Wireless Access

Hi

I am looking into a few options to improve the general coverage of APs without having to install more APs into an Area and was wondering what options one can look at.

I have played around with a few ARM settings and I think I have it pretty well setup (I don't understand half the options so more research required). Other than EIRP levels , probe thresholds and so forth anything specific to look at anyone can Point out will be great.

The other option I am looking at is replacing the AP-105's we have with better/stronger APs. Would I actually see an improvement in coverage If I replace my 105 AP with the newer 205?

I see on the datasheets under the antenna details the 205 has 6dBi for 5Ghz and 4 dBi for 2.4Ghz where the 105 AP is lower on each Frequency?

Any good article I can be pointed to dealing with this topic would be great :-)

- What kind of environment is this?

- How high are the access points mounted?

- What kinds of clients are being services?

- How far apart are the access points?

Hi

It is for a few different organizations I am looking at this -- but ALL of them are in the Healtcare industry, so primarily Offices and a few Clinics/Hospitals.

The Height differs in areas but on average it is 3.5 Meters - on the odd ocation they might be higher.

Clients are primarily Mobile devices (roaming) Internally used cordless Phones and  the ussual Smart devices (iPhone + Android). There might be the odd Laptop, but not a primary concern.

Currently the 1-05 APs are any where from 13 Meters to 20 Meters appart depending on the internal structures. There are APs I have found that are 15 meters appart with direct line of site to each other (which I think is a problem).

It is really hard to say for multiple locations.  Typically you would just raise the power to improve coverage, but how do you know you need more coverage?

Hi

The one site I am looking at in particular - the APs are all installed down a passage way all in a row (line of site) - we have the odd user that would report if they are situated close to a window (basically the furthest area from an AP) they struggle to connect and they get disconnected. 

From what I can see the problem is related to weak signal, if they move towards the passage they connect and have no proiblems, but back at the window area it disconnects which tells me they are on the edge of the cell (I wont be suprised if i am wrong with this statement). I will be getting someone onsite today to test and confirm the suspicions.

With the APs all in a row and EIRP set top max I can see on ARM it complains about the other APs and interference.

So the primary idea is to relocate the APs and scatter them across the area instead of the all APs in a Line scenario -- however that means quite a bit of cabling and work to be done -- so I was hoping to maybe replace the  Areas we have Big problems with an 205 (if it gives better coverage) or even to adjust ARM cleverly without having to redesign the whole area and move All the APs.

With ARM at MAX EIRP I don't think I will get any further with ARM with regards to coverage - so if the 205 AP won't give any difference in coverage I might then just have to look at redesigning the area for the client....

I think I have gone about this all wrong.....

Checking a few things under arm summary and arm history I am seeing alot of errors and so forth.

Guess it's a case for TAC :)

Hendrik,

Yes, please work with TAC on those ARM.

I was triggerd by the following: "the APs are all installed down a passage way all in a row (line of site) - we have the odd user that would report if they are situated close to a window (basically the furthest area from an AP) they struggle to connect and they get disconnected.";

In general, it is probably the worst choice to mount AP's like this, in a corridor, all in line; specially if you need coverage in the adjacent rooms. Having line-of-sight will cause a lot of co-channel interference, and result in poor performance, coverage and user-experience. Place APs in the adjacent rooms, so they are 1) close to the users and 2) non-line of sight as much as possible.

You will see that ARM in these conditions will turn down the power, resulting in poor coverage in the edges; overriding ARM and setting the power to the max will give the user it '5-bars', but poor performance. It may even be that if you turn off all AP's and leave 3 or 4 on (at least on 2.4GHz); on 5GHz you have some more channels available, you will have better results than with all the AP's.

Be prepared to work with an RF planning/troubleshooting specialist if you can't fix this with ARM; or results are still poor after the changes.

This document may help you as well: http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Validated-Reference-Design/Indoor-802-11n-Site-Survey-and-Planning/ta-p/155136 ; it is for 802.11n, applies very similar to 802.11ac.