Different wireless access points on the one site (but separate buildings)?

[Stephen Galway]

Hello all,

I'm looking for help as we look to expand our wireless network.

We currently have 14 Alcatel Lucent access points across our school. Generally working well, with only a few blackspots where we're not properly covered.

My question is this: is it practical to put in 6 (approx) Ubiquiti UniFi access points in one part of the school (separate wing and reasonably spaced from the rest of the school) and still have the existing Alcatel access points working away in the main part of the school? My intention is the redistribute the existing access points currently there to improve coverage elsewhere.

Or, should I just suck it up and expand the network with existing product, Alcatel or Aruba? (perfectly good, but significantly more expensive than the Ubiquiti).

Also, thanks to all of you who contribute to this and help those of us with less technical know how. It's a brilliant forum.

Stephen Gill,

Salerno Secondary School, Galway.

[Hassan Dabbagh]

Hi Stephen, 

I would stick with what you have rather than a mix and match option. The network will work far better and you won’t look back. 

Your network will work if you do mix and match however you’ll run into a few issues with Handover (moving from one AP to another) 

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Hassan Dabbagh

087 9044716

 

[G P Ashe]

No issue to do this but you need to manage and keep them distinct with unique SSID for each "network". If they are physically far enough apart that there is no crossover then there will be no interference. Depending on how clients authenticate etc this may results in either a significant extra workload on someone or minimal.

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[Donal O]

Hi Stephen, this is a tricky one depending upon your budget and what you are optimizing for + constrained by:

A dual vendor network access edge constitutes a few problems:

a) roaming from AP to AP across vendors with the same SSID/network name can cause problems if the underlying channel widths and encryption schemes are not identical (even then sometimes)

b) now you have 2x governance domains which also require 2 sets of technical skills and related costs for troubleshooting, spares, support, different bugs and lifecycle management etc.

c) normally you would have the same AP models everywhere to allow for simple designs as different vendor/model APs have different power and coverage patterns. You probably want to simplify for design and modeling albeit I don't think many schools can afford the required professional designs often nor can drive negotiations with VAR(Value Added Resellers) well.

d) unless you intentionally are moving to Ubiquiti (which has no vendor commercial support) then the real question is are you optimizing for your CAPEX spend or your OPEX spend (think about issues + lifecycle management)

e) dual vendor should only really be done in partitioned clusters or spaces where there is a very specific physical boundary + different SSIDs/network names (which itself is often undesirable for seamless access and admin overheads inc. support/troubleshooting)...

On the positive side, this is an opportunity to switch vendors to a lower cost CAPEX and OPEX licensing vendor however you may have to pay the price for increased complexity in the short-medium term until you replace all the previous ones. You also should perhaps think about supportability based upon your current model/support framework. This is why the initial vendor decision by a 'greenfields' school is so important as there is a conceptual 'lock-in' due to the overheads of switching costs.

Note: My operational experience in campus WLAN would say buy more Alcatel Lucent and ensure they are supported by your OmniAccess WLAN switches/controllers, not because they are the best, but because you want to reduce not increase the complexity you are managing. 

Check out the free https://make.defensible.ie/schools-guides specifically the 'Building Blocks' framework and 'Cheatsheet'...

Humble regards,

Donal @makedefensible

https://defensible.ie/training

[Hassan Dabbagh]

I agree with everything said here, 

Case Study time: 

I'm was in a school that uses 1 SSID 1 network (teacher Access only) managed by a unifi controller, this year they got an extension (prefabs to the side of the building, not close enough to pick up the wifi or at least very little, AP were put in (none Unifi) and although the wifi is working away, when teachers move from one wifi spot to the other the wifi drops this isn't a major issue to be honest however when the school decides to use 2 OR 3 SSIDs (one for teachers one for students and one for guests) thats when everything will have to be done twice, so lets imagine the Passwords have to be reset, that will mean someone will have to log in once for one system and again for another. 

Hassan Dabbagh

087 9044716

 

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[Stephen Galway]

Thanks a million, Hassan, Greg and Donal. Excellent advice. We can now make an informed decision. Really appreciate your time and expertise.

On Monday, 3 February 2020 15:11:38 UTC, Stephen Galway wrote: