I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office. up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones. we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space. what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor? Thanks for your replies. Ken King
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11 I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office. up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones. we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space. what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor? Thanks for your replies. Ken King __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless. However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well. Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions. -mike Sent from my iPhone On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Cisco's wireless solutions are pretty badass. The APs I've used are absolutely rock solid. Set up will take a bit of time, but once you're done, maintenance is minimal. On Jan 15, 2012 11:54 AM, "Mike Lyon" <mike.lyon@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Hi, We chose the 3Com, now H3C wx3012 controller and AP9552 accesspoints. Initial issues where that blackberries could not connect to the wifi, the support initially was mediocre. Do note that this was at the time that everything got sold to HP. And they did pick up the issue and came around with a fix in about a month time. It's been working swell since then, I mean, the spelling errors in the UI I can live with. It's been stable so far. It was also by far the most reasonably priced. That counts for something. Vlans, radius, captive portal etc, worked for me. Ui is good enough to use and diagnose clients. Wireless coverage, is ... well, it's wireless. Reliable wireless isn't. Unless it's 5Ghz, and stopped by 1 floor or wall. I digress. Regards, Seth Op 15 jan 2012, om 20:57 heeft Mike Hale het volgende geschreven:
Cisco's wireless solutions are pretty badass. The APs I've used are absolutely rock solid. Set up will take a bit of time, but once you're done, maintenance is minimal. On Jan 15, 2012 11:54 AM, "Mike Lyon" <mike.lyon@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
I like Cisco's WLC's as well. Where I am working we have a few hundred AP's at one of our sites with WLC's running the show. The 5500 controllers with CleanAir AP's is awesome. Dave Sent from my iPad On Jan 15, 2012, at 12:57, Mike Hale <eyeronic.design@gmail.com> wrote:
Cisco's wireless solutions are pretty badass. The APs I've used are absolutely rock solid. Set up will take a bit of time, but once you're done, maintenance is minimal. On Jan 15, 2012 11:54 AM, "Mike Lyon" <mike.lyon@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Why not avoid controllers entirely? I recommend Aerohive. In their solution, there is NO controller, rather the APs communicate with each other. (Imagine what OSPF would be like with a centralized router) Check them out www.aerohive.com Kindest regards, Troy Sent from my iPhone. Apologies for spelling and grammatical errors. On Jan 15, 2012, at 5:50 PM, David Casey <sgtcasey@gmail.com> wrote:
I like Cisco's WLC's as well. Where I am working we have a few hundred AP's at one of our sites with WLC's running the show. The 5500 controllers with CleanAir AP's is awesome.
Dave
Sent from my iPad
On Jan 15, 2012, at 12:57, Mike Hale <eyeronic.design@gmail.com> wrote:
Cisco's wireless solutions are pretty badass. The APs I've used are absolutely rock solid. Set up will take a bit of time, but once you're done, maintenance is minimal. On Jan 15, 2012 11:54 AM, "Mike Lyon" <mike.lyon@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP. In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price. If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though. And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it. Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Since we're already top-posting… I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue. To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE. Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby. Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet. Greg On Jan 15, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP.
In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price.
If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though.
And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it.
Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Another one which looks promising for high-density locations is Xirrus (www.xirrus.com) Haven't ever used them though. -mike Sent from my iPhone On Jan 15, 2012, at 15:36, Greg Ihnen <os10rules@gmail.com> wrote:
Since we're already top-posting…
I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue.
To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE.
Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby.
Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet.
Greg
On Jan 15, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP.
In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price.
If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though.
And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it.
Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
Very cool. Because all the individual APs are in one enclosure and I assume are under control of one central controller, I bet they're sync'ing all the AP's transmitters to transmit and listen at the same time so the APs don't interfere with each other. Cisco does that in their Canopy line with GPS sync. Greg On Jan 15, 2012, at 7:12 PM, Mike Lyon wrote:
Another one which looks promising for high-density locations is Xirrus (www.xirrus.com)
Haven't ever used them though.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 15:36, Greg Ihnen <os10rules@gmail.com> wrote:
Since we're already top-posting…
I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue.
To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE.
Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby.
Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet.
Greg
On Jan 15, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP.
In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price.
If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though.
And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it.
Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
I used Xirrus before about 2-3 years ago. They are great for addressing density issues without adding a large amount of APs in one area. As with any wireless solution, it does have it's limitations. In our case the building was very challenging with solid concrete walls on top of lockers on each wall. The number of APs (IIRC they call them arrays) needed didn't really save us much in the end. One thing I did not like is that you had to use their power injectors because, at the time, their arrays needed more power than any switch could provide. Pricing ended up being the ultimate fall of Xirrus in our environment. To get the coverage that we needed (real world) they were considerably more than the early HP/Colubris solution that we ended up with. - Chris On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 6:42 PM, Mike Lyon <mike.lyon@gmail.com> wrote:
Another one which looks promising for high-density locations is Xirrus (www.xirrus.com)
Haven't ever used them though.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 15:36, Greg Ihnen <os10rules@gmail.com> wrote:
Since we're already top-posting…
I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue.
To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE.
Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby.
Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet.
Greg
On Jan 15, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP.
In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price.
If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though.
And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it.
Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
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On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 3:36 PM, Greg Ihnen <os10rules@gmail.com> wrote:
Since we're already top-posting…
I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue.
To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE.
Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby.
Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet.
After working in some WISP-like and access environments, I con corroborate that this is pretty much true. It becomes worse the lower the SNR is and the more that clients are spread out. It just makes the 'hidden node' problem worse. Making APs as low power and "local" as possible is good advice. Where possible, feed everything with hardlines back to your Ethernet switching environment. If client roaming and client-client traffic is important, using a central controller that can tunnel 802.11 frames over whatever wired L2 network you like is a good win. It means that to clients they can associate and/or authenticate to one AP and roam from place to place while keeping the same session to the controller. As far as vendor gear goes, if roaming and client-client stuff isn't as important, Ubiquiti UnFi is great stuff for the price. Next rung up in my book would be Meraki, followed by Cisco or Aruba. Good luck! Cheers, jof
Making APs as low power and "local" as possible is good advice
^ Ignoring this advice is one of the biggest mistakes people make. They think "Oh, I'll just drown out the noise", but the problem is almost never how well the clients can see the AP - it's the AP seeing the clients. It's hard to hear anyone talking when you're shouting! ;) Low power, high AP density, and small channel widths are the way to go. The smaller channels keep theoretical bandwidth lower, but you end up with higher throughput in the end. One other thing specific to the unifi's - they are meant to be ceiling or wallmounted. They transmit and receive in a cone. They *DO NOT* work well if you set them on a table pointed at the ceiling. I've already seen a half dozen deployments of them done this way, just slapped on tables, and it *does not work*. In one case, moving them from the tables to the walls resulted in a 20x performance increase. Nathan
No one has mentioned Belair yet? Serves the Minneapolis network pretty well. http://www.belairnetworks.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Greg Ihnen <os10rules@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:06:26 To: Nathan Eisenberg<nathan@atlasnetworks.us> Cc: nanog@nanog.org<nanog@nanog.org> Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11 Since we're already top-posting… I've heard a lot of talk on the WISPA (wireless ISP) forum that 802.11g/n starts to fall apart with more than 30 clients associated if they're all reasonably active. I believe this is a limitation of 802.11g/n's media access control (MAC) mechanism, regardless of who's brand is on the box. This is most important if you're doing VoIP or anything else where latency and jitter is an issue. To get around that limitation, folks are using proprietary protocols with "polling" media access control. Ubiquiti calls theirs AirMax. Cisco uses something different in the "Canopy" line. But of course then you've gone to something proprietary and only their gear can connect. So it's meant more for back-hauls and distribution networks, not for end users unless they use a proprietary CPE. Since you need consumer gear to be able to connect, you need to stick with 802.11g/n. You should limit to 30 clients per AP. You should stagger your 2.4GHZ APs on channels 1, 6 and 11, and turn the TX power down and have them spaced close enough that no more than 30 will end up connecting to a single AP. 5.8GHz APs would be better, and you'll want to stagger their channels too and turn the TX power down so each one has a small footprint to only serve those clients that are nearby. Stay away from "mesh" solutions and WDS where one AP repeats another, that kills throughput because it hogs airtime. You'll want to feed all the APs with Ethernet. Greg On Jan 15, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Nathan Eisenberg wrote:
Ubiquiti's Unifi products are decent, and have *MUCH* improved since their original release (amazing what you can do with better code!). In the original release, you had to have a management server running on the same L2 network as the Aps - they've moved the management to a L3 model so you can put the controller elsewhere. The big PITA with their system is that any change requires 'reprovisioning' the APs, which means rebooting all of them in sequence. They've added VLANs, multiple SSID's/AP, wireless backhaul/chaining, guest portalling, and limiters to balance the # of clients / AP.
In a noisy environment, I've found that they top out at around 30 devices / AP for good performance, and 50 devices / AP for 'working/not working'. In a clean environment, I've seen decent performance with 70 - 100 devices / AP. Of course, if one bad client comes along (with a card that doesn't backoff its TX power, etc), it can wreak havoc with higher densities. You really can't argue with Unifi's price.
If you move up the price scale, Meraki seems to be a good midrange solution, and they have some really sweet reporting functionality. They're more expensive, though.
And then, yes, Cisco is the gold standard, but it will cost you some gold to get it.
Nathan
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Lyon [mailto:mike.lyon@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:54 AM To: Meftah Tayeb Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
Ubiquity (www.ubnt.com) has their Unifi line of products. It's still pretty new in the marketspace and this, working out the bugs. I use their other products exclusively for outdoor wireless.
However, in the offices ive done, ive used Cisco's WLC 4402 controller which supports 12 access points. They have controllers which support more APs as well.
Hit me up offlist if you have any quesrions.
-mike
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 15, 2012, at 11:39, Meftah Tayeb <tayeb.meftah@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubiquity or ubikity, maybe is miss spelled Someone correct the spelling for him please thank you ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> To: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:30 PM Subject: enterprise 802.11
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6793 (20120113) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
I have had great success with Ruckus Wireless gear, specifically their 7962 access points. Our offices are pretty noisy radio environments, typically over 70 access points show up on scans, mostly in the 2.4 range though. We use WPA2 with 802.11X for auth, plus a guest zone managed by the Ruckus wireless controller, works smooth haven't had any problems so far. Part of my decision was based on a Tom's Hardware review of access points: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/beamforming-wifi-ruckus,2390.html http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wi-fi-performance,2985.html Brent Jones
I use ruckus in town and city installs and despite rather a lot of other APs it performs very well. I don't have experience of them in high connected station density though. -- Leigh Porter On 15 Jan 2012, at 19:33, "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com ______________________________________________________________________
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
I have had great success with Ruckus Wireless gear, specifically their 7962 access points. Our offices are pretty noisy radio environments, typically over 70 access points show up on scans, mostly in the 2.4 range though. We use WPA2 with 802.11X for auth, plus a guest zone managed by the Ruckus wireless controller, works smooth haven't had any problems so far. Part of my decision was based on a Tom's Hardware review of access points: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/beamforming-wifi-ruckus,2390.html http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wi-fi-performance,2985.html Brent Jones
I'd recommend Aruba. Not a fan of the Cisco wifi controller gear. On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
cisco made the controller only to buy it? ubiquity or Mikrotik. END! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rafael Rodriguez" <packetjockey@gmail.com> To: "Ken King" <kking@yammer-inc.com> Cc: <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:31 PM Subject: Re: enterprise 802.11
I'd recommend Aruba. Not a fan of the Cisco wifi controller gear.
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6797 (20120115) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6797 (20120115) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com
+1 f/Aruba ... and check out the BlackHat conferences, also. On Jan 15, 2012 3:31 PM, "Rafael Rodriguez" <packetjockey@gmail.com> wrote:
I'd recommend Aruba. Not a fan of the Cisco wifi controller gear.
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
Meraki... ;^) http://www.meraki.com/ Ephesians 4:32 & Cheers!!! -----Original Message----- From: Ken King [mailto:kking@yammer-inc.com] Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 11:31 AM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: enterprise 802.11 I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office. up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones. we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space. what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor? Thanks for your replies. Ken King
Any body tried "Proxim ORiNOCO AP-8000", I have them in two airport and they really sucks ;) On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:00 PM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
-- Regards, Shahab Vahabzadeh, Network Engineer and System Administrator PGP Key Fingerprint = 8E34 B335 D702 0CA7 5A81 C2EE 76A2 46C2 5367 BF90
On 1/15/2012 11:30 AM, Ken King wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
How about Unifi? http://www.ubnt.com/unifi
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 21:30, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
You may want to look at Ruckus Wireless. They are extremely easy to setup and they just work. Eugeniu
On 1/15/12 11:30 , Ken King wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
My normal advice is fairly vendor independant. use dual band dual radio APs. 802.11A attenuates much more effectively in residential/commercial construction so the cells are smaller and there's a lot more spectrum... you'll attract all macs, as well as ipads and most enterprise laptops to 802.11a/n Don't run mixed mode in the 2.4ghz band. drop the output power on the 2.4ghz radios to ~30mw, turn off the 802.11b rates, and increase the multicast rate to at least 12Mb/s plan for not more that 50 people per ap (remember the aps have dual radios). if you're going to use 40mhz channels (and n-rates) do so only on 5.8ghz where the map coloring problem is tractable.
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Ken King <kking@yammer-inc.com> wrote:
I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office.
up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile
phones.
we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space.
what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor?
Thanks for your replies.
Ken King
Others have mentioned Ubiquiti- while a great and affordable solution for point-to-point/backhaul and WISPs, their Unifi product has a ways to go to be considered 'enterprise ready'. It's at best coffee shop ready based on their latest updates. Their support is basically their forums (which have very good participation of both users and vendor folks). The Unifi AP is 2.4GHz only as well. -Jon
I have made a couple of school installations with Ubiquiti products and they are rock solid for enterprise they are very good. Easy to setup etc. And very affordable. Regards -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: Ken King [mailto:kking@yammer-inc.com] Skickat: den 15 januari 2012 20:31 Till: nanog@nanog.org Ämne: enterprise 802.11 I need to choose a wireless solution for a new office. up to 600 devices will connect. most devices are mac books and mobile phones. we can see hundreds of access points in close proximity to our new office space. what are the thoughts these days on the best enterprise solution/vendor? Thanks for your replies. Ken King
participants (26)
-
Andreas Larsen
-
Brent Jones
-
Chris Burwell
-
David Casey
-
Eugeniu Patrascu
-
Greg Ihnen
-
Joe Johnson
-
Joel jaeggli
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Jon Sevier
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Jonathan Lassoff
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Justin Krejci
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Ken King
-
Leigh Porter
-
Meftah Tayeb
-
Mike Hale
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Mike Lyon
-
Nathan Eisenberg
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Network IP Dog
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Rafael Rodriguez
-
Roy
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Scott Bethke
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Seth Mos
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Shahab Vahabzadeh
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Stefan
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Troy Martin
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Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu