We just made this decision in regards to two new res halls. We opted for cables only where we need them now. The logic is that the pathways and telecom rooms are sized in such a way that these cables can easily be added later if needed. Had the new buildings been like most of our res halls, where new cabling can only be added with major construction work or surface mounted conduit installed onto ceilings (Can you say ugly?), we would have gone with a cable in every room.
FWIW, I expect to put an AP in every room eventually, even though I don’t know exactly what will drive it or when it will happen. My two leading scenarios are: 1) chip advances and the need for spectrum push WLANs into to 60Ghz and an AP at that frequency can’t cover more than one room, or 2) the ever-increasing need for bandwidth requires us to get all connection using 256QAM, which is unlikely to work reliably through walls. Chuck Enfield Manager, Wireless Systems & Engineering Telecommunications & Networking Services The Pennsylvania State University 110H, USB2, UP, PA 16802 ph: 814.863.8715 fx: 814.865.3988 From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hunter Fuller Sent: Monday, April 06, 2015 7:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] 802.11ac AP Deployment Depending on how you are running the cable, you could run it to each room, but with the possibility of pulling it back to put APs in hallways instead, or to reposition. If you have drop ceilings you can leave like 10ft service loop to allow freedom of moving them within the rooms. Etc, etc. These might allow you to defer the decision, or to change your mind later based on real life results. I tend in this direction because two of our Resnet buildings have proven to be "interesting" with regards to wireless penetration and performance. I wish we had left some flexibility in those cases. -- Hunter Fuller OIT Sent from my phone. On Apr 6, 2015 6:42 PM, "Peter P Morrissey" <[email protected]> wrote: Since cabling tends to have a 15-20 year life cycle, and can be expensive and disruptive to install, why not just run a cable to each room while you have the opportunity? Then you can use your survey tools to decide where to place the AP's. This gives you the option of reconfiguring down the road if that doesn't work out. It also gives you the option of adding more density if necessary. There will be multiple generations of wireless technology during the lifetime of the cable and the agility added by the additional cable could come in handy. Pete Morrissey -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Doug Burke Sent: Monday, April 06, 2015 7:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] 802.11ac AP Deployment All, Last year we cabled our campus classrooms and administrative offices with CAT6a preparing for the deployment of Wav 2 802.11ac. We are about to begin Phase II of the cabling project in our residence halls and we are looking for input from others on whether to plan for one AP per room or trust our survey tools. I expect most of you will say "it depends" and we understand the complexities of building construction. We have deployed 70 Wav 1 APs as a Proof of Concept (POC) testing them in different types of building construction but would like to hear other's experiences in particular to residence halls. Thank you for your help. Douglas Burke Senior Director '13 MSEL, BSBA Network Infrastructure Systems & Services University of San Diego ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
