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Best Practices For WLAN Design
Best Practices For WLAN Design
1 Requirements
Coverage: Capacity:
3.3
- Area to cover - Number of end user Wi-Fi The average number
- Optimize for 2.4 (lower cost) devices of connected devices
or 5GHz (capacity)? - Applications run on each per knowledge worker
- Use VoIP, video or data? device type by 2014
Cisco IBSG Horizons BYOD and Virtualization Survey
Report
Number of users
Best Practices
- The more time you use to plan, the less
you’ll spend on-site
Walls and Floors
- Garbage in, garbage out: Use high-quality
Dry wall attenuates 2-4dB.
Brick wall, 6-10dB.
maps. Draw the main walls
Floor attenuates typically - Set the scale carefully, using a long wall
30-40dBm - Don’t overdo it: Usually you don’t need to
define walls separately
- Pay attention to floor-to-floor RF leakage: It
can work for your benefit, or against you
(interference)
Antennas
Use directional antennas to
keep the signal in building,
with very high capacity and
high-floor environments.
AP Locations
Driven by coverage and
Channels capacity requirements.
Use auto-RF (self-
healing, easy) or
assign manually
Technologies
(keep control).
Latest tech provides highest
speeds, 2nd latest may be
cost-effective.
Walking speed?
As fast as you want, if you
have 2 or more external
Wi-Fi adapters.
Glossary
Active survey = measure packets in two
directions (send & receive). Used for packet
Make Your Surveying Life Easier
loss, packet delay,…
1. Cut your surveys in short segments
Passive survey = listen to probes & beacons 2. Use touch screen
passively. Used for coverage & SNR maps, 3. Get a lighter tablet or laptop
etc.
4. Get several people to survey
Hybrid survey = passive & active 5. Use a Segway ;)
simultaneously
5 Troubleshooting
Verify coverage, connectivity and capacity with a single walk-through throughout the site – after Wi-Fi has been deployed.
(A big thank you to Jim Florwick and Keith Parsons for contributing to the tips)