Page 147 - Security Today, September 2017

TRUE OR FALSE: THE AVERAGE COLLEGE STUDENT BRINGS THREE WI-FI DEVICES TO CAMPUS.
False. There’s no such thing as an “average” college student.
The other part is false as well. While most students bring a laptop, tablet, and smartphone, that’s just the beginning. You can add to that e-readers, gaming consoles, wireless printers, Wi-Fi speakers, AppleTVs, smart TVs, Blu-Ray players, and more. Just for fun, you can also add in wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness bands. So, while the three device rule might have been accurate a few years ago, that number has since gone out the window. According to a re:fuel Agency’s 2015 College Explorer report, the average college student brings seven internet-connected devices to campus, and upgrades devices frequently.
EXPLAIN WHY ADDING ADDITIONAL ACCESS POINTS IN HIGH-DENSITY AREAS IS A BAD CALL.
If you said something to the effect of “It costs more money and creates more interference,” you get full marks. While adding APs to a Wi-Fi deployment can add capacity to a point, if you add too many, they become counter-productive. Basically, the top source of Wi-Fi interference is...other Wi-Fi signals! Adding more APs often worsens the experience by introducing additional interference and increasing the likelihood of more than one AP communicating with the same device over the same channel.
Erik Heinrich, Education Technology Evangelist at Ruckus, points out that a single Ruckus R720 Access Point can replace more than one legacy AP due to its greater performance and capacity, which in turn reduces related costs of additional APs. “Additionally, the R720 offers support for multi-gigabit backhaul over existing Cat5e Ethernet cabling, to support Wave 2 Wi-Fi speeds that can exceed the limits of 1GbE,” he adds. “By upgrading to the R720, end users can drastically improve performance, capacity, reliability, and do so without upgrading cabling. By upgrading to an R720, customers are adding future protection and delivering a premium experience to all the latest end-user Wi-Fi enabled devices.”
WHY IS WAVE 2 BETTER SUITED FOR COLLEGE CAMPUSES THAN WAVE 1?
While we will also accept “because it is.” The more correct answer is: Wave 2 offers improvement in user experience through increased speed and capacity, solving the top two challenges facing campus Wi-Fi. Among the most important Wave 2 technologies is the addition of a fourth spatial stream, which is akin to adding another “lane on a freeway” to pass more data to more clients.
You get a bonus point if you mention that with the addition of Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO), which enables each of these four streams to service a different client simultaneously as opposed to being served in sequence, the R720 improves the experience for all users in a high density environment.
BONUS: WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DEFINES THE TERM “COVERAGE” FOR COLLEGE CAMPUSES?
1. Coverage = devices can see the Wi-Fi network.
2. Coverage = devices can see and connect to the Wi-Fi network.
3. Coverage = devices can see, connect to and consistently access the Wi-Fi network.
If you answered anything other than 3, maybe this isn’t the field for you. Wi-Fi “coverage” simply isn’t coverage unless devices can consistently access the Wi-Fi network. And, while increasing an APs transmit power makes it more likely to consistently send data to devices, it does absolutely nothing to make it more likely to receivwe data from devices. That’s because increasing AP transmit power does not increase device transmit power. And without an increase in both, true coverage won’t be improved.
So, how’d you do? Unfortunately, when you’re out in the field, you’re not being graded on a curve. It’s a straight-forward Pass/Fail, so you better be prepared. Our children’s futures are in your hands. No pressure.
Looking for a little extra credit? Call your ScanSource sales representative to schedule a demo of the Ruckus R720 Access Point.
ScanSource Security Focus FALL 2017 | 6