Intel and Cisco LWAPP - Sucess at last

Question

I work for a large healthcare system that has a very large LWAPP deployment. We utilize the network for laptops, 7920 IP phones, and the new 7921 phones. We have HP laptops with Intel wireless cards. We have both the HP 6120 and 6320 laptops with the Intel 2915 and 3945 Intel wireless abg clients. There has always been a beacon interoperability problem between these intel clients and lwapp. This has been a huge issue that neither Intel nor Cisco has wanted to deal with.
The problem has finally been resolved with LWAPP code release 4.1.185.0. I upgraded my 4404-100 controllers to 4.1.185.0 to fix some possible arp issues I was seeing on our new Cisco 7921 phones. Not only did it resolve the arp problem, all my Intel problems went away.
It was interesting because I did the upgrade the night before I had HP and Intel engineers onsite to troubleshoot the interoperability issues - we were giving them one more chance to resolve the issue before we were probably going to switch to a different laptop and wireless card that had a proven record for working with LWAPP - like Thinkpad with atheros.
When the engineers arrived, the problem could not be reproduced - constant drops off the network and wild roaming (we have a very dense AP deployment (1232 & 1242 APs).
We recretaed the problem by downgrading a controller to 4.1.171.
I am extermely happy that we finally found a code to support the laptops and is also still compatabile with our 7921 phones. We have about 200 7921 phones we are deploying on 802.11a. We plan on keeping the data on b/g.
I am posting this just in case other people have similar issues.

Answer 1

We upgraded the WLC to 4.1.185 and we changed the power settings on the Intel card from the default to MAX.
Do a right click on your PC--->Properties---Hardware--->Device Manager--->Intel Wireless--->Properties--->Power Management.
Here is the straight talk from the Intel site:
If the wireless access point (AP) or broadband wireless router does not properly support the PSP feature, intermittent loss of wireless connection, inability to initiate a wireless connection, or poor wireless connection data performance could result. The symptoms may be more pronounced when on battery power.
Cause:
In a mobile environment, power save polling mode is a feature for extended battery life for mobile stations. The capability requires coordination between the AP/router and the laptop's wireless adapter for proper operations. Intel has discovered the feature may not be implemented correctly or completely in some wireless access points or wireless gateway devices.
Solution:
Contact the AP/router vendor for updated software or firmware that corrects the problem.
As a temporary workaround, manually set the wireless adapter to CAM (continually aware mode), which disables the PSP capability. To do this, in either Intel? PROSet/Wireless Software or the Network Control Panel Applet (NCPA), in the power management section, uncheck the DEFAULT / AUTO selection and set the slider for HIGHEST / MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE.
Notes:
To ensure the adapter is set to CAM - if the slider is already at the HIGHEST / MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE setting, move the slider to another setting and then back to HIGHEST / MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE.
Hope this helps.