I know Xirrus better than I know Ruckus but Ruckus is pretty much the standard for large scale, professional deployments nowadays. Their tools are outstanding, their radios are capable of handling up to a couple thousand users simultaneously, and their firmware/management tools are excellent, including their security features.
Xirrus isn’t as big a player outdoor but the granularity of their firmware/management tools is amazing. They have Procera firmware built into every AP and every AP is essentially a controller by itself. They aren’t as good outdoor since they don’t have 802.11ac yet but with the right antennas, they can dominate an area. They can even do things like turn off beaconing for 802.11b at 1, 2, and 5Mbps but leave it on for 11Mbps. Ruckus is easier to install with integrated outdoor units but Xirrus is the next level up. Indoor, Xirrus has no equal. Rory From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Paul Stewart Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 7:34 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI Very well said .. I like your summary …. The “champions” description I compare to what I see deployed. Anytime I’m at a sporting event, public place, office complex etc I’m always curious to see what’s deployed for equipment (if I can see it). While I’m sure Ruckus and Xirrus are good products for some folks, I have never seen their stuff deployed. This doesn’t mean it’s good or bad gear … or going back to the Ferrari analogy, just because you don’t see a lot of them on the road doesn’t mean they aren’t one of the best built vehicles out there. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Faisal Imtiaz Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 10:15 AM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI I think it would be more productive of a comparative conversation if one was to describe why (Technical feature wise) the Ruckus and Xirrus are "champions" of the Wifi Space. I shudder every time there is a comparison made between MFG. since all of them make high-end and low-end stuff as well..... The Strength of Ruckus WIFI solution is in the fact that their (most of them) Radio's do Beamforming very well, and when the Controller is used, the Controller will dynamically manage the Radios's Wifi settings and parameters. The Strength of Xirrus is, having recently looked at some XN8's, all I can say is WOW !, if you forget the price for a moment, if anyone had a Dream Radio Array features Wish List, guess what, they have all of those feature built in..... It is a piece of equipment with multiple radios (4,8,16) a combination of 2.4ghz and 5ghz radios which can be configured to pretty much any configuration, combination you like.... Does that mean that the above two is the only way to go ? No it is very much possible to configure Unifi's, with the right product selection, to accomplish similar results. And yes, if you are looking for a particular feature set, you have to pay attention to which units you are using, because all of the Unifi radios don't support all the features. Regards. Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet & Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, FL 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Help-desk: (305)663-5518 Option 2 or Email: supp...@snappytelecom.net<mailto:supp...@snappytelecom.net> ________________________________ From: "Mike Hammett" <af...@ics-il.net<mailto:af...@ics-il.net>> To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 8:34:09 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI I had a car analogy lined up, but I saw too many holes in my own analogy. Ruckus and Xirrus are the champions of the WiFi space. They are the very best of the best. UniFi is good enough for most situations and is considerably less expensive. Cisco isn't winning any awards and is really only considered by people playing the IBM strategy. It's more expensive than the better options of UniFi and Xirrus. ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com ________________________________ From: "Paul Stewart" <p...@paulstewart.org<mailto:p...@paulstewart.org>> To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 7:22:37 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI Well you haven’t provided any good reasons …. I’ve never used Ruckus/Xirrus to be honest and we don’t have the luxury of “trial and error” with products we’ve never used – so the reasons would be to be quite compelling. Always open to ideas … Ben – you asked if we had contacted support… short answer is yes but I don’t have the details as it’s handled by another group…. Thanks, Paul From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Mike Hammett Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 10:13 PM To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI Then you want Ruckus\Xirrus, not Cisco. ----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions http://www.ics-il.com [http://www.ics-il.com/images/fbicon.png]<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/googleicon.png]<https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/linkedinicon.png]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/twittericon.png]<https://twitter.com/ICSIL> Midwest Internet Exchange http://www.midwest-ix.com [http://www.ics-il.com/images/fbicon.png]<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/linkedinicon.png]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange>[http://www.ics-il.com/images/twittericon.png]<https://twitter.com/mdwestix> ________________________________ From: "Paul Stewart" <p...@paulstewart.org<mailto:p...@paulstewart.org>> To: af@afmug.com<mailto:af@afmug.com> Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 8:21:28 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI We have Unifi (non AC) version in our offices and it sucks … working on a plan to migrate to Cisco probably – complete opposite a When the system is working well, it’s not bad at all but it doesn’t seem to deal with outside interference very well and often slows down to a snails pace. It also doesn’t handle video and voice very well most of the time despite traffic prioritization. I’d take a guess at around 120 users during the day and 30-40 users off hours (we run 24X7). Also found the Unifi stuff doesn’t handle AP handoff very well at all … not even sure if it’s supported in the specs come to think of it.. I’ve read the latest generation has “seamless handoff’ though…. I’ve deployed Cisco before and it’s definitely quite a bit more in cost but for our application, cost is secondary compared to performance/stability. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Jaime Solorza Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 8:49 PM To: Animal Farm Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Campground WIFI Our local rez replaced all their Cisco gear and controllers with Ubiquiti AC Dual Band UniFi and software. Speeds and performance much better and easy to manage. The casino waitresses love the pos at customers tables and security knows where they are at all times. Used at both Speaking Rock and Socorro Entertainment Center..I installed two AC UniFi APs months ago for cattle association. Not one call...ave 75 to 150 users a day Jaime Solorza On May 26, 2015 5:17 PM, "Craig House" <cr...@totalhighspeed.net<mailto:cr...@totalhighspeed.net>> wrote: Got a 110' tower that belongs to a large campground that we are using as a tower site. Using Mimosa links to the tower and have 500+ MB of bandwidth available to this tower. The campground area is about 110 acres and about 1/2 of that has camp sites that we want to be able to provide paid by the X WIFI service. UBNT has a billing platform that I think integrates with their equipment and I will gladly use their equipment but I dont want to recreate the wheel here. This is not in my normal course of business but the campground owner wants it and I think there is a lot of potential here all be it seasonally. Is the UBNT software good stuff? What are your recommendations to type of AP's / Antennas / for such a setup. What is the best way to market this type of service? Free for basic minimal speeds? then sell a higher rate if they want it. Or Just bill for anything one lower package and one higher package? Has anyone on the list tried this at a campground and if so what mistakes did you make and what did you end up using? Ive made enough mistakes in the past with other stuff. I have learned to ask you guys on stuff I'm not familiar with . Craig
