But in a real-world dorm scenario - microwaves, game consoles with
wireless controllers, a wide variety of cell phones using the wireless,
laptops that have Ad-hoc inadvertently turned on, etc. - the Ruckus has
performed exceedingly well. Of course, for us, the cost factor was
significant. We were able to go to the high-end 7962s and still be far
less expensive. Many of our APs have been "set and forget it"; we
monitor mainly using Solarwinds. Once a mesh is set it becomes
autonomous unless you want to monkey with it. Our onsite visits to dorms
has shrunk to the isolated non-Ruckus APs. Manpower cost reductions have
been significant.
Harry Rauch Sr. Network Analyst Eckerd College 4200 - 54th Ave S St.
Petersburg, FL 33711
On 8/17/11 8:47 AM, Kellogg, Brian D. wrote:
We're looking seriously at Ruckus to solve our coverage issues simply
due to the fact of where we had to install our APs in our dorms (in
the hallways). Our initial tests show much improved SNR over most
vendors to the edge of our dorms with their mid-range AP. We had
another vendor test almost as good; Aruba (G SNR was a good bit lower
but still above 30 in most places, but A was a little higher on
average). These tests were in a pristine wireless environment; no
sacks of water, books, etc... A lot of the performance difference on
the omni antennas, which all use except Ruckus, has to do with the
gain and thus the horizontal push from the antenna in our
environment. We aren't looking to decrease our AP count.
Brian
*From:*The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Lee H Badman
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:27 AM
*To:* WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
*Subject:* Re: Ruckus
Excellent information, Harry- Thanks. I have a feeling Cisco cringes
to read that 3500 APs were tested with 4402s instead of 5508 controllers.
-Lee Badman
*From:*Harry Rauch [mailto:rauc...@eckerd.edu]
*Sent:* Wednesday, August 17, 2011 8:22 AM
*To:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
*Cc:* Lee H Badman
*Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Ruckus
Yes, we ran both systems at max power to allow for greatest range; our
densities in some lecture halls were over 150 active users for one array.
Ruckus provides a link to Tom's Hardware Guide that has done some
extensive testing of several front-line enterprises APs. The results
may surprise you.
Here's the link.
http://www.ruckuswireless.com/press/releases/20110718-independent-test-reveals-ruckus-outperforms-others
My suggestion would be to go to Tom's after reading the "filtered"
version for a more extensive explanation.
Harry Rauch Sr. Network Analyst Eckerd College 4200 - 54th Ave S St.
Petersburg, FL 33711
On 8/17/11 8:02 AM, Lee H Badman wrote:
Strictly out of scientific curiosity, is the reduction in APs while
gaining coverage based on similar power settings in both hardware
sets, and how do you answer the "yeah, but what about client capacity
concerns in dense areas?" question when the number of APs and uplinks
to the network is reduced? Again, no axe to grind, genuinely curious.
I know Cisco's CAPWAP solution seems to strive to keep APs at less
than full power. It's even a metric in the RMM panel in WCS "AP's at
maximum power" and the lower your percentage the "better" things are
considered to be, generally speaking. At the same time, we probably
all have spaces where maybe 3 APs would fill the building, but three
times that are used to keep cell size small and users per AP at a
ratio that delivers higher client throughputs on the wireless shared
media. In this case, we could certainly reduce our AP counts by upping
the power, but it comes with trade-offs.
I guess I'm wondering how much of the Ruckus advantages are
philosophical (simply use less APs at higher power to cover same
space) and how much is technical wizardry.
Thanks-
Lee Badman
Lee H. Badman
Wireless/Network Engineer
Information Technology and Services
Adjunct Instructor, iSchool
Syracuse University
315 443-3003
*From:*The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Harry Rauch
*Sent:* Tuesday, August 16, 2011 12:12 PM
*To:* WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>
*Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Ruckus
We have almost completely converted to Ruckus from Cisco and Extreme.
We have had very little need for support; the things just work. We
have reduced our AP numbers by over 30% with better coverage. Once
installed in a dorm setting we have never had to go back other than
one device that drowned from a leaking air-conditioner pan. Our dealer
replaced the device at no cost even though water damage of this nature
is not covered.
The indoor models and outdoor function well and deliver outstanding
data, video and VoIP. We are also using the wireless point-to-point
bridge at a distance of 500 yards with throughput at 250MB. We have
the p2p pair on portable stands; one had blown over during a very bad
storm but was able to keep connectivity when hanging upside down with
the main dome facing a wall 180 degrees away from it's partner. We
didn't realize the issue for several days since it never went down.
We use a Zone Director 1000 to establish a mesh group and to keep
track of rogue devices. I would like a 3000 but we don't have that in
our budget lines at the moment. We have over 100 APs throughout the
campus.
We have had them almost 2 years with no issues. Client problems have
not been an issue.
Amazing devices.
Harry Rauch Sr. Network Analyst Eckerd College 4200 - 54th Ave S St.
Petersburg, FL 33711
On 8/16/11 11:50 AM, Kellogg, Brian D. wrote:
Looking for feedback from any institutions using Ruckus as their WLAN
solution.
Comments on their support, WAPs, Controllers, client problems and any
other related topics would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Brian
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