Time Warner Cable is hooking up attendees at this week’s Democratic National Convention with Wi-Fi gear from Ruckus Wireless.
Time Warner Cable has installed Ruckus’ ZoneFlex family of Smart Wireless LAN (WLAN) systems to deliver high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the 19,000-seat Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C.
Time Warner Cable has previously used Ruckus Wi-Fi equipment for indoor and outdoor hotspots, including in its largest Wi-Fi deployment to date in Los Angeles.
The new Time Warner Cable Arena Wi-Fi network replaced a legacy Wi-Fi network with more than 120 purpose-built Ruckus ZoneFlex high-capacity indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi access points (APs) with integrated adaptive antenna arrays that focus signals only where they are needed, steering transmissions around obstacles while cutting down interference.
In addition to Time Warner Cable, Ruckus worked with its integration partner, Arris, to develop high-density, sectorized antenna arrays and figure out the ideal placement of the APs to narrowly focus signals while also maintaining visual aesthetics. As a result, the arena now has enhanced capacity where the network is used most and long-range coverage in other parts of the arena.
The APs include indoor dual-band 802.11n 7363s and 7962s and outdoor dual-band 7762s.
The arena is surrounded by a fiber ring connected to PoE switches in wiring closets. The switches then connect to Gigabit Ethernet copper, which interconnects the Ruckus APs. The entire network is managed with a ZoneDirector 5000 housed at Time Warner Cable’s Herndon Data Center, where all arena Wi-Fi traffic is routed. Time Warner Cable runs the network with multiple VLANs – one for public access and others for arena staff, food and beverage service, and onsite ticketing scanners.
The system provides coverage to the locker rooms, luxury suites, concourses and back office areas in the facility. The arena is also the home of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats and is host to a variety of events such as concerts, ice shows and other sporting events.
