Aruba Networks | controllerless managed by Airwave or controller based in the campus
ByOn Tuesday, February 14, 2013 Wireless Field Day#4 delegates were invited by Aruba Networks to visit their company on 1344 Crossman Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA for a 4 hour timeslot presentation.
At 12am we had a quick chat with Keerti, Aruba co-Founder and Pradeep Iyer and Partha Narasimhan, Aruba Fellows followed by Aruba’s management tooling AirWave
AirWave:
AirWave provides visibility into everything that affects service quality – Wi-Fi coverage, access points (APs), controllers and the wired network. It also offers tools to improve operations and manage RF security, including user location and mapping, real-time monitoring, proactive alerts, historical reporting, and efficient troubleshooting.
Designed for comprehensive visibility across the entire access network, AirWave supports multiple generations of products from leading vendors – from fat APs to thin, and from legacy 802.11b gear to the latest 802.11n mobile devices.
Some hand on sessions were presented by Rob Gin and Sujatha Mandava.
1st Generation: 128 APs, 2,048 devices
2nd Generation: 512 APs, 8,064 devices
3rd Generation: approx. 2000 APs, 32,700 devices
Similar CPU & memory to 1st Generation wireless controllers
Data plane: distributed on AP’s
Management plane: synchronized AP’s, survivable
L3 roaming between them
No limitations
VLAN for one instant cluster
..if one of the AP’s goes down, an other AP assumes the role of cluster management and talking to the Airwave
-> distributed management plane across the AP’s
Edge VLAN’s for users and AP’s on IAP
Access Switch Distribution/Core (DHCP/DNS)
Management server usually optional but required by some vendors Distribution/Core
Numbers of AP’s and Wifi users per controllers group depends on VLAN sizing->->
AP Groups
Use existing edge VLAN’s for AP’s on the Access Switch Distribution/Core
Centralized VLANs and DHCP for Wifi users in one location -> Mobility Controller (DHCP/DNS)
Mobility Controller WLAN wide Broadcast and Multicast controls
Number of APs and Wifi users per Mobility controller depending on model->->->
controllerless managed by Airwave or controller based in the campus