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Man, LAX is pretty gnarly. Between taking photos of planes and APs, it's amazing I didn't miss a flight. First off, pretty obvious–at least in Terminal 2– that they're an all-Cisco shop. No shortage of 3702i APs anywhere.
Curiously, they also had a healthy amount of 3802e APs (“e” denotes a model with external antennas).
I’d love to know why they mixed models like this. They even had the two models fairly well intermixed; a specific model was not just in a specific area.
More spotting at airports! This time Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International. Cisco 1552 outdoor APs are providing WiFi coverage on the apron.
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ottawa International (YOW)
Ok, last of the airport posts for this week. This time, Vancouver International (YVR). Similar to SAN , YVR has Cisco APs providing Wi-Fi coverage in the rental car garage.
YVR Rental Car Garage
Unlike SAN, YVR went with the ruggedized Cisco 1532i AP which can operate in below-freezing temperatures.
What I like most about YVR’s network is their extensive use of the Cisco Hyperlocation Antenna. The 32-element antenna array wraps around the AP and plugs in on the bottom of the AP into the module slot.
Continuing on with this mini series on Wi-Fi at airports, here’s a couple of shots from O’Hare (ORD). ORD seems to be in the middle of either an evaluation/bake-off or a transition between vendors because I saw a healthy amount of Aruba and Cisco in the terminal (I don’t remember which terminal this was in).
Aruba at ORD
This looks like an Aruba AP-228 which, if I’ve identified this correctly, does make some sense because I spotted this unit in the jet bridge getting onto the plane and if you’ve ever walked on/off a plane somewhere in Canada in the dead of winter, you KNOW those things do not have very good temperature control.
Ok, more sightings at an airport! Similar to Calgary International (YYC) , San Diego International (SAN) has APs mounted right outside the terminal along the arrivals/departures road. SAN is using Cisco 1552s.
SAN Taxi Line AP
I’m sure the metal-wrapped cement column does wonders for the signal in the Taxi line. Also not sure why these APs are carrying the SSID for the conference room?
SAN SSIDs
What was cool though was in the rental center garage, there were APs everywhere.
Calgary International Airport (YYC) has completely transformed their Wi-Fi service is the last couple of years. They switched from their prior vendor to a 100% Cisco solution all while greatly increasing the quality of the network and expanding the network’s footprint so they can provide high quality connectivity in areas of the airport they couldn’t before.
First off, when you get dropped off at the airport, as soon as you step out of the car you’re within the Wi-Fi coverage area.
Usually you’d expect to find an industrial, IP67-rated access point such as the Cisco IW3702 in a harsh location such as in a manufacturing plant, on mining equipment, or mounted on a pole somewhere outside.
But this unit is located at Calgary International Airport (YYC) in the “A” wing of the Domestic Terminal Building. Specifically, it’s in the long, ground-level hall where passengers board the small, regional WestJet planes.
Cisco IW3702 at YYC in 'A' Hall
Lots of Cisco APs scattered around Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
I did not explore the other wings, but along the “A” gates there are 1552s spread around some of the jet bridges. It’s times like this I wish Apple iOS would accommodate WiFi scanning apps so I could see what networks are present in locations like this. I suspect handheld bag scanners used by the ground crew and possibly content downloads to the aircraft (in-flight movies and music).