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We're still a bit away from having ratified 802.11n equipment, but I'm wondering what successes (and non-successes) that any of you have had with deploying pre-802.11n gear. From what I've seen, only small businesses, homeowners, and Wi-Fi experimenters have been using it. Enterprises in general are staying away from deploying 802.11n until ratified standards are finalized and products are tested. What do you think about the pre-802.11n equipment so far?

Hi Jim,

The enterprise adoption of "N" is in a state of "hurry up and wait" based on its "newness".
Much like the housing market .. it is being tested but will come out of the slump sooner than later.

Meru is the first to boldly step out of the box in the enterprise and from what I've read the test are showing promise.Don't know how accurate they (the test) are but here is the link at Networkworld:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080607-draft-80211n-morrisville-test-results.html

Others are sitting on the sidelines watching the leader (Meru) as they all keep hinting, this is "Draft N".

Unless the final standard is going to test and sustain: over 500 Mbps consistently with a peak of 1 Gig then, the radios aren't going to change that much from what Meru is doing now.

Are there such things as Quad- Core Plug and Play Wireless Virtualized Access Points? 8-O

Back to the topic: Draft : HT PHYSICALS

If Meru's deployment at Morrisville proves to be successful, which it most likely will; the biggest challenge for the enterprise will be upgrading the infrastructure (structured cabling included) to support the plus 100Mbps speeds, and the chipsets hitting consumer devices that support the HT physicals.

Devinator mentioned this almost two years ago!

I really see "N" taking off and making wireless professionals more of a hot commodity. Vendors that wait too long will get left behind.

Aruba and Cisco really need to be very cognizant of what the other smaller vendors are doing to address costs. This is critical. Having controller everywhere is a bottleneck based on costs.

Trapeze with Smartmobile2 are going the right way with their offloading of traffic . They have a good marketing video of that migration path.

Now if they can get Smartmobile to do the same type that Extricom and Meru do with the channel blanket roaming support in addition to the standard 1/6/11 spectrum planning the old-fashioned way.

Perhaps a good partnership in the Next Generation Wireless would be Meru/Aerohive and/or Trapeze/Extricom. But that is wishful thinking and too hard to agree upon? Everybody wants to be the first right?

And who am I to suggest such a thing, after all I am just an ordinary Joe ;-)

http://blog.tmcnet.com/wireless-mobility/motorola-on-80211n-were-waiting-until-its-ratified.asp

I am sure they are watching you know who ... Meru of course?

Being the inquisitive Wireless# , I called Morrisville and spoke with one of the IT leads.

They have about 10 each of the draft N APs up on the LAN in places like the Student Union area for high bandwidth applications that will be shared amongst the returning Myspace/YouTube students.

School starts around August 27th. I am sure the LAN and wireless will be tested in that area.

They'll have IBM Thinkpads with the Intel "Draft N notebooks for use.

I asked about the structured cabling:
Only two of the CAT5 /CAT5e UTP's they have had to be replaced when testing. But they are migrating to CAT6 for all future deployments.

I asked about the access switches in the closets: not confirmed yet but stated mostly all support gig speed.


As stated in NetworkWorld:

Right now until since this needs to be up and running before the students return , there current Meru network is going to mostly be A/B/G. They will swap those out for N sometime in September/October.

All I can say is these students are extremely fortunate that the school is funding or at least the alumni boosters are funding a world class "Historical shift in WLANs in partnership with IBM and Meru.

Will there be mistakes, skeptics and challenges from this Draft N giant leap for mankind at Morrisville with Meru? Yes.. but remember this...

Innovation can be a wonderful thing...just take a look at Apple and the iPhone and you will understand Wi-Fi rules.

The first wireless access point, Thomas Edison invented that?

1881 - 1887 Invented a system of wireless telegraphy, (by induction) to and from trains in motion, or between moving trains and railway stations. The system was installed on the Lehigh Valleys R. R. in 1887, and was used there for several years. Invented a wireless system of communication between ships at sea, ships and shore and ships and distant points on land. Patent No. 465,971 was issued on this invention, the application having been filed May 23, 1885 - two years prior to the publication of the work of Hertz. Most significantly, this patent was eventually purchased from Edison by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.

Lastly, I will be speaking more to the IT lead that is in charge of the Draft N"deployment to get him to at least, join this forum so that we all can decipher this SSID. ;-)

Fixed link to above:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/wireless-mobility/motorola-on-80211n-were-waiting-until-its-ratified.asp