I recently listened to the awesome episode of the Wireless LAN Professionals podcast which you can check out here:
This was Episode 116 where Keith Parsons was interviewing Jim Palmer about some of his design principles at an unnamed international airport that he is employed at.
So here are the Stats:
Business Goals: To provide internet to the public at speeds of 200-300 mbps
Channel Width: 40 MHz channels in most public areas
Internet Backhaul: 2 10GB Ethernet pipes
Rate Limiting: No
Antennas: Directional
DHCP Lease time: 15 Minutes
DHCP Pool: /16 Flushed every 30 minutes
Security: None – No Captive Portal, No WPA2 Password, Nothing…
So the thinking for the business is that the customers of the airport want to be able to download content for airplane rides or to stream something while waiting on a layover. To allow customers to have a positive experience there are very few limitations on the public Wi-Fi at this particular airport.
There is so much logic and data to backup this highly unusual public Wi-Fi design implementation that it makes me wonder why more airports and other public areas aren’t more like this one.
Give this episode a listen, and then comment away. I’d like to know the community’s thoughts on this.
Unexpected Wifi 