Wireless Ranges?? 1

[Newb2IT]

I am looking for an image or chart that basically shows the range that Wireless Access Points cover, reason for this is that we have a 120,000 sq ft facility where I want to make sure there is a strong (depending on cost) wireless signal in the entire building (1 floor). As far as I understand the "rule" is to have 1 Access Point every 300 feet which means that I would need to setup 400 AP's to cover the entire building, but that is to have maximum speeds...with a chart that shows how much the speed decreases the farther that you are from the AP would really help me to present it to my boss...I could use Vision to do it myself but if there is a chart already out there it would make things faster. Thanks!!

 

[rclarke250]

Depends on the dimensions of the building. Say it's 200x600 that's 120,000 sq. ft. In this space I would use 6-8 depending on the layout, and how many steel girders and supports there are, because those will play havoc with the signal. You don't need to encircle the space, remember the AP transmits in a circle, utilize this, and place the AP's more in the center or 35% from the side walls, and that way you cover more ground. Draw a rough outline of the building, next find the coverage of the AP's you want to use, get a compass, and map the ap positions out. If the ceiling is 30 feet high, look to place on supports 15 feet or so up, because the signal will be a ball going out from the ap antenna.

 

[Newb2IT]

rckarlke thanks..the building is actually 400x300do you think 8 AP's should be ok as well?...one ore thing so are you saying that is the ceiling is 300 ft high I should place the AP in the middle? (15 feet) I though it was always recommended to place AP's high because signals travel down...

 

[rclarke250]

think of it as a ball, with the ap in the middle. so position the ap to give the best coverage. If you draw a box 3" x 4" with 1" = to 100' and take a compass and use a 1" scale, because a lot of AP's start to degrade in speed past 110'. placing the pencil in the corner, and the point at a 45 deg. angle draw the circle. do this for all four corners, you will see there is an area that is left in the middle, big enough for 2 more circles, that will give great coverage using 6 ap's. This is based on a Cisco Aironet 1200 series AP, based on 54 MPS bandwidth.