Wireless Access

Hey there--

We're a school which has gone all-in on Aruba, and really loves it. Hand in hand with that, we've gotten Apple TVs in our classrooms, connected to projectors, specifically for screensharing (although some teachers use their other abilities curricularly as well).

Our teachers use Macbooks Pro of various vintages, though none are more than two years old. They've all been updated to the latest software. And we're using Aruba6000-US controllers running 6.4.0.3 to drive a network mostly consisting of AP-105s and AP-115s. We use Clearpass Guest with Airgroup to allow access by role to said Apple TVs.

We're finding we have a major problem with the Apple TVs dropping screensharing connections -- sometimes five times or more in a half hour. And, we've found that it's difficult to predict when it will happen.

From what I've been able to gather, part of this is a problem Apple needs to resolve. However, the problem has worsened over time, which makes me suspect there's tuning I can do to settings or to the Apple TVs to reduce the issue.

To make clear, by the by, other Apple TV functions -- such as streaming media from the internet -- work without interruption. And, also to make clear -- we've seen the problem from iPads as well. It's not specific to OS X. We just don't use iPads very much curricularly.

RF interference seems minimal, by the by, and does not seem to be a precipitator to the problem.

What can we do to tune our network or otherwise reduce drops? It's the one black eye our wireless network has. Do other folks have tips or tricks?

Have you opened a case for this?  

With Aruba Support? Yes. #1586229. While we're working on that, I was coming here for more generalized advice as to configuration, or tips on how others have set things up.

If this was the wrong thing to do, I apologize.

Are your Teachers with Macbooks on the same SSID &/or VLAN as the Apple TV's or different?

How are the Apple TV's connected to the network; wired or wireless?

Are the Apple TV's IP addressed statically?

There are some basic rules for implementing Apple TV's but it is dependent on the architecture of your wired and wireless LANs. 

Airgroup is used when the client (Teacher Macbook) is on a different layer 3 /VLAN segment than the Apple TV is. If they are both on the same SSID and/or VLAN then components of Airgroup can break this if not setup correctly. 

Was your system setup by an Aruba partner? They should be able to assist in finding the root cause and implementing a fix. 

• Are your Teachers with Macbooks on the same SSID &/or VLAN as the Apple TV's or different?

Our teachers are on a different SSID than our Apple TVs, and are distributed along a number of VLANs within that SSID, set up by our partner to help distribute load. We use Airgroup to pair them up.

• How are the Apple TV's connected to the network; wired or wireless?

They are wireless.

• Are the Apple TV's IP addressed statically?

They receive assigned IPs via DHCP.

• Airgroup is used when the client (Teacher Macbook) is on a different layer 3 /VLAN segment than the Apple TV is. If they are both on the same SSID and/or VLAN then components of Airgroup can break this if not setup correctly. 

This shouldn't be an issue here -- they're on different SSIDs. And, Airgroup discovery is working excellently. The Apple-TVs and other Airgroup resources are showing up exactly as expected (and as differentiated by Clearpass, which is assigning appropriate roles which Airgroup is respecting properly), and the initial connections are working as expected. What's happening is the screenshare connection will suddenly drop during active use, and will need to be reestablished -- sometimes four or five times inside the span of twenty minutes.

• Was your system setup by an Aruba partner? They should be able to assist in finding the root cause and implementing a fix. 

It was. They essentially shrugged and said it was a known Apple issue they'd seen before in other deployments. While I'm sure we'll be working with them on this, I wanted to see if other folks here had advice for the setup.

We see relatively the same issue.  Have you found a resolution to it?