Microsoft supports 4,500-AP WLAN with five people

Internal WLAN grows by 50 APs a month at Microsoft

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

The last time we dropped in on Microsoft's internal wireless LAN installation was last June. Since then, the network has been growing by about 50 Cisco access points per month to nearly 4,500 as of last week, says Microsoft wireless network engineer Don Berry.

Microsoft says it maintains its global, 25,000-user WLAN with a support team of just five people - not 60, as reported in one of my newsletters last month. That article stated that San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, Calif., had avoided installing a Cisco WLAN in part because it was under the impression that Microsoft required a 60-person support staff for it.

Rather, Microsoft's initial pilot in 2000 indicated that more than 60 technician calls each day would be generated by 40 Cisco APs in the company's Redmond, Wash., offices. However, Microsoft did not find that acceptable and so it built its own automated management infrastructure to streamline operations, such that APs didn't have to be touched except to be installed and replaced.

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The last time we dropped in on Microsoft's internal wireless LAN installation was last June. Since then, the network has been growing by about 50 Cisco access points per month to nearly 4,500 as of last week, says Microsoft wireless network engineer Don Berry.

Microsoft says it maintains its global, 25,000-user WLAN with a support team of just five people - not 60, as reported in one of my newsletters last month. That article stated that San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, Calif., had avoided installing a Cisco WLAN in part because it was under the impression that Microsoft required a 60-person support staff for it.

Rather, Microsoft's initial pilot in 2000 indicated that more than 60 technician calls each day would be generated by 40 Cisco APs in the company's Redmond, Wash., offices. However, Microsoft did not find that acceptable and so it built its own automated management infrastructure to streamline operations, such that APs didn't have to be touched except to be installed and replaced.

Remember: these were the days before the slick radio frequency management tools became available from many start-ups and, more recently, Cisco.

The management architecture took Microsoft about four months to build and deploy, but it resulted in Berry being the only Microsoft employee who works full-time on the internal wireless network.

Using a console port in the Cisco AP connected to a terminal server in the cabling room, for example, network administrators can configure the AP with an IP address, troubleshoot it, and upgrade it remotely. Berry says the Microsoft network operations center fields about 45 hours a week of wireless service calls and that about 3% of help desk calls are related to the wireless network.

Microsoft's WLAN is still built entirely on Cisco 340 and 350 Series APs. Those devices have been end-of-lifed by Cisco, which now sells its Cisco IOS-based 1200 (dual-radio) and 1100 (single-radio) series devices. Berry says the Cisco 1200s have been certified for use within Microsoft (with 802.11b radios only) going forward.

Next time: Microsoft embarks on an initiative to raise the WLAN bar throughout the company.

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.