-ctrl has both artcles. Both very interesting reads.

 

Im just evaluating ruckus at the moment. Turns out to be very good and pleased with the results. Just not too sure what all the settings do in the controller. Im doing my own site survey to see where im going to need APs and using inSSIDer along with xirrus wifi software.

[wirelan]

Thanks for sharing :-)