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Anyone here worked with a deployment of Cisco 1500's, 4400 WLAN controllers and their WCS? Other then what Cisco offers, what other enterprise class (or even linux based wireless guru "hacks") have you all been impressed with? I like what they(Cisco) are showing, but the hardware cost may be staggering for some less dense areas of deployments.

We're looking at dropping a DS3 at the core of a deployment, but realizing that each "RAP" or core AP would support no more then 32 AP's. I've come to realize we may have to chop the core down to more connections and less centralized bandwidth (more $). A DS3 single core would work great except the fact that there are 4 cells, sometimes a mile or more apart. Meaning a cell outside of the original wouldn't want to be beaming that connection back to connect to the DS3, they would need their own DS3, or multiple T1's.

Ok I am rambling now. Just curious on other's experiences. Has anyone performed anything like this? We're talking upwards of 400 AP's (3-4 WLAN controllers), a Central Management Point/System...and the landbased backbone(s) for 4 small towns :)

I'll respond to myself. :)

Proxim and BelAir both look interesting as well. Wish it was easier to get prices on this gear though...darn sales people.

Hi,
Cisco 1500 is still under ATP, which means that only certain vendors can supply / install it (in EMEA anyway). The Cisco LWAPP kit is pretty easy to work with once you get your head into how LWAPP works. The WLC's come in various flavours, so you can scale from running 6 APs to 300 with a single piece of hardware. The Controllers are HTTP & GUI based, and Cisco regularly release feature updates and bug fixes.

If you have any specific questions you want to ask, I've got a lot of experience with Cisco Wireless & Largescale Wireless Deployments using IOS & LWAPP


Rich