WiFi Refresh - Steps?

[Rundc]

Morning all,

 

 

Roughly 70 APs across the the school and we're looking at replacing the current system (Extreme with old AP130s). Failry new to this and with a whole host of different options im wondering what the best way to get 3 quotes for a replacement solution would be, how would you tackle this? Predictive survey and like for like rpelacement? Stump up the cash for an ekahau survey and then send this out for a design to be drawn up?

 

Any help, advice and pointers appreciated

 

Thanks

[Norphy]

For something that size, I'd suggest either using one of the purchasing consortiums like CPC or going out to tender. That will give the vendors the chance to do their own surveys and to draw their own conclusions.

[Connor_Net-Ctrl]

Hi Rundc,

 

Just a short breakdown of the main stages in regards to surveying and quoting, we would typically do the following:

 

Project Scoping Call – Firstly, an initial call to discuss your current deployment, pain points, dead spots and how your requirements have changed. Typically, your requirements of the WiFi have evolved since your last installation.

 

Predictive Design – You can provide a reseller with your scaled site plans and information about your internal building structure and they would be able to create a predictive design and give you an estimated AP quantity with locations +/-10%. This will take into account the requirements you have provided the reseller in the project scoping call.

 

If additional APs are required or existing ones are to be relocated, this will help you understand the costs associated with new infrastructure cabling and potential switches.

 

On-Site Surveying – It wouldn’t make much sense to get 3 different resellers to provide you with 3 different full on-site survey reports, this would take up vast amounts of time from both theirs and your perspective. If a customer would like to get an on-site survey completed, we would recommend this is done after you have chosen your selected vendor and reseller.

 

You could ask resellers if they wish to attend site to get some measurements from each of your buildings as this data could be used in the predictive design and offer a more accurate predictive design. Quoting – This is dependent on whether you want a multi-vendor bidding process or if you have decided on the vendor and you want a multi-reseller bidding process. Typically, the reseller would like to use their own design for quoting as it will be done by engineers that are part of the same company.

 

Post-Installation Site Survey – This is the most popular choice as it would give you a full site report with your installed hardware. This can be used as a comparison against any predictive designs or pre-installation surveys. If the reseller has opted to design to a set transmit power, it will be an easy comparison rather than any dynamic power levels.

 

Hopefully that gives you a bit of structure to the options available.

 

Thanks

 

Connor

Edited January 3, 2024 by Connor_Net-Ctrl

[RezolutionICT]

Hiya, I would advise you look at potential vendors such as Cambium Networks, Aruba, Cisco Meraki etc. Also whether you are replacing the switching or just the wifi? Also is the existing data cabling sufficient? Are additional Cat6a runs or replacement fibre needed etc (OM4)? Choose one vendor depending on features, reviews and cost etc. For info - Cambium Networks CnMaestro Essentials (cloud management) has no licensing so can reduce install and ongoing costs drastically. Choose three suppliers and ask for site survey. (Some suppliers charge for this as its very time consuming) This should provide you with three reports including full design details including any infrastructure cabling requirements (to replace existing or additional), full kit list list and quotation from each. Then you can make a decision. :-) Good Luck.

[MatthewL]

They way I would approach was do you have coverage everywhere you need at the moment, are there any dead spots? Does coverage meet your needs?

 

Plotting all your AP's on site plans is very helpful and helpful to document what the wall types are like if said AP is covering multiple rooms nearby.

 

What the details of the switches they connect to, the POE draw on some AP's maybe more than others can your current switches cope of do you need an upgrade there too? What is the backbone like between switches, will more data be chucked around if the new AP's are higher performing, all good and well installing new AP's but they may not perform is the backbone isn't there to support.

 

Do some areas have more useage and may require additional AP's in that area to cover, might be worth looking at what connects to each and seeing where it peaks.

[mikeprice]

As said before - first thing is to work out what you want compared to what you currently have

 

and also what you will want in 5/10 years time - which can be difficult

 

things like - do PE need wifi access in order to use devices outside?

do you need good access in the sports hall?

 

how many devices in each room - and of what type and doing what

 

what about access to personal devices - do you need some kind of separate connection for them?

 

what about auditing and fault finding

 

what about the system management

 

answer all that lot - plus some more - and you can make a start

 

I would talk to a few suppliers on an informal basis first as they might give you more ideas of requirement - but watch out for the salespeople to"suggest" things that only their system does!

 

anyway - good luck!

[Accura2k7]

only advise i would say is coverage is not the same as bandwidth.