[Rack] New AP network?

[Jonathan Lassoff]

These are pretty neat, though the management software is really only
useful for pushing configurations around.

I played with one of these very briefly, and it didn't seem like it
did anything like running "lightweight" APs or tunneling 802.11 frames
back to the controller software.
Without this, it's not clear to me how they can manage or balance
client associations across APs. Forcefully dis-associate clients and
hope they reconnect elsewhere?

Last I was there, I found from Ruckus APs and one of their smaller
"ZoneDirector" boxes. I believe that these *do* tunnel 802.11 back to
the controller.
I think that these also potentially support CAPWAP (though I don't
know of anyone using it with these), which means that we could
potentially use other-vendor APs as well. There may even be CAPWAP
firmware for the existing Cisco APs as well.

The disadvantage in a centralized controller, IMO, is that the
stability of the whole network rests on that one box working. Whereas,
with stand-alone routers and APs that can function on their own, it
makes the network potentially more resilient to partial failures.
However, in the context of 2169, we still only have one or two main
switches and one router, so this argument probably isn't practical to
have. :p

--j