Morrisville State College Meru 802 11 n Wireless

Morrisville State College Meru 802. 11 n Wireless Implementation

Morrisville State College 802. 11 n Wireless with Meru Net@EDU February 10, 2008 Matt Barber, Network Analyst, Morrisville Jean Boland, Vice President for Technology Services, Morrisville

Morrisville State College • Part of the State University of New York - Comprised of 64 Colleges and Universities • 3, 300 Students Enrolled at Morrisville - Approximately 1, 750 students live in on-campus residence halls • Over 70 Academic Programs with 140 Faculty • Offer Bachelor and Associate Degrees - Health, Aquaculture, Equine, Business, Info Tech, Hospitality, Architectural Technology, Engineering Technology, Natural Resource Conservation, Automotive Technology, Biology

Our Vision Statement “Morrisville State College aspires to be an academically challenging , business-oriented, technology-focused entrepreneurial learning community. ” Academics Applied Business Entrepreneurialism TECHNOLOGY

Morrisville State College Technology Strategy 1998 – Mobile Computing: Think. Pad University 1999 – Nomadic Learning: Wireless Campus 2003 – Continuous Communication: Nextel Cell Phone for Every Residential Student Phases I, III

Why Mobility? • More than two-thirds of the U. S. workforce will be mobile workers (CTIA Daily News, July 2002) • Drucker predicts that by 2020 fewer than half of working people will be employed by others in a classic way • Students can study and learn at the location best for them…anywhere, anytime learning To better prepare our students

Morrisville Former Wireless • Installed in the Fall of 1999 • Raytheon Raylink 802. 11 FHSS • 2 Mbps shared • Over 300 Raylink Access Points (APs) installed • One set of drivers; One PCMCIA card • MS Vista will not support • End of life product – purchasing existing supply • Student complaints of slowness Wireless is only access in dorm rooms

The Morrisville Environment • Upgraded Enterasys Network in Summer 2005 - Gig. E backbone - Gigabit switches in the closets • Fiber Backbone • Former Cabling - 270 cat 5 / cat 5 e cables to wireless APs - Approximately 100 cat 6 cables to wireless APs • 43 buildings with about 1. 9 million square feet Morrisville Campus and Norwich Campus

What We Were Looking For • Increased speed • Expanded coverage area • Easy to manage • Product lifespan of 5 to 7 years • Support for multiple operating systems • Support for typical student devices 2007 Wireless Upgrade

Why We Selected 802. 11 n • Speed, speed • Increased coverage over 802. 11 b or g • Expected product lifespan • Most fiscally responsible decision for us • Validated by Wi-Fi Alliance certification of 802. 11 n products Is 802. 11 a/b/g nearing end of life?

Why We Selected Meru • Availability of 802. 11 n • Single Channel v Ability to easily add an access point to plug a coverage hole • Client load balancing between APs v Good for large lecture halls Selected IBM as our integrator

Why We Selected Meru, cont. • Virtual Cell • Time management of RF traffic v Each client gets equal access to the AP v Radio “talk time” is equally shared among all clients on an access point • Lowest common denominator effect is is minimized

Testing of Existing Cable • Cat 5 and 5 e Cable Testing v to insure operability at gigabit Ethernet speed v 270 cables tested v 1 cable replaced • Excellent Results v All cable runs were less than 200 feet nfrastructure hired for all cabling

Site Survey • EZ-RF Coverage Planner – done for 5 GHz 802. 11 a v RF Predictive Modeling v Physical Site Survey • Findings: v Greater coverage between floors, outdoors and overall v Fewer APs needed than expected Originally expected 900 Aps to be installed

August Implementation for Start of School • Cabling v 400 new cat 6 cables • Access Point Installation v 710 Meru AP 150’s v 10 Meru AP 320’s • Six new switch installations for additional ports • Added new locations, such as football field, equine barns Both a/b/g APs and a/b/g/n APs installed

In August, Meru 802. 11 n Deployment • 10 Meru AP 320’s • Each AP with v one b/g/n radio v one a/n radio • Using Power over Ethernet (Po. E) v Existing 802. 3 af standard (15 watts) v 2 X 2 antenna configuration In Mustang Alley

From Our Students It is really fast in Mustang Alley (where Meru 802. 11 n is), but it is so slow everywhere else! 802. 11 g is slow? ? Changing Expectations…

Clients • Lenovo T 61 laptops have internal 2. 4 / 5 GHz 802. 11 n wireless • Legacy Lenovo laptops v Internal a/b/g wireless v 2. 4 GHz 802. 11 n USB adapter • Desktops v 2. 4 GHz 802. 11 b/g USB adapter v 2. 4 GHz 802. 11 n USB adapter 5 GHz 802. 11 n USB adapters were not yet available…

From Lenovo Chariot Download – Comparison between 11 n and 11 g 11 n showed 800% better performance than 11 g. Done by 3 rd Party Test Lab “Quality Partners”

From Morrisville Client Time Test Results

Lessons Learned • Moved from a homogeneous to a heterogeneous client wireless environment v one wireless driver to many v one wireless adapter to many • Up-to-date wireless driver is critical • Power management on laptops, must be set to “maximum performance” and NOT to “maximum battery life” v Can turn OFF internal wireless; erratic results Clients, clients…

In October, Total Meru 802. 11 n Installation • All 720 APs are Meru dual radio 802. 11 n AP 320’s v b/g/n in 2. 4 GHz v a/n in 5 GHz • Replacement of a/b/g APs with a/b/g/n APs took 2 people only 1 week • Still using Power over Ethernet (15 watts) Campus Wide Meru 802. 11 n Wireless

Statistics To Date In our 5 th month of using 720 Meru 802. 11 n APs: • 802. 11 n wireless coverage of 43 buildings and 1. 9 million square feet • All classrooms, all buildings, all parking lots, and ancillary spaces; equine barns, football field, etc. • Over 1, 500 simultaneous users at peak usage • Connection Speeds of up to 300 Mbps

Equine Breeding & Training Center “Mister Ed” theme song, by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans

Our Dashboard

Additional Devices Supported • Opened up support for portable and gaming devices v Added over 60 devices in first month v Currently have over 110 portable and gaming devices on wireless v Now supporting student i. Pod Touches, Sony PSPs, Playstation 3 s, Xbox 360 s, Nintendo Wiis, and i. Phones

What is Next for Client Adapters? • Dual band 802. 11 a/b/g/n client adapters v want to move as many clients as possible to 5 GHz 802. 11 n • Linksys WPC 600 N PCMCIA card on site • Linksys WUSB 600 N USB on order • Netgear WNDA 3100 USB available in March

What is Next for Power? • Testing SNMP Manageable Power Injectors v draft IEEE 802. 3 at standard (30 watts) v for 3 x 3 antenna configuration v will look at increased wireless experience and determine if the power injectors are worth the cost • Could stay with Po. E (15 watts) and 2 x 2 antenna configuration • Could purchase Phihong or Microsemi power injectors 802. 3 af (15 watts) or 802. 3 at (30 watts)?

802. 11 n “LIVE” at Morrisville Student Candids

What our students have to say Nicholas Scholl, a senior at Morrisville State College: About Meru’s 802. 11 n wireless

What our students have to say Christopher Perch, a freshman at Morrisville State College: About Meru’s 802. 11 n wireless

Mobility at Morrisville We are creating a marketable difference for our students at Morrisville. With laptops, cell phones, and now 802. 11 n wireless, our students are ready to enter and be productive in the mobile workforce.

Morrisville 802. 11 n Wireless QUESTIONS? ?