njc235

You can connect them with DAC cables if they're <=7m apart. IRF does require 10G which can be fibre or DAC.

The procurve range is being rebranded as Aruba whereas the Comware kit will remain HPE.

The 3810M, a replacement for the 3800, supports chain, ring and fully meshed stacking but not IRF. There is a 4 unit stacking limit. Going back to the comware IRF, these can have up to 9 members. HTH

The 5800 series is very popular for a number of reasons one of which is that they are at the top of the Lifetime warranty range. 4 x SFP+ out of the box reducing to 2 if you create a full IRF with multiples but as Cybernerd says, you can add a 4 x SFP+ module in the back. The 5820 is a full SFP+ switch which can bee added to an IRF but is very expensive and requires carepacks.

I know I always bang on about them but have you considered HP's virtual chassis technology? That would allow you to deploy a mix of 10G and 1G now and add more 1u members later to offer more of either. Look at the 5800 and 5900 ranges and all of their options.

You can download a fully functional 60 day trial of HP's IMC which supports approx 16,000 non-HP devices. This might give you 'eyes on' your network for long enough to help. HTH

Psydii is dead right. A comware (HPE) core with Procurve (Aruba) edge will continue to be a popular model in the Edu space.

An iboss + Fortinet or Sonicwall would be a good combo.

The latest release of System Director supports timed SSIDs. Not all APs are supported in this latest release.

There is a new Meru release which has solved the recent iOS problems. Maybe this will help you too?

Be very careful then. Filling gaps in a microcell environment can, not always but can result in adjacent APs auto backing off their power and thus reducing throughput. This apparently happened at Heathrow T5 when they put in so many APs to cope with the density requirements that everyone can get onto the wifi but nobody can get onto the internet

That's not quite true. A decent, vendor agnostic VAR will discuss your wants and needs with you, help you decide which system to look at, provide budgetary figures based on a predictive survey using expensive (£3k per license) software then carry out a full RF environment survey based on the system of your choice. They will then produce a full report including SNR levels, throughput, ping response times, a spectrum analysis pinpointing any potential interferers etc etc. You can then take that report to any number of resellers and beat them up for best price.

If you have the money to have a site survey done by professionals, why wouldn't you have it done?

Having obviously spent a considerable sum on the infrastructure hardware, has the school considered engaging with a professional consultancy to unpick the network performance? A day or two would probably solve all your issues and you would learn a thing or two along the way.

What core switch are you running on your network and what sort of topology and backbone do you have? The server itself might be fine but you may well have contention in your network or broadcast traffic which is running amock. One indication of broadcast problems is your switches flashing every port like Blackpool Illuminations.

A small iboss unit might be an idea or indeed a small unit from any vendor such as Cyberoam, Sonicwall etc etc.

Consider HPs 5800 series which connected with 10g fibre form a virtual chassis with active active links. Both (actually up to 9) switches are live which means that your DR area is on line as well. HPs IRF is becoming a common model in schools where the 10g dependency is growing. The 5800 has the added advantage of being at the top of HPs lifetime warranty range. Remove the single point of failure and have 2 or more active switches

We actually have HP and Meru deployments on our site.

I didn't want to start a war! There are plenty of reasons for choosing Ruckus and equally as many for Meru. I would say try to find a reseller who partners both vendors.

Coverage and density require different AP counts. The original poster required density. Talk to someone like Luton Airport if you want to learn about real density!

There are not enough channels for the multi cell vendors (not just Ruckus) to operate at the full capabilities of 802.11ac. As Meru offers a single channel solution, they can fully export the available channels and will continue to do so when wave 2 is fully ratified.

A Ruckus seller will not tell you about its limitations!

The whole solution is comware. The 5800, 1920 and 1950 are all comware. The 5800 is the top switch available from HP on lifetime warranty so it's attractive for its IRF capability, performance, functionality and warranty. Hope you enjoy

The 1920 is of course a Comware switch whereas the 2530 is Procurve (BTW the 1950 is also comware but I don't thing anyone's found a route to the CLI yet unlike the 1920). So apart from OS preferences it's down to port counts, appetite for 10G and performance. Like an earlier poster suggested, the HP Switch selector is a good place to start. Here's the link Switches - HP Networking | HP®

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