9. These guys and 500,000+ others use our
stuff.
“The simplest and most effective way to design,
evaluate and document Wi-Fi.”
- Blake Krone / Experienced wireless consultant
“This tool rocks! For years, our field teams and our
partners have been using Ekahau Wi-Fi Tools.”
- William Aguilar / Extreme Networks
“Absolutely the best live surveying tool around”
- Bruce Alexander / Cisco Systems
“First class products and continuous development and
innovation”
- Ian Morris / MLR Networks
“Using <competing product> is like pulling your nails out.”
- Justin Cetko, WLAN Consultant / Skyline Networks
“Happy to say it’s the best survey/planning tool I’ve
worked with.”
- Tom Berry / Meru Networks
“Great investment, exceptional software. Extremely
accurate planning.”
- Ben Cabrera / Stater Bros. Markets
“Quickest to use, superior accuracy. Customer support
has the friendliest bunch of folks.
- Jim Florwick / Cisco Systems
10. If you only have 5 minutes today
1. Talk to people
2. Map is your friend
3. The world is not 2D
4. Coverage is easy…
5. … but channel overlap is harder…
6. … and capacity is … like … ultra-complex
7. Don’t always plan.
11. The Goal of Wi-Fi Planning
Determine
1. the minimum number of APs and
2. optimal AP configurations
to best satisfy the users’ requirements
13. Methods
Various ways to design Wi-Fi networks:
1. Best guess
2. Square feet/meter
3. Map-based ROM
4. Map based accurate
Today, we’ll focus mostly on #4.
14. Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM)
If you are very low on time, you could just cut
some corners and take a best guess.
Here’s how.
15. #1: Talk to people
What exactly is required from the network?
16. Secret #1: Talk to people
• Areas to cover and NOT to cover
• Required coverage
• Required capacity
• Where APs can’t be placed
• Budgetary constraints
• Vendor constraints
• Deliverables
• Schedule
27. Secret #4: Coverage design
• This is the easiest part of the puzzle…
• … but only a small part of it
28.
29. Secret #4: Coverage design
• Pay attention to highly attenuating walls and areas
• Consider also 2nd AP coverage (overlap)
• Consider floor-to-floor bleed
• Consider the 3D aspects
35. Secret #6 – Capacity.
There’s only so much load one AP can take.
• ~ 200 associations per radio
• ~50-300MBps throughput per radio
• ~10 voice calls per radio
36. Secret #6 – Capacity.
There’s only so much total airtime per channel.
Again, adding APs may not help at all.
40. Capacity calculations 101
How many users?
x How many devices per user?
+ How many other devices?
---
= Devices and their types
x Which applications are run on the devices?
====================
= Total capacity required
41. - Areas to cover
- Types of end user devices
- Types of access points
- Channels/bands used
- Single / multiple floors
- Wall materials
What else affects capacity?
42. Secret #7 – When NOT to plan?
If it’s quicker / cheaper to do it on-site,
perhaps better just go there?
43. Secret #7 – When NOT to plan?
Challenging environments:
• Mountains / hills
• Stadiums
• Oil refineries
• Hugely complex manufacturing plants