We are looking forward to establish MetroWifi network as a new business
line in our company, in addition to small/medium events Wifi coverage.
I have two questions:
1. What are the required resources/material/training curriculum to let our
engineers start educating in this? We are looking for the vendor-agnostic
materials that will give our engineers the WiFi essentials/fundamentals to
start building a good foundation before evolving to the professional level.
2. What vendors do you recommend? We need to find a cost-effective yet
competent option with good pre/post sales service.
I don't have a vendor-agnostic answer for you on #1, but as far as a vendor - Ruckus Wireless. We are a partner who sells and deploys and the stuff is quite awesome for what you're looking for. I'd be happy to introduce you to relevant people over there for guidance.
I don't have a vendor-agnostic answer for you on #1, but as far as a vendor - Ruckus Wireless. We are a partner who sells and deploys and the stuff is quite awesome for what you're looking for. I'd be happy to introduce you to relevant people over there for guidance.
1) I have long thought about developing such course materials or
working with the author (dave lang) of the wonderful scale2012 report
to do so. If you find any good materials pre-existing please let me
know also. I once gave a good intro talk on wifi subjects... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wksh2DPHCDI )
As for 2)
There are many vendors in the enterprise wifi space - cisco, ubnt,
aruba, and meraki, to name a few more. Of these the only ones publicly
acknowledging doing something about their wifi bufferbloat are cisco
and meraki. (I realize you have plenty of other issues/features to
look for, it's fixing that one happens to be my number #1 requirement
these days)
+1 for Ruckus, I have worked with a Ruckus partner in the UK I can
recommend if anyone needs one. The Ruckus tin is great having seen it
to believe it. The roaming AP stuff works great.
Wi-Fi is a unique space especially outdoors as it is an unlicensed spectrum. I would suggest looking for an engineer with at least 7 years of field experience along with a strong networking background. The training will only show you how to configure gear and teach perfect world theory. We all know real world isn't that way.
Doubt how much PoE you'd use for the MetroWifi stuff, but for the "small/medium events Wifi coverage":
Ubiquiti Networks.
Its cheap and it works great. Support sucks though.
Just watch it here if you're expecting to plug UniFi APs into standard 802.3af/at ports and get power. When I last interacted with them (customer equipment; year or two old, I believe) a lot of their WAPs are 24V, not 802.3af/at.
Just watch it here if you're expecting to plug UniFi APs into standard 802.3af/at ports and get power. When I last interacted with them (customer equipment; year or two old, I believe) a lot of their WAPs are 24V, not 802.3af/at.
The Pro and AC models are 802af/at. Only the “not Pro” (2.4 GHz only) model is passive 24V PoE but anyway it’s sh*t and not usable for any serious application.
They come from the outdoor WISP space, so most of their gear is 24v passive POE.
However, they have multiple models of 802.3at/af switches now (up to 48 port), two routers with 24v/48v PoE output capability, and several UniFi APs that are either 802.3af or 802.3at.
Only their UniFi AP & AP-LR are 24V, all the rest of their product line
(AP-PRO, AP-AC as well as the outdoor units) are 802.3af or 802.3at
compliant.
You can easily overcome this limitation by using their 8-port ToughSwitch
were each POE port can be configured to either 24V or 48V.
IMHO Ubiquity's UniFi is a very decent solution when you want to keep
budget low.
With respect to vendor neutral training I would suggest starting with CWNP
@ www.cwnp.com.
They specialize in providing vendor-neutral Wi-Fi training and
certification. Instructor led training is available via certified training
partners. In addition, there are study guides available for purchase.
CWTS (lvl 0) - Intro - terms & lingo
CWNA (lvl 1) - Wi-Fi 101
CWSP (lvl 2) - Wi-Fi Security
CWDP (lvl 2) - Wi-Fi Design
CWAP (lvl2) - Wi-Fi Protocol Analysis
CWNE (lvl3)....
I recommend completing some or all the CWNP training to understand how
Wi-Fi works. Once you understand how Wi-Fi works, you'll know how to
design and configure a network to meet your design goals. Next, complement
your vendor neutral training with applicable vendor specific training to
understand their interface and specific nuances. Moving to another vendor
is just a matter of learning where the nerd knobs are for configuring their
product as you'll already know the fundamentals of Wi-Fi.
If he's wanting to make a "metro/muni/variousterm" "wireless" network though, he's very likely not going to be using "Wi-Fi" at all. Sure, many of the products may have a WiFi PHY layer, but for outdoor PtMP environments you're talking TDMA, not CSMA.
He would be better served by some RF Engineering and vendor specific courses, IMO.
(Just my $0.02 as having spent quite a bit of time in the WISP industry, who has watched these "metro/muni/variousterm" networks die over and over and over again.)
+1 for CWNP courses. The CWNA and CWDP cover RF quite well too.... you'll pick up most of what's needed. ..imho most of the vendor specific courses only benefit is to tell you how to manage their control plane. Which button to click on the interface etc
