Wireless Access

I am looking for a way to do some historic trending with SNMP MIB or some other automated way to get the following.  We will probably be using MRTG or CACTI to do the graphing.

• number of users on each band:  a, b, g, a-ht, g-ht
• number of user with different spatial streams.  user count for 1 spatial stream, user count for 2 spatial streams, user count for 3 spatial streams.
• number of each finger printed device:  ipad, iphone, window, mac, other

We are trying to determing if going with a AP-135 with a 3x3:3 would be benefitial or deploying a AP-93H or AP-105 would be better and more cost effective.  There are two ways to think about this, one being that by using 3x3:3 users would get their data faster and free up radio time.  The other way of thinking is that most devices only use one spatial stream such as smart phones, and ipads, why would we want to spend the money for a AP-135 when it will not be used to it's capacity.

Eric

Susquehanna University

I'm going to put my two cents in, but please heed the rest of the community on this one:

At minimum, you should be using a dual-band radio to utilize as much spectrum as possible, so that means the AP93h is less useful in areas where you have a very dynamic user base that could benefit significantly from a dual-band access point.

The AP-105 is very cost effective, provides full spectrum capability and is a dual-band AP that offers 2x2 mimo.  Most "productivity" client devices like laptops are 2x2 mimo, so the AP105 matches up with the capability of these devices.  

There are devices that are out right now, like the new macbook pros and devices with the Intel 6000 series network cards which can leverage the 3X3:3 capability of the AP-135 and you would do well to pay attention to your user base to see if you can leverage the new technology.  This clients, of course will grow over time.  The unfortunate issue with 3x3:3 clients is that unless you have an AP-135 onsite, the devices will only be able to negotiate at 2x2, so you would not be able to determine the capability of your clients.  The best advice is to first place a few AP-135s in very crowded areas like in libraries so that you can contrast and compare that experience with what you are doing now.

With regards to measurement, if you want a very easy-to-evaluate solution, please contact your local Aruba Sales team to evaluate Airwave, which would provide you with the specific statistics you need to monitor your client capabilities.  If you still want to proceed with MRTG or Cacti, on the support site (support.arubanetworks.com), under Documentation and ArubaOS, find your version of ArubaOS and there should be a MIB reference guide that will let you know what Mibs to monitor.

I will add to what Colin stated. 

Get an eval copy of Airwave and take a look at the capabilities.  It's an added cost to the wireless deployment but well worth it for trending, reporting and troubleshooting, among other things.

With regards to AP105 vs AP135, you need to understand you end devices capabilities.  I'm currently implementing a large scale public wireless using the Aruba system and I opted for AP105 over the AP135.  Reason being is that the majority of devices that will use the public wireless will not be capable of 3x3 streams.

If you're running a pilot of AP105 and AP135, get the Airwave to trend the data for you, even if it's in eval mode (your local Aruba team can assist with this).  You will get a lot of data within a few days to better understand your environment.

-Mike