What is the opinion of the volunteer teams on equipment?
One options would be to try to get a preferred vendor to supply some equipment in return for being able to claim that their equipment is used by the IETF.
I think most would say, "something that is mainstream and I'm familiar with since I only have two days to get it working." Cisco and Juniper, on the router/switch side, have been consistently generous in this regard and there has been a general consistency and reliability on the backbone and wired network.
On the wireless side, that is an industry and technology that is still evolving and changing every 6 months, it seems, with new access and security standards and new system management varieties still coming onto the market.
I'm not a wireless expert, but it seems for something like an IETF meeting, you need industrial-strength managed systems, which means pricey. Standard independent APs without coordinated power management, tools for rogue AP detection, etc. would have a difficult time in such an assignment.
I'm not sure there would be many wireless vendors who would be eager to step up to the plate to "show off" their otherwise-fine new product in a non-typical, high-stress environment where less-than-satisfactory performance is a high probability. Also, I wouldn't overestimate the sales benefit of such a sponsorship among their typical business customer base who are more likely than not to respond, "IETF? What's that?"
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