Why Ruckus?

[david_henderson]

We are a public school district looking to do a complete overhaul of our wireless network. A bit over 725,000 square feet of indoor space, 4,300 students with nearly 1,400 students in the High School who are heavy users. We are looking at 5 different wireless vendors including Ruckus. In a nutshell, why should we choose Ruckus? We have engaged the local Ruckus sales staff and engineers but it is always good to hear from current customers.

[john_d]

Ruckus almost consistently scores in the top of performance tests in high density environments (e.g. more than just a few clients connected to an AP at a time).

http://www.ruckuswireless.com/carnet-performance-testing

In these tests, even the old Ruckus 7982 3x3:3 (802.11n) outperformed Cisco's highest-end 802.11ac 4x4:4 AP with 60 clients connected!

Also, Ruckus is the only AP with BeamFlex antenna technology, which directs the wifi beam in the direction of clients. This tech makes a huge difference in delivering excellent signal strength to clients, without all the traditional problems of nearby AP's interfering with each other.

[monnat_systems]

HI david,

i am pretty sure you are going through all kind of marketing and technical literature to make a wise decision however most of the product kinda look alike HOWEVER when you test RUCKUS V/s other...
it will outperform THEM in most of the metrics relevant for education...
I think you got to see it yourself first to believe it

[max_o_driscoll]

Kit works!
Lots of settings to alter/tweak.
Regular firmware updates with readable detailed change docs.
Good forum...never underestimate usefulness of other users who have probably met your problem already.
Tech support friendly and responsive.

I sound like a walking advert.

Other manufacturers will say the same no doubt - I can only vouch for my own experience.
Zone Director - 25 APs - 1000 pupils on 2 sites but low user density. 50-100 clients at any time is normal.

[david_henderson]

Thanks for all the great information. Yesterday I brought up the virtualized SmartZone controller and my local salesperson just dropped of an R710 AP. I will start putting it through its paces. During my testing is there anything I should really focus on?