iPads and Cisco AP

[paul.mchugh]

Hi,

     I'm new to cisco products, I've been assigned to setup a wireless network for 200-300 ipads in a education centre, going to 500 ipads over the next 2 years, does anyone have any experience of this and whats cisco APs would you

recommend. How do the APs handle 100 devices access them

simultaneously.

Thanks

Paul

[Srin_G]

We are using 1242G and 3502i but the number of ipad's are far less that yours.we use it for guest access. I wouldn't recommend more than 25 clients per AP as it reduces the throughput (we have this setup in our warehouse environment). It depends on what type of applications the client access as well. In my opinion if you wanna take advantage of clean-air use 3500 series (more expensive) or else 1242 is good as gold mate.

cheers

[George Stefanick]

If this is specific to iPads. I would consider designing your network for 5ghz only. I would also not do more than 25 devices or so per ap for normal data. If video is used then no more than say 10 or so ..

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[paul.mchugh]

Hi George,

                  thanks for responding, it will be mainly ipads connecting on the wireless.

I will be needing 10-15 APs, which would you recommand. What happens if more that 25 devices connect to 1 AP, how does it push the other devices to the next AP.

Do I need any additional SW/HW?.

Thanks

Paul

[Scott Fella]

What I have seen and done in education is 1 for 1.  One AP per Classroom, but those were the requirements due to the growth of ipads in education and laptops.  You should take a look at the WLC5508 and the 3602AP's first, There are other AP's you might choose that are cheaper like the 2600's or even the 1600's or 3500's.  But my first choice would be the 3600's.  In the future version of the WLC v7.4, you will have a bonjour gateway which will help you be able to utilize different vlans and still allowing the bonjour protocol to work.  Currently bonjour works on a single subnet and multicast is required on the network.  So. make sure you have all this set to make your implementation go smooth.

Thanks,

Scott

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[George Stefanick]

It's important to remember that clients choose what ap to connect to. This can be influenced by tweaking power or enabling other features. I concur with Scott's recommendations.

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[Scott Fella]

Build a good base... wireless site survey!!!! very important, becasue without a good solid RF, well... you know the rest:)

Thanks,

Scott

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[Leo Laohoo]

Do I need any additional SW/HW?

I believe I need to know what your budget is like.

If you have a "healthy" budget then you can't go wrong with a wireless LAN controller (WLC) like the 5500.   (Don't even bother looking at the 2500.)  For WAPs, the 3600 is the "best" model available because users can upgrade it to 802.11ac when then module is release (hopefully, in the next four months).  The 3600 is one of the few WAPs which supports CleanAir.  Aside from this model, the 1600 (CleanAir Express) and 2600 also supports CleanAir.

If your budget is not that healthy, then you have alot of choices.

Do you want 802.11 a/b/g only WAPs?  If you do then the 1130, 1240 are still available.

Do you want 802.11 a/b/g/n only WAPs?  Then the 1040 is the most affordable WAP of this level.  This is followed by the 1140 and the 1260.

There are two "types" of WAPs:  Internal or External antennas.

Except for the models which are CleanAir capable, the 1130, 1040 and 1140 have internal antenna.  The 1240 and the 1260 have external antenna and the antenna need to be purchased optionally.