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3Com did partner with Trapeze but recently released a new wireless product from their partnership with H3C. As for the takeover by HP it will be interesting to see which way the HP wireless strategy develops. I can see Darby's point regarding wireless vendors. I work in local government in the UK and I was looking to replace legacy Bluesocket equipment. We had very little wireless experience and relied on existing suppliers for our WAN wireless bridges to point us in the right direction. The vendors who were are the fore were Cisco, Aruba and Trapeze (via 3Com). I also added Meru to the shortlist due to the different architecture.

Obviously this list was due to partnerships to the vendors by the various suppliers but a lot of the companies I had not even heard of until I started using this forum.

One of the other issues for me being based in Scotland is the level of support available. how many engineers are based in the UK/Scotland. What reference sites are available all af this is part of the decision to purchase as well as the cost/benefit/features analysis.

I just passed my CWNA last wednesday and I am now working towards CWSP. Downloaded and reading the CWAP which is good so far.

My point is unless you are in the wireless arena it is difficult to make informed choices. I wish I had done the CWNA before inviting the vendors in to discuss their products as I could have assessed the features and claims much more effectively. As it was we have implemented an Aruba solution but I am still looking at Meru for voice.

On another note has anyone implmented fixed mobile convergence successfully using Aruba or Meru? (probably the subject of another post!)

Regards

James

Hi james,

Can i asked what swayed your decision to go with Aruba over cisco and trapeze/3com.

paul

Hi James

Im in the UK and work for a partner, looks like you are quite a way down the road if you have implemented Aruba and they should be able to offer a solution for the fixed mobile voice convergence.

If not give me a shout, I mainly do Cisco who do have a solution and work closely with the likes of RIm (Blackberry) Nokia and can fit the iPhone. depends on which devices you have and your current voice solution but I know RIM have some exciting things coming out later in the year.

Sorry selling my services.

Congrats on the CWNA by the way, how did you find the exam.

Hi James,
I came across a few people who are using Fixed Mobile Convergence using Meru Deployment and they are overly satisfied with it.

Anees
CCNA,CWNA

Hi Paul,

We went with Aruba for a number of reasons. the size of our deployment was very small and all the functionality we required seemed to be built into the controller (651). The partner Aruba was using also had an existing long term relationship with us having supported our WAN wireless links for the last 7 or 8 years. trapeze wanted us to install a back end ringmaster server and just totally priced themselves out of the running. Cisco to be honest just didn't seem interested (probably because of the scale of the installation.) and I had to chase to get quotes etc it seemed the pre-sales support was poor so I can only imagine what the post sales support would have been like.

Pete, Notwithstanding the cisco stuff we are looking to use HTC smartphones with the Mitel ICP Platform. I am leaning towards a Meru solution as the building needs a rewire and I would like to replace the cat3 with 802.11n for flexibility and the VoWiFi. I am considering a Meru solution with the data on 5.8 and the voice on 2.4. I like the notion of the SCA for zero handoff with the voice.

Any comments would be appreciated I am still at very early stages (it's all in my head) but I will start working on designs in the next couple fo weeks.

regards

James

James

I havent deployed Meru or came across it in the wild, as far as the SCA I personally cannot see it scaling and allowing fair usage, I am afraid I have been brought up on non overlapping channels so see it as "against the laws of physics" but I may be wroong and would like to know more of it as its a major feature they sell.

As regards Cisco I work for a partner and jobs are tight all round with the economy, we chase all our jobs, I work closely with pre sales and provide a large portion of the after sales, though its rarely needed.

Hence as its a new deployment would love to have a chat about the opportunity.

Obviously I cannot coment on your other Cisco partner.

Hi Pete,

One of the Aruba customers in UK has a FMC implementation with Mitel, so check with them. Its through the Mitel FMC product.

Also I Beleive that 5.8 needs a licence in the UK because it is a 'fixed' terminal but the OFCOM site may have an upddate there

jake

Dont forget that Alcatel Lucent OEMs Aruba so Aruba shurly has access to a large player in the network industry.

Martin Ericson, Trainer
Ascom Wireless Sweden

Back to another answer to the original question "Where is the market going?"

[b]802.11n[/b]
Whether people really need it or not.

Some applications really don't need the speed increase. However, if the vendors solution can increase throughput or range considerably, then those customers might still be happy.

Otherwise they are going to feel gyped - and I'm sure there will be several instances of that.