Omada Helps Streamline MSP Operations by 30%
Deploying a new Wi-Fi system is never easy, especially when it’s for 14,000 condo units! So, it is imperative that you find the right system to:
- Streamline the set-up process
- Easily manage connected devices
- Provide convenience for your customers
For 16 years, IPacket Networks has installed and managed both wired and wireless networks in resort condominium buildings, with nearly 14,000 individual condo units currently under contract. To keep up with residents’ and guests’ growing technology needs, IPacket prepared to upgrade each property and thousands of individual condominium units to Wi-Fi 6. Phase one of the planned upgrade would replace the existing access points with dual-band Wi-Fi 6 access points. Looking to their existing Wi-Fi vendors for products to support the upgrade, IPacket found they had a problem.
“Both my other vendors were actually very depleted in stock, and they didn’t have Wi-Fi 6, so those were the first big drivers on what got me looking at TP-Link,” stated Luis Santos, vice president of engineering at IPacket Networks.”
IPacket evaluated Omada Wi-Fi 6 Access Point (AP) models and chose a few upgrade options. “We have one building that we deployed with EAP615-wall units. Now we’re settled on the EAP610 for the rest of our upgrades. I will be looking at the EAP660 because we’re starting to see demand, at least from a pricing standpoint, on 2.5 Gigabit, both optical and Ethernet-based service,” remarked Santos.
They were happy to find how readily available the inventory was, and the biggest feature surprise was the use of mesh wireless. This was beneficial for IPacket as they are installing systems on beachfront resorts, which means that most devices are in closets where wiring gets exposed to sea air, which results in copper corrosion. If an Access Point (AP) goes off the air because of this, then they can go to the switch, turn off the port, and mesh that AP with a neighboring AP, all without a truck roll.
One challenge they had was how many IoT devices per access point. The popularity of in-home IoT devices makes remotely managing rental units much easier for condo owners. While beneficial to some, these always-on devices posed a unique challenge when it came to managing them. As a solution, IPacket creates custom private networks for condo owners to help meet their individual needs. Residents can easily attach network IoT devices to their custom in-unit Wi-Fi network without receiving a security warning or requiring a call to support for help with individual device setup.
“We had been managing our 14,000 APs with various provisioning and management systems. Now that we’re using one controller for those functions, our operations team is much happier - it streamlined the way they work.”
To read the complete story and learn more about IPacket Networks and TP-Link solutions, click here. Learn more about each of the products used in this installation by clicking on the links below.
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Omada Software Controller
Centralized Management: Up to 1,500 Omada access points, JetStream switches, and Omada routers.
