Unfortunately, WLSE hasn't been able to keep up with the competitors. Some of us have been trying quite a bit but the development team is either understaffed or not understanding campus deployments. It could also be that campus environments are not that important for them (a small market share).
The lack of completion for WLSE is likely the main reason they purchased Airespace. The future roadmap should be interesting; I hope they share it.
It would be great to be able to turn the intelligent APs (1200, 1100s) into thin radios with hybrid capabilities. They could release a cheaper DSP based 1000 series which could support MIMO capabilities being discussed in 802.11n?
We previously stayed away from the whole "special switch" concept because of our love affair with ethernet but there needs to be good 2D and 3D multi-building RF management tools to tune very large campus wireless networks in order to support next generation applications such as VOIP.
Meru's offering is interesting but I don't understand the advantage of a single channel use in 2.4GHz. I would understand the ability to have three channel is campus-wide; that would seem like a far more capable network (up to eight in 5 GHz).
I look forward in seeing Cisco's roadmap in relation to these competitors.
... Jonn Martell, UBC Wireless
Eric T. Barnett wrote:
I just saw some promising information on the web about Meru Networks' wireless solution. Anyone out there using Meru? What do you think? We're running a Cisco WLSE with about 120 AP's and 5 1200's working as WDS. Just wondering how Meru really stacks up to Cisco specifically in ease of use, returns, support, and lifespan of equipment. All of their press makes them sound too good to be true. Many thanks.
Eric Barnett, CCNA
Wireless Administrator
Information and Technology Services
Arkansas State University
870 972 3033
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