Hi,
I have a question regarding deploying a wireless network to support Voice Grade and RTLS in 'Associatiaion' Mode requirements simulatanously.
My undersatdning with RTLS in 'Blink' mode we can figure out a deisgn that fits Voice grade (i.e. prim/secondary coverage at -65 dBm and same channel seperation of -85dBm) and turn those WAPs in AP mode, and then turn all the other WAPs required for RTLS to Air Monitor mode so that RTLS requirements don't comprimise Voice/Data requirements (excessive overlap).
With RTLS in 'Association' mode, my understadning is the the RTLS client will send out a probe which all WAPs in the area respond to, and then the client takes the signal measurements and sends those to the RTLS server. As such I understand that I can't turn any WAPs into Air Monitor mode so that all WAPs can respond to the probe.
My concern with Association mode is that if we put all WAPs in AP mode that we will suffer a lot of co-channel interference (we are using only 8x 5 GHz channels at 20 Mhz) which essentially breaks the Voice requirements and creates a lot of merged collision domains. We also have to support RTLS in 2.4 GHz which would have even more overlap if all 2.4 radios are on.
Has anyone had any experience with this sort of scenario and what solution have you implemented? My thoughts are to maybe use really small cells (i.e. radio running at 2-4mw) to try and improve the same channel re-use distance . Or perhpahs creating another AP group that only runs the RTLS SSID with the beacon period set to 1 second so as to make those 'extra' WAPs as quiet as possible.
Please let me know you're thoughts.