Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi

NVM · 17-03-2012, 20:48

Ruckus, with its beam forming abilities would be good, but the fact is that Cisco Aironet kit has kept appearing on main stations for several months now. Waterloo is a good example, but look around you will spot loads when you look for them.

Is it odd that Virgin Media managed to secure this contract over the regular people in this field like Cloud (Sky) and BT, and even "new-comers" like O2? I have tried to find another example of a Virgin Media public Wi-fi installation, and have so far failed to find a single example.

The London Underground environment will clearly be very challenging, travellers moving through a station will associate and disassociate with APs pretty quickly, and will move between AP domains (stations?) pretty rapidly.

I am wondering if Cisco can support these rapid changes in location / IP addresses. There are reasons that Manhattan has 20K Public Wi-fi APs above ground but far less in the NY MTA below ground.

A critical parameter will be how they cope with a train load of say 1,000 users with say 20% having Wi-fi enabled devices arriving and passing the first AP on a platform in a 15 second window as the train arrives.

17-03-2012, 20:48	#36
NVM Curious about VM Wi-fi Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 1	Re: Virgin Media to supply Tube Wi-Fi Ruckus, with its beam forming abilities would be good, but the fact is that Cisco Aironet kit has kept appearing on main stations for several months now. Waterloo is a good example, but look around you will spot loads when you look for them. Is it odd that Virgin Media managed to secure this contract over the regular people in this field like Cloud (Sky) and BT, and even "new-comers" like O2? I have tried to find another example of a Virgin Media public Wi-fi installation, and have so far failed to find a single example. The London Underground environment will clearly be very challenging, travellers moving through a station will associate and disassociate with APs pretty quickly, and will move between AP domains (stations?) pretty rapidly. I am wondering if Cisco can support these rapid changes in location / IP addresses. There are reasons that Manhattan has 20K Public Wi-fi APs above ground but far less in the NY MTA below ground. A critical parameter will be how they cope with a train load of say 1,000 users with say 20% having Wi-fi enabled devices arriving and passing the first AP on a platform in a 15 second window as the train arrives.