WAP for Apartmetn Complex?

[ECcableguys]

We have an Apartment complex to be installing wireless for the building.

Specs are:
6 Floors
160 or so Units
Concrete Foundation brick exterior
Aluminum Beamed and sheet rock apts.
Squared Floors
Courtyard in center

Our ideas were to install:
Netgear FVS 338 Router on a Cable connection
Netgear Smart Wireless Controller (Reason is VERY SECURE AND EXCELLENT MANAGEMENT TOOLS)
(6) Netgear Light Wireless AP 802.11g 2 on every other floor


Layout Plan:

To have Netgear Smart Wireless Controller rack mounted in a SECURE location with router and cable connection. Lock and restricted enclosure or room. Managed through a laptop or desktop possibly on site or technician provided laptop. Smart Controller programmed with RF floor plans, building specs, floor plan images etc. to be set by us. All access points will be set on different channels for maximum range and limited collision. Access Points will be installed in a non-conspicuous location with standard antennas. Approximate access point range 860 yards.

Thoughts?
Ideas?

Good scenario?



Thanks
Marco


Marco
EC Enterprise Consultants
Communications Specialists

http://www.ECcableguys.com

Over 40 Years Experience

 

[tpulley]

You don't mention the length of signal that will be accessing these ap's. Meaning how far will someone try and reach it. The ability to reach them will depend on the model of AP you choose and the antennas too. Some antennas can extend the signal to almost double (700+ ft). What part of the range you are expecting to traverse will need full 54Mbs access? Most units with standard antennas will only shoot the 54 mbs signal (what the customer sees as excellent) only around 60-90 ft. The layout of the building will determine what will be the optimum AP placement.

Additionally remember unless you are doing POE you will also need power to each of the locations to the AP's. POE can save installation costs by eliminating the power requirments.

Personally I think netgear, linksys and other (under $125 unit)such suck. I have many clients with them out in the field and often as not most have to be rebooted to get them back working. Some of them have to have the power physically pulled to reboot them. If the radios lock up or the switch interface it can cause a shutdown of traffic and you can't even get in to reboot remotely.

I do not run into this with higher end equipment. Cisco ap's while considerably more expensive never have these issues. Once they are configured they run forever it seems without any troubles at all.

 

[ECcableguys]

How are the ciscos programming still command line based?

Marco
EC Enterprise Consultants
Communications Specialists

http://www.ECcableguys.com

Over 40 Years Experience

 

[americanmcneil]

Well here is what we did in a similar situation:

Resort with two wings, each wing has 9 floors of 10 units each. In the HVAC closets of the 3rd and 8th unit on each floor we installed Deliberant 2100 radios with 8.5dbi omnis attached directly to the units (no LMR equales one less point of failure) Each radio blows through 25 year old concrete walls and covers 2 units to either side. These radios are PoE and fortunately all Cat5 runs were just under 300 feet.

The PoE farm is rack mounted in the wiring closet on the second floor of each wing. These then pass into Netgear layer 3 switches (I have the different floors in their own VLANs so this is part of how I manage that) and then connect into a MikroTik Router. The MikroTik allows for tons of options, including VLANs, bandwith shaping (so that guy on the 5th floor downloading a ton of porn cannot dominate the pipe out) and the creation of captive portal pages for the resort and guest login.

From the MikroTik it goes into a rack mount Sonicwall firewall and then out to the universe via a Time Warner 10x3 pipe.

The set up works great and the owners of the resort are extremely happy with it. The radios themselves arn't a bad price either, roughly $180 or so each for durable professional quality radios.

Anyway, we have used this model many times so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Scott "Thrown to the Wolves" McNeil

http://www.epproach.net