We took the same approach as Philippe. I've never had an issue with vandalism
so that wasn't a concern. I also had site surveys showing the difference in
coverage. Putting them in the room also helps with making clear overlaps zones.
Prior to the redesign we were in the hall and it just didn't work. Most walls
between the hall contained HVAC and other utilities, and each room's closets
were between the living space and the hall. Once those got filled with stuff,
forget about getting a good signal. To me, it just made good sense to put them
in the room, that's were the student wants to work so that's were the best
signal should be.
--
Heath Barnhart
ITS Network Administrator
Washburn University
785-670-2307
On Tue, 2014-10-21 at 14:25 -0400, Philippe Hanset wrote:
From my previous experience at University of Tennessee, Knoxville where I
redesigned the dorm Wi-Fi (2012) before leaving to do eduroam-US:
(designed with 5GHz in mind and 2.4 as complement)
pros for moving into room:
1-Most rooms are mini faraday cages so you can easily add more APs with less
interferences than in a hallway to sustain demand, especially with 5Ghz
(you can start by staggering them between floors (room 1-3-5-7 floor 1, room
2-4-6-8 floor 2) and maybe increase that with one AP per room eventually..if
needed)
2-When an AP is in a room it belongs to the room you can more easily control
inventory. What happens in the hallway is uncertain
3-We used to have APs in Hallways and it was never good enough...Once we moved
APs in the bedroom the quality went way up and the complaints way down
4-We stole a wired port from the bedroom in every other room to avoid providing
dedicated wiring for Wi-Fi (saved ~$500,000)..it was an issue initially ..your
typical fear of change.
(complaints coming mostly from students from previous years who were
expecting 2 wired ports)
5-Physical plant was regularly doing work in the hallway (AC etc...) and messed
up our APs...this doesn't happen as much in bedroom except when it is time to
paint the rooms :(
6-(cont. of 2) Easier to troubleshoot since the AP is assigned to a room
(finding an AP in the drop ceiling is not always straightforward)...if you make
APs visible in the hallway, something bad will happen to them eventually.
cons for moving into room:
-You have to turn the LED off, and some students will call the HelpDesk to
report a dead AP (because there are no blinking lights)\
-Access when you need to replace a unit
Philippe
Philippe Hanset
www.eduroam.us<http://www.eduroam.us>
On Oct 21, 2014, at 1:47 PM, Williams, Matthew
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I’ve just started here at Kent State and I’m facing an uphill battle regarding
updating our WLAN design. All APs are deployed in the hallways and we’re
rolling out 802.11ac. We’d like to move the APs into the rooms, but the mere
suggestion has been met with resistance. I was just wondering if any of you
had any tips or suggestions for trying presenting the new model to upper
management. Thanks for any suggestions that you might share!
Respectfully,
Matthew Williams
Kent State University
Network & Telecommunications Services
Office: (330) 672-7246
Mobile: (330) 469-0445
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