WLAN 8100

[Binu]

Hi Any one using the new WLAN 8100 controllers , appreciate your feed back about the product .

Thanks

Binu 

[Michael McNamara]

I had a presentation on the new WLAN 8100 solution from Avaya a few weeks back but we're still running Motorola (formerly Symbol) today.

It was interesting to see them taking the L2/L3 mobility issue along with the hybrid FAT access point and describe how that L2/L3 mobility issue can be off-loaded to the Ethernet Routing Switch at the closet level.

I have some slides that are non-NDA that I could share.... no time right now.

Cheers!

[alexbat]

Avaya says that the next generation (!) WLAN8100 will be built on split plane architecture. Some wlan vendors already have this solutions with VM-controllers. These solutions are strong competitors to Avaya WLAN8100.

[Jon Hurtt]

Avaya says that the next generation (!) WLAN8100 will be built on split plane architecture. Some wlan vendors already have this solutions with VM-controllers. These solutions are strong competitors to Avaya WLAN8100.

Kind of curious of which vendors also have Split Plane Technology?

[Michael McNamara]

Hi Jon,

In my opinion it's taking the hybrid fat/thin access point/port one step further than marrying it to the infrastructure (which I'm not really a fan of).

In the old days fat Access Points ruled the world and Symbol quickly proved that thin Access Ports (Points) were the future and everybody followed them. Fast forward to 2011 and with 802.11n and data rates approaching 300Mbps it starts to become problematic tunneling all that traffic back to a centralized WLAN controller. The solution has been to deploy a hybrid access point that can be managed by the WLAN controller but can bridge (forward traffic) locally without tunneling it back to the controller. Motorola (formerly Symbol) calls this the Adaptive Access Point but all the major vendors have very similar capabilities.

While the WLAN 8100 is innovative it's not something I would be very keen to deploying. You are essentially embedding WLAN controller functionality into the Ethernet Routing Switches. While that sounds like an interesting idea I'm concerned about software stability issues and the overall stability of the network infrastructure.

Cheers!

[Jon Hurtt]

Hi Jon,

In my opinion it's taking the hybrid fat/thin access point/port one step further than marrying it to the infrastructure (which I'm not really a fan of).

In the old days fat Access Points ruled the world and Symbol quickly proved that thin Access Ports (Points) were the future and everybody followed them. Fast forward to 2011 and with 802.11n and data rates approaching 300Mbps it starts to become problematic tunneling all that traffic back to a centralized WLAN controller. The solution has been to deploy a hybrid access point that can be managed by the WLAN controller but can bridge (forward traffic) locally without tunneling it back to the controller. Motorola (formerly Symbol) calls this the Adaptive Access Point but all the major vendors have very similar capabilities.

While the WLAN 8100 is innovative it's not something I would be very keen to deploying. You are essentially embedding WLAN controller functionality into the Ethernet Routing Switches. While that sounds like an interesting idea I'm concerned about software stability issues and the overall stability of the network infrastructure.

Cheers!

Completely understood, just curious of there were other vendors/manufacturers who have embedded WLAN forwarding into their L2/L3 Switches without additional hardware which will allow for virtualization of the Wireless Controller, which is what I thought @alexbat was saying...

Also note that many "hybrid" Access Points or "Fit" access points don't address the challenges of mobility & roaming with sensitive devices and concerns with increased cost for embedding the "horsepower" to handle additional functionality of forwarding WLAN Traffic. The points you bring up about software and network stability seem to be valid with any new feature that is introduced, and I guess can only be answered with time...

[HRK]

Please share some presentation for WLAN8100.

I want to know...
aa) Hybrid AP can do switching and routing by itself, or collaborate with L3SW for do them?
bb) I do not know how the split plane impact. How many APs the split plane is effective?
cc) How to do for the interoperability with the exsiting WLAN2300?

[Emilio_Lizardo]

I can tell you that V1.1 is in beta right now and should address certain short comings, nothing extravagant.  I've had limited experience in the lab with the box.  My main take away was about Avaya WMS, when in doubt go back to CLI, a little buggy at times.

[Jon Hurtt]

Please share some presentation for WLAN8100.

I want to know...
aa) Hybrid AP can do switching and routing by itself, or collaborate with L3SW for do them?
bb) I do not know how the split plane impact. How many APs the split plane is effective?
cc) How to do for the interoperability with the exsiting WLAN2300?

if you want a presentation i would contact your local Avaya SE, below is some information

AA) In the WLAN 8100, the data path will be forwarded by the L2/L3 Switch
BB) Haven't seen any capacity numbers with the L2/L3 WLAN Forwarding with respect to # of APs, it will probably be more about the amount of traffic.
CC) There will be no interoperability between the two platforms, but i do know there are promotions to help with the cost of upgrading from 2300 to 8100, contact your local Avaya Sales Rep for more info...

http://www.avaya.com/usa/product/wireless-lan-8100-series
Avaya WLAN 8100 Portfolio

[alexbat]

Completely understood, just curious of there were other vendors/manufacturers who have embedded WLAN forwarding into their L2/L3 Switches without additional hardware which will allow for virtualization of the Wireless Controller, which is what I thought @alexbat was saying...

Hi all,
for example http://www.bluesocket.com/products/vwlan

[Jon Hurtt]

Completely understood, just curious of there were other vendors/manufacturers who have embedded WLAN forwarding into their L2/L3 Switches without additional hardware which will allow for virtualization of the Wireless Controller, which is what I thought @alexbat was saying...

Hi all,
for example http://www.bluesocket.com/products/vwlan

Seems like that the WLAN Forwarding is performed by the Access point rather then L2/L3 Switch..  but yes the WLAN Controller is Virtualized as it will be with WLAN 8100.

[alexbat]

What is the difference in who will be responsible for "split plane"?
It is obvious that:
- decreases the traffic of the data core switches;
- WLAN capacity increases in direct proportion to the number of access points.

[Binu]

Hi

Does the new 8120 AP support 3x3 MIMO ?

Binu

[Michael McNamara]

Google can be a great asset...

http://www.avaya.com/usa/resource/assets/factsheet/State%20of%20Mississippi%20Product%20and%20Services%20Catalog.pdf

[semert]

Hi

Does the new 8120 AP support 3x3 MIMO ?

Binu

2x3, but reportedly, with the chipset that is being used by Avaya in the 8100, the throughput is virtually identical to 3x3.