Wi-Fi is good, but it is normal. Practice using Ruckus in the office

Home vs Professional

Well-known solutions from the manufacturer of WiFi equipment RuckusWireless for high-performance networks with roaming support and a load of more than 100 clients per access point. On the manufacturer's website you can see examples of the implementation of such networks from hundreds and even thousands of access points. But does it make sense to use Ruckus equipment (from $ 500 per point in MSRP prices) in networks consisting of several access points, or can simpler solutions be used in such tasks? Today we want to give a small example showing the difference between carrier-class systems and less expensive, let's say, household solutions.


One of our partners was faced with the task of deploying a small radio network. The network was intended for co-working clients (co-working) —independent employees working in the same room and using the same infrastructure. The object was planned to accommodate 75-100 subscribers with typical office worker traffic. The network did not provide for the transmission of voice data, or access to large databases. Since the load seemed insignificant to the client, he decided to limit himself to the use of an inexpensive WiFi solution based on Unifi equipment, believing that such a small implementation would be a legacy .
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The object of coverage: an office, or rather a large, open-plan hall with an area of ​​350 sq. M. m., as well as a meeting room of 30 square meters. m, plus 100 square meters. m street area next to the building.

Building plan and equipment layout

Based on the planned load - up to 30 people per device, the network was built on 5 Unifi access points and a program controller of the 2nd version. Network authorization scheme: fixed key authorization. Capacity per client was planned in the region of 2 Mbit / s with maximum attendance and 10 Mbit / s with a small number of connections. Central authentication is not used.

The deployment of the network did not present any difficulties, as well as its work with a load of several clients, however, as the number of connections increased, the picture changed significantly.

First of all, the uneven division of the bandwidth affected - when setting a limit of 10 Mbit / s in the menu, with a large number of connections, the bandwidth was divided unevenly, one client received full speed, the other had low speed and long pings. In reality, it turned out that, with the planned number of connections, the Unifi controller limits the speed to 2 Mbit / s per client, while even within such limits, the speed was unstable and constantly “swam”.

Particularly unpleasant was the fact that the least demanding of users suffered from this. For example, downloading data by torrent protocols by few users made the quality of communication via Skype unacceptable, and working on the Internet was uncomfortable for all users. Even with the introduction of limiter traffic on the access point, customers continued to complain about high latency, and even 2 Mbit / s was clearly not enough to work with modern data volumes.

The next problem was roaming between access points. Although the majority of clients did not move around the premises, client devices periodically made decisions about switching to another access point due to changes in the signal level and repeats on the air, and switching occurred with a half-second disconnection.

Network problems are unpleasant in their own right, but even more unpleasant was the lack of detailed system documentation and manufacturer support. By the way, even in Ubiquiti they could not solve the problem either. It became clear that for commercial implementation you should not choose solutions that are supported, practically, only on the forum, where your question may simply not be answered, advise to wait for the new controller version, suggest doing power and channel planning, that is, doing work instead controller.

In connection with the unstable network operation, it was decided to rebuild it using Ruckus Wireless equipment. The equipment used was the access points of the ZoneFlex model 7363 - the device of the middle class from the manufacturer's point of view:


ZF7363 Access Point

Technically and externally similar to Unifi point: 2 MIMO streams, 300 Mbps channel speed, however, has two radio modules and, in contrast to the competitor, an adaptive antenna. Also used was the ZoneDirector 1106 controller, a younger series, with support for 6 access points and the ability to expand to 50 access points by installing additional licenses.


ZD1100 Series Controller

The controller's tasks are client roaming between access points without disconnecting, fair customer service in terms of base station operation time and radio scheduling function.

The use of Ruckus equipment allowed us to solve network problems with stability and performance. The customer service mechanism with a fair distribution of time among active customers allowed us not to use traffic limiting, thus ensuring optimal network performance and a high throughput rate of re-subscription.


Relatively uniform distribution of spectrum and traffic

The average bandwidth per user with a typical load increased from 1-2 Mbit / s to 8-11 Mbit / s, it became possible to use audio / video communication in a stable mode. The key distribution mechanism allowed users to carry out an unbreakable handover without breaking the connection. An adaptive antenna significantly increased network jamming and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which had a positive effect on network performance and on the percentage of repetitions.

Currently, the network has more than 100 active devices, the traffic is about 30-50 Mbit / s.


Typical number of users


Radio network traffic

Findings:

Using the example of building even a small WiFi network, we were able to see how important the functionality and performance of access points were, and their collaboration with the controller to ensure stable network operation. Also important was the technical support of the equipment. Therefore, we have no doubt that in the case of commercial use of the network or its organization, it is necessary to use carrier-class solutions to provide critical or socially significant services.