Welcome to our new WiFi Ninjas Podcast episode!
In this episode Mac and Matt discuss at a high level how they design WiFi for the enterprise as they look to share their personal experience and tips with you.
Capture requirements:
- High Density / data (to be covered in more details in future episode)
- Voice (see episode 11 with Andy)
- RTLS (to be covered in more details in future episode)
- Zone analytics
- Location tracking or wayfinding
- Trilateration
- Hyperlocation
- BLE / vBLE
- Asset tracking / tags
- Apps or no apps
Capture success criteria:
- Capacity
- Apps in use
- Head count
- Devices in use
- Device count
- Physical
- SNR
- RSSI
- Overlapping
Make basics right:
- Do a proper survey (see episode 3 – predictive survey)
- Go to the site
- Measure walls and ceilings attenuation
- Understand mounting limitations
- Check RF
- Check DFS
- APs count, model, antenna and placement for different use case
- Omni vs directional
- Aesthetic considerations
- Visible or not
- Flat antenna under the ceiling and AP in plenum?
- Colour
- Architectural considerations
- Listed buildings
- Custom requirements – lifts, landlord owned staircases, steel beams etc.
- High density / basic data
- Focus on capacity and coverage
- Voice
- Focus on roaming
- RTLS
- Focus on location accuracy
- Physical APs mounting considerations
- Obstructions
- Reflectors
- Absorbers
- Scaterers (is that a word?)
- Consider wavelength if mounting really close to the obstructions, especially if they’re highly reflective
- AP at least 1 wavelength away
- 2.4GHz wavelength: 12.5cm
- 5GHz wavelength: 6cm
- Consider close field interference
- Consider overlaid wireless (not only WiFi) networks
- Consider other interferers
- Obstructions
Vendor / partner choice:
- Staff skills
- Managed services?
- Fit for purpose
- Is on-prem or cloud a preference?
- Consider the complexity of the solution vs benefits
Architecture: (to be covered in more details in future episode)
- All the above will dictate architecture choices
- Management
- Data switching
- Authentication
Keith Parson AP Power Level Chart:
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