Aruba conquers challenge of Wi-Fi scalability

Every Wi-Fi vendor talks in their marketing material about scaling up for enterprise service, but how many actually walk the walk? We found out after conducting our largest Wi-Fi test ever.

Teaming with test-equipment vendor VeriWave, we assessed Wi-Fi controllers and access points the way they're used in large enterprises - with dozens of access points and hundreds of clients roaming simultaneously. Large-scale testing is a better predictor of performance in enterprise settings, and it's more stressful on the equipment than the usual method of running just a few FTP sessions on a small collection of access points.

Our testing turned up several surprises:

* Of the 19 vendors we invited, only two - Aruba Wireless Networks and Meru Networks - participated. Others weren't so eager to have 25 access points tested at the same time. To be fair, Trapeze Networks expressed interest, but new-product cycles prevented the company from participating. Other vendors either declined our invitation or were eerily silent in response to our requests (see "Running scared?").

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* While Aruba's gear generally performed well, linear scalability isn't necessarily a given. We found cases where performance on a per-client basis is lower in tests with 25 access points than in tests with a single access point.

* Meru was a repeat victim of Murphy's Law. Configuration gremlins and problems in a beta version of its access points prevented the vendor from concluding our tests (see "Meru, meet Murphy").

* If you push hard enough, even the 802.11 standard will fall apart. Our tests uncovered a design flaw in the Wi-Fi specifications, and as a result the IEEE now is considering fixes for the forthcoming 802.11n and 802.11.2 standards (see "Breaking the standards").

In the end, Aruba's 5000 and 6000 controllers and Aruba 70 access points put up excellent numerical results in almost all our tests, earning the vendor a Clear Choice Award. The performance in some tests even exceeded theoretical limits, thanks to the vendor's use of a rarely implemented part of the 802.11 standard.