Wireless Advice

[melonhead]

We are having wireless installed in a few months. Our plan is to have a laptop trolley with 30 laptops on them move from class to class. The 4 classes we are looking at are in close proximity and following a survey, the classes get good coverage from an access point installed in a central location. We are looking at Ruckus. Can anyone give their views on whether we should have an access point per classroom or whether they will be fine in a central location. This needs to work well straight away but I dont want to spend a lot on additional access points that may not be needed.

 

Also, can anyone advise whether the Ruckus 3x3 access points will make a difference to the above question.

[Michael]

Put it this way, a direct line of site (in the classroom) will always work better than in a corridor for example. Less walls/objects to travel through. Also with a central Wireless Access Point (WAP), there's a single point of failure. If you have three WAPs for example and one fails, you still have two working until you fix the issue.

[6Foot2]

We have a wireless network that does not cover the entire site. The survey carried out by the installer company called for an access point per classroom in many locations but we have found that we can easily cope with current demand with one access point per department [in most areas] There are exceptions. In the Technology Department we have deployed three access points as they have around 40 student laptops and a number of staff laptops [not all of which are active at the same time but a lot of them might be]

 

We found that our Music block could only be supported with an access point per classroom. We suspect that there may be metal framework in the walls that saps the signal that we would normally expect to cover the whole block.

[witch]

We are having wireless installed in a few months. Our plan is to have a laptop trolley with 30 laptops on them move from class to class. The 4 classes we are looking at are in close proximity and following a survey, the classes get good coverage from an access point installed in a central location. We are looking at Ruckus. Can anyone give their views on whether we should have an access point per classroom or whether they will be fine in a central location. This needs to work well straight away but I dont want to spend a lot on additional access points that may not be needed.

 

Also, can anyone advise whether the Ruckus 3x3 access points will make a difference to the above question.

 

The Ruckus resellers will come out and do a survey for you which will show you how many points you need - as has been said, sometimes it is not obvious and you will need fewer in some place and more in others

[bossman]

@melonhead:

 

Why Ruckus?

 

Have you looked at Aerohive or Meraki?

 

I am sure pricing would be comparable

[Michael]

Panoptic Technology makes a AP called the Jack Pack that is very compact, easy to configure and install. We use them and they work great. They can fit easily into existing or new network configurations.

 

I've had a look at the 'Jack Pack', but to be honest I can't see how it's going to help. A lot of newer Wireless Access Points (WAPs) now connect at 1000Mbps and powered by PoE. The Jack Pack only supports 100Mbps connectivity as it needs to share bandwidth to support other features.

 

Also it's generally recommended to install WAPs high up. Typically network ports are lower down, so you're not going to get as good a signal, especially if you have objects or people stood right in front of it.

[SYNACK]

100MBits, like trying to build a skyscraper on a swamp. Foundations are important.

[Haptic]

can anyone advise whether the Ruckus 3x3 access points will make a difference to the above question.

 

Without seeing the plans of the site (but using 30 laptops as max clients) I'd say the new Ruckus 7900 series Access Points would be overkill.

 

The 7363 units should cope perfectly, as well as keeping your cost down.

 

Just my Two Bob.

 

Joe

Edited October 15, 2012 by Haptic
MC Grammar

[White_Fi]

melonhead

 

It all depends on your density requirements. An AP per room is something that most, not all, vendors (except Ruckus) will recommend for "Density" as their APs do not control the Physical Layer like Ruckus do and it is very rare that i would every design a Ruckus network on an AP per Room deployment. Unless the walls were made of lead!

 

Since Ruckus focus the RF energy to the client they cause less interference with neighbouring clients and APs which increases the SNR dramatically, which at the bottom line means faster speeds. Getting the client on and off the link as fast as possible means there is more bandwidth available for more clients.

 

Unless you are looking at 150+ mixed band clients per room in every room i would avoid the AP per Room deployment not only to save on cost but to reduce potential co-channel interference. Yes Ruckus do mitigate interference but if there are too many APs in close proximity may cause issues. Its Physics.

 

General rule of thumb for site deployments is count up how many rooms you have, divide by 3 and that is more than likely going to be your final AP count.

 

For information speak to me at Net-Ctrl, 01473 281211

[john]

 

General rule of thumb for site deployments is count up how many rooms you have, divide by 3 and that is more than likely going to be your final AP count.

 

 

I can vouch for that ready reckoner from Stu as that is about the number of APs we have on our sites give or take based on some local factors such as 4ft thick walls, a roof covered in lead etc... which no simple formula like that can look at.

[SYNACK]

I can vouch for that ready reckoner from Stu as that is about the number of APs we have on our sites give or take based on some local factors such as 4ft thick walls, a roof covered in lead etc... which no simple formula like that can look at.

 

Dual membrane aluminum and fibre fire retardent/insulation and anti-glare tinting are some of the worst offenders in NZ schools. The classes get upgraded, insulation and tinting then you suddenly need two to three times as many WAPs to get coverage. At least the kids don't get frozen/baked and blinded anymore though so that is quite a worthwhile tradeoff.

[White_Fi]

And this is why site surveys are always recommended. RF is extremely dynamic and survey designs and requirements change from site to site.