topic Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area? in Wireless Questions and Best Practices

Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

tier_melk — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:31:29 GMT

Hi Guys,

I need some advise. We currently have a corporate Cisco WLAN running in our building which connects us to the corporate LAN. We would like to deploy a Ruckus WLAN to provide unrestricted internet access mainly for mobile devices. So the Ruckus WLAN will be completely separate from the Cisco WLAN and LAN.

We have 16 Cisco AP`s so I guess we would require around the same number of Ruckus AP`s with a ZD 1100.

Would we experience issues with interference with a setup like this? Or any other issues we should be considering?

Thanks,

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

srinivas_kudama — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:40:23 GMT

If the Access Point's are near by, they will definitely interfere with each other which may cause poor client connectivity and packet drop issues.
We strongly recommend to do a site survey before deploying the Access Points so that you can avoid interference to some extent.

Thanks,
Srini

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

tier_melk — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:28:17 GMT

Thanks Srini. Is is possible to cover the same area without interference?

Hugo

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

keith_redfield — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:47:37 GMT

Turn off the Cisco's 🙂

(seriously...you can serve both your corporate and public access requirements with just the Ruckus gear. To be fair, probably the Cisco's can do the same but you'd have to check with them on specifics.)

As Srini notes, spectrum is spectrum - if the Cisco's are properly deployed they are using all of it.

And you likely won't need quite as many AP's using our gear, but a site analysis is required to validate that.

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

srinivas_kudama — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:51:06 GMT

The only way that we can avoid the interference is by using different channels.
For example:
If you want to place Cisco and Ruckus AP's in the same location/place then,
In 2.4 GHz; If Cisco is using channel 1 then assign a static Channel 6 or 11 to Ruckus AP's so that they will not interfere with each other and vice-versa.

I strongly recommend to do a site survey if you have multiple AP's at the same location so that they can place the AP's accordingly to avoid high interference and to get best performance from the AP's.

Thanks,
Srini

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

keith_redfield — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 20:20:27 GMT

Right, but with 14 AP's already deployed there's no possibility to avoid overlap (since only 1,6 and 11 are truly non-overlapping in the 2.4band) unless these 14 AP's are in separate buildings.

5Ghz does allow more non-overlapping channels (varies by country), but it's still a challenge and you likely can't ensure all your guest users are 5Ghz capable.

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

tier_melk — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:22:37 GMT

Thanks for the feedback guys. All users are definitely not 5Ghz capable.

All Cisco AP`s are in the same building.

Overlap will cause interference?

I am getting one of your partners to come and do a survey but I need to educate myself as well! 🙂

Re: Ruckus and Cisco WLANs covering the same area?

keith_redfield — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 19:27:02 GMT

Yes, they will overlap. Simple example - draw out your building floorplan, and the approximate locations of the existing AP's. Now draw circles around them. BUT...you have only 3 colors to draw with (corresponding to channels 1, 6, and 11). You'll have a tough time doing that where 2 adjacent circles aren't the same color (channel). Adding more AP's (of any kind) on top of that is just more circles, same colors..so now it's even harder. Extra credit for adding more floors...

The colors correspond to available spectrum.