[ietf78-tech] mobility controller/portal installation status

[Bill Jensen]

Folks,

At the risk of stealing thunder (or at least a solid golf clap) from 
someone more deserving individuals, I would like to report that we had 
some success in assuming control of the NH Hotel network service. 
Following the arrival of replacement hardware and a field early this 
morning, we set out to provide the most transparent service possible. 
That proved to be as challenging as one might imagine.  After burning 
some time attempting to configure for super transparency we adopted a 
fallback position which has much of the desired performance without 
redirection/rate limiting/port blocking (except TCP DNS).  All that and 
with the IETF meeting network as its upstream.  But this comes with a 
list of caveats, including the controller being in the path, vending 
1918 addresses, NATing, and providing anemic DNS service.  That said, 
the wireless experience seemed greatly improved - at least under the 
light morning load.  It remains to be seen how well things will be under 
heavy load.  It will certainly be far better than the original 
controller and upstream capacity combo.  And bear in mind that the 
ietf-nh SSID is still available to help offload some of the wireless demand.

-wej