krishanm

I beg to differ with Wes, I work with all the major wireless vendors and have found that not only is the meru solution scaleable but it certainly is revolutary. The reason the other manufacturers are not copying Meru with the single channel approach is Meru have Patented the clever Air Traffic Control protocol that cordinates the airspace. What I would say is demo the various solutions yourself and try to replicate high density usage to see which solution performs the best and ticks all your requirements, and another fact to consider is other school experiences. if you need any reference sites please get in contact with the vendors or even myself if you need. Krish

What version of windows server are you running, i can send you info on setting up IAS

802.11a works in the same way as 802.11g which using a OFDM algorithm. and therefore .11a does really support more devices. However 802.11a uses the 5Ghz band, which is alot less congested than 2.4 Ghz 802.11bg as the 2.4Ghz spectrum is used by cordless phones alarm systems, wireless cameras etc. Therefore 802.11a can work more efficently. However if you have dual band APs and clients you can load balance a classroom full of kids between the two radio. Krish

Have you thought about using a radius server and authenticating machines against AD so WPA keys get generated automatically and you can manage access through AD. Kris

Hi My name is Kris and I'm a wireless network consultant, I'm here to share my wireless knowledge and to give people un bias advise, and to help solve peoples wireless related issues. Kris

I thought it was hard to believe when I first heard of the concept, of all APS operating on the same channel. However this single chanel approach is well established as its the same principles as the celluar network (e.d Vodafone, Tmobile etc) where all mast operate on a Fix channel and the intelligence is held at the Mast rather than at the mobile end. Meru have taken that principle and developed it for the WiFi world. It uses Air-Traffic control to manage the Air waves more efficently where each AP nows when each of the stations and neighbouring APs are transmitting data. As a result of a more efficent RF environment the Meru solution is able to handle high densities of mobile devices. I work with Cisco, Netgear, Aruba and 3Com wireless networks and the Meru kit seems to work best in the education space. If you need more help and advise let me know Kris