Re: Fwd: bit OT -- Wi-Fi technology

["Biddle, Rob" <Rob_Biddle () MAIL MSJ EDU>]

Russell,

I wouldn't count on 4G(depending on what you consider 4G) offering "seamless marriage" with Wi-Fi networks any more 
than current mobile devices which support both 3G & Wi-Fi; but as you've seen with iphone/Android/Blackberry/WebOS 
current devices move between enterprise Wi-Fi and carrier 3G networks quite well.

As far as mixing in wireless gear from different vendors, my main concern would be the additional management overhead.

We moved from a Proxim based Fat-AP type environment to an all Cisco Wism/Aironet LWAPP infrastructure a few years ago 
and it's been wonderful from both management and reliability standpoints.  There are certainly other vendors out there 
offering centrally managed AP solutions that would also be excellent choices, but I would never want to go back to 
managing a distributed system or even multiple centrally managed systems if I could avoid it.  If you explore moving to 
a heterogeneous environment the first place I would anticipate issues to appear would be when users roam between 
systems.

I'm curious about your performance issues with the Cisco APs in open spaces, what types of problems are you having?  

The type and placement of the antennas can make all the difference.  Large open areas are usually the easiest 
environments to cover; the main issue tends to be making sure you have enough Access Points to support the number of 
users which will be in the area; for instance we use 4 APs with directional antennas to cover our large theater and 2 
APs in some of our larger classrooms.  Also, I would suggest manually controlling the power settings for open areas so 
that the controller doesn't ramp down power.  All of our Student areas are covered with 802.11g in a variety of 
settings (e.g., classrooms, large & small theaters, dining hall, food courts, stadium, outside open areas, dorm rooms, 
etc.) and we haven't had any coverage or performance issues.

_____________________________
Rob Biddle
Network Systems Engineer / Administrator 
College of Mount St. Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Russell 
Fulton
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 6:09 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Fwd: bit OT -- Wifi technology

Hi Folks

this stuff has security implications but really is not primarily a security topic so please forgive me for taking 
liberties with the list.

Currently we are a cisco shop as far as our wireless infrastructure goes -- enterprise WPA2, EAP, PEAP,  authenticated 
via radius, but are now looking at alternatives.  

One thing that we are aware of is the convergence of traditional wifi and cellphone technology.  It seems clear that 
'4G' will support some form of (more or less ?) seamless marriage of the two.  This is vitally important for us because 
3G bandwidth is extremely expensive here -- to the point where potentially useful mobile applications are too expensive 
for a large sector of our student population.  Added to this is the problem of different network providers -- any deal 
struck with one provider will leave more than 50% of our users out in the cold.  Being able to leverage our wireless 
network with most phones would be a big advantage.  Many people already use iPhones this way but is currently not 
widespread enough to deliver essential services over.

The other thing that we are aware of is that the Cisco gear performs well in some circumstances but sub optimally in 
others.  We wonder if we can improve the over all performance of our wireless presence by buying AP from another 
provider for some niche environments (e.g. lecture theatre and other relatively open spaces)

And then then there is the security aspect of mixing technologies/vendors.  Are there things that we should look out 
for?  In theory so long as we can authentication via one of radius, kerberos or AD we should be fine but is it as 
simple as that?

So we would very much like to hear any real world experiences or of any crystal ball gazing that others have done that 
might help us decide where to go...

Thanks, Russell