Hi,
At Cambridge, we have approximately 200 APs on our central wireless system
(departments and Colleges are free to go their own way, if desired);
they're all Cisco 1130s at present, running in thick / standalone mode.
We liked the Cisco APs because they offered us the ability to migrate to a
controller-based solution, eventually.
However, we evaluated the controller system just under a year ago and hit
a limitation that prevented us from deploying it -- namely, that each
controller is limited to 8 SSIDs. Since our Colleges in particular like
to have their own wireless SSID for their commercial services (which goes
out through their own, non-JANET, connection), we couldn't support that.
We have just purchased a pair of Aruba 6000-series chassis-based
controllers with M3 modules and AP65 APs and are starting to commission
them. Gradually, we are planning to replace the Cisco APs with Aruba APs.
We compared this vs the Trapaze platform and found them both to be very
capable and suitable for our needs, but felt the Aruba solution had the
edge in a number of areas.
I can't comment on the support, reliability, etc. at the moment because
we've only just begun deployment!
- Bob
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Bob Franklin <[log in to unmask]> +44 1223 748479
Network Division, University of Cambridge Computing Service
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