Tips for Enterprise Wireless LAN Deployment and Optimization

In today's working environments most organizations are employing mission-critical wireless LANs, IEEE 802.11n and higher-capacity networks to guide daily operations and high-demand applications.

It is a popular proven fact that the wireless LAN lifecycle has four distinct phases:

1. deployment and/or expansion -where network managers analyze what they already want to fulfill user requirements and what devices may need to be added to the network

2. installation and testing-building or expanding the network and verifying it

3. troubleshooting and security - address and correct any issues as fast as possible

4. management and optimization - maintaining the network assuring which it runs effectively and efficiently

A wireless network will usually travel relating to the troubleshooting and maintenance-and-optimization phases. For faster deployment, higher performance and greater security in the wireless LAN you ought to enlist the best practices on these phases. It is also very important to consider future requirements such as six month or one year from deployment since the requirement for bandwidth could increase considerably in a relatively small amount of time.

Wireless interference issues

Wireless networks work with the unlicensed frequency band between 2.4 and a couple of.5 GHz by which any device is allowed to operate. Devices including microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices and even some security devices such as cameras and motion sensors that are employed in this band might cause interference. Stats show that as much as 60 % of wireless LAN troubles are interference-based.

A site survey is finished before deployment to detect options for interference. Devices that can cause interference only periodically may not be detected and so the network planners need the capability to find most of these interferers when they're active and consider them within the design.

Spectrum analyzers with their wireless access points along with handheld spectrum analysis tools are utilized to find interference sources. To get rid of interference issue you've a number of options:

1. Remove the interference device.

2. If you cannot it then put a shield around it therefore it doesn't cause interference using your wireless LAN.

3. If you cannot remove or shield round the interfering device, reconfigure either the wireless system or even the interfering device.

Channel Mapping

In order to make effectively a channel map for your enterprise wireless LAN, you need to know which channels you will employ, which channels you are considering using, and which channels your neighbors are employing. Channels within the 2.4-GHz band are approximately 20-MHz wide and they are spaced approximately 5-MHz apart. In the United States 11 of the 14 channels works extremely well and only three of the channels (1, 6 and 11) don't overlap with a minumum of one other channel. Adjacent channels may cause rather severe interference therefore cause significant trouble for a wireless LAN. If a neighbor is applying channel 3 and make overlapping channels, causing interference between neighboring networks. Both networks' throughput will likely be compromised.

Designing the network

Infrastructure-planning tools which can be supplied with most wireless LAN systems, along with bundled with site survey tools are very efficient in relation to network design. These tools allow you to simulate radio-frequency (RF) conditions in a number of different environments.

Whether you're designing the wireless network for a warehouse with many different metal racks, a hospital with many walled-off rooms and areas, a campus dorm, an accommodation or even an apartment building software-based simulation tools will enable you to simulate the impact of the physical environment on wireless LAN transmission, and plan accordingly. "What if" analysis is used to discover the optimum access point number and locations to meet current and future needs, by also calculating the results of more users and further applications like Voice over WiFi.

There are lots of cables behind a radio network. An important part of the wireless LAN design process is to verify the structured cabling system. Cabling that does not function properly because it's damaged or poor may not adequately support a mission-critical wireless LAN. So at the minimum qualify your cabling plant to Gigabit Ethernet requirements, or why not be safe and conduct the full certification.

Network verification

We advise that you conduct a complete verification site survey post deployment and prior to network is fully populated with users, to ensure the deployed network meets all requirements. You should hook up with all access points and service set identifiers to make certain and also aren't any firewall problems as well as conduct an interference check. It is often a good option to make sure that channel use and determine when you have way too many users over a certain channel.

AirMagnet Survey Pro by Fluke Networks is really a great popularized use as it may conduct active testing and includes features like heat maps, which can be used to document verification results. If you have a difficulty later, you can examine the previous maps to see what has changed. Including spectrum analysis in a very post-deployment survey allows you to have complementary heat maps and spectral maps for full network documentation.