Anyone Try Ruckus?

Just read about Ruckus Wireless and how their equipment can blanket
houses with wireless with no speed degradation. Not using WDS that cuts
bandwidth 50% at every hop?

dan@nospam.com hath wroth:

>Just read about Ruckus Wireless and how their equipment can blanket
>houses with wireless with no speed degradation.

I prefer Airgo based products. Ruckus was formerly Video54. Their
"BeamFlex" technology is basically a smart antenna that figures out
where to put the peaks and the nulls and avoid inteference. It's used
by Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear Gen 1 Rangemax. It's better than
ordinary 802.11g, but not really the best. See comparison with other
MIMO method at:
| http://www.antennasonline.com/ast_ne..._11-05.htm#why

MIMO product comparison (a bit old):
| http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2005/11/28/mimo_face/

>Not using WDS that cuts
>bandwidth 50% at every hop?

Beam forming and beam steering have nothing to do with WDS. WDS is a
a store and forward repeater system that can simultaneously act as a
transparent bridge.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> dan@nospam.com hath wroth:
>
>> Just read about Ruckus Wireless and how their equipment can blanket
>> houses with wireless with no speed degradation.
>
> I prefer Airgo based products. Ruckus was formerly Video54. Their
> "BeamFlex" technology is basically a smart antenna that figures out
> where to put the peaks and the nulls and avoid inteference. It's used
> by Buffalo, Linksys, and Netgear Gen 1 Rangemax. It's better than
> ordinary 802.11g, but not really the best. See comparison with other
> MIMO method at:
> | http://www.antennasonline.com/ast_ne..._11-05.htm#why
>
> MIMO product comparison (a bit old):
> | http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2005/11/28/mimo_face/
>
>> Not using WDS that cuts
>> bandwidth 50% at every hop?
>
> Beam forming and beam steering have nothing to do with WDS. WDS is a
> a store and forward repeater system that can simultaneously act as a
> transparent bridge.
>

So it doesn't really work as advertised? I am thinking about a old
house with plaster walls and three floors. From what you say I guess
Ruckus can't cover this house without many many hop points and speed
degradation.

dan@nospam.com hath wroth:

>So it doesn't really work as advertised?

Yep. Everybody lies, but that's ok because nobody listens.
Did you read the article?
| http://www.antennasonline.com/ast_ne..._11-05.htm#why

Like I mumbled, RuckusWireless/Video54 beam switching[1] technology is
not really a big improvement over ordinary 802.11g. I had a good
laugh with the Netgear WPN824. The antenna is a flat circuit board
with 7 switched antenna elements (with lots of flashing lights). That
type of system really only works if the antenna were laid flat
horizontally. Yet, Netgear supplied a vertical "tower" mounting legs,
which negate all the beam switching benifits. Oh well.

Review of WPN824:
| http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2005/04/08/review_wpn824/
20 pages long and well worth reading if you're interested in the
technology. There are a few suprises, such as erratic performance in
one direction. See the summary chart on page 19.
"If you're using standard 11g gear, you may see some
improvement, but little if upgrading from Super-G stuff."

>I am thinking about a old
>house with plaster walls and three floors. From what you say I guess
>Ruckus can't cover this house without many many hop points and speed
>degradation.

All houses are different. Lath and plaster is fairly good at
blockiing RF because of the water in the plaster. Some plaster is
also laid over chicken wire which is also a bad idea. However, if the
plaster is fairly thin, you might have a chance. The easiest way to
tell is to do a "site survey". Borrow an ordinary 802.11g wireless
router. No need for an internet connection. Locate it at a
prospective position. Take a wireless laptop and walk around the
house. You should have a good or excellent signal level anywhere you
plan to use the wireless. It should a be a fairly stable signal, not
a single amazingly strong peak at one small location. Use Netstumbler
on a laptop for testing. Try different router locations and antenna
configurations. If the router is at one end of a long house, try a
reflector such as:
| http://www.freeantennas.com
My guess(tm) is that you'll have problems going through the floors to
the opposite end of the house.


[1] I'm not sure if RuckusWireless BeamFlex does beam switching or
beam forming and am too lazy to check at the momement.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558