Campus Challenges

[NetworkGroover]

Soooooooo...

Back to the campuses...

Let's talk about how some places go insane with AP density... and then others where it literally takes a local city council approval to mount a new AP - where it has to also get approval of the architect firm that designed the building!

Yuck - sounds like layer 8 issues with red tape and/or lack of proper site survey/provisioning.  Layer 8 issues are everywhere.

[deanwebb]

Where I used to work, the campus in Europe had been designed by a Very Important Architect and his firm was able to exercise artistic control over any alterations to the look and feel of the interior space. A white plastic AP just wouldn't do. They all had to be mounted in the ceiling. But that meant specialized workers doing delicate operations because of the wood used to finish off the ceiling. That was going to be very, very expensive, even with a lower AP density than originally proposed.

That original proposal was 1 AP per 3 people in the building.

Anyway, the next proposal that was seriously considered was mounting the APs under the desk, right above the legs. That led to a health and safety concern, exposing a body to heat and radiation so closely...

So the company was then looking at more drastic choices, exploring to see what would be cheaper: suing the firm for a contract change, demolishing the building, or using it as a warehouse. I was at first dumbstruck that those would even be considered, but quickly realized those were basically to message the architecture firm that the current arrangement was unworkable and that those guys were about to get a rep for making buildings that would be poison pills - once bought, they'd never be truly usable. That firm got the message loud and clear and offered up a "free" design solution: some tasteful boxes that would attach via some really cool industrial adhesive to the ceiling. They were made of the same wood that the ceiling was made from and had a nice organic look to them.

So, we would mount the APs as normal and then the firm would send some lads over to apply the organic covers.

[Otanx]

Friend of mine used to work in a historic town. The historic building register basically ran the town. No changes to the look, feel, or view of a historic building. So even if your building wasn't historic if a historic building had line of site to you they got to approve/disapprove your changes. One of the historic buildings? The old city water tower on the hill. Line of site to basically everything. External antennas for wifi? Nope. Radio tower to get a point to point wireless? Nope. Wanted to tear up the road to run fiber? Better fix it using the right methods and materials to keep the historic look and feel of the roads. His campus was pair gain modems running over old copper phone lines.

Realized that while the commute for me would be awesome I don't want to work there.

-Otanx

[deanwebb]

I agree. And I also didn't want to work in that other building I described, especially after the wireless guy handed us all an AP, told us to put it in our laps, and then plug it in to test wireless reception. We all looked at him like he was crazy and he replied, "That's what they want to do at the HQ!"

[Nerm]

Friend of mine used to work in a historic town. The historic building register basically ran the town. No changes to the look, feel, or view of a historic building. So even if your building wasn't historic if a historic building had line of site to you they got to approve/disapprove your changes. One of the historic buildings? The old city water tower on the hill. Line of site to basically everything. External antennas for wifi? Nope. Radio tower to get a point to point wireless? Nope. Wanted to tear up the road to run fiber? Better fix it using the right methods and materials to keep the historic look and feel of the roads. His campus was pair gain modems running over old copper phone lines.

Realized that while the commute for me would be awesome I don't want to work there.

-Otanx

Sounds like the town I live in. Local historical society is like the f'n mafia.

[config t]

Historical societies, HOA's, all the same. Give a small group of people a little power and watch em go.