At the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, we have a unique three letter designator for each of our 90+ buildings. We are a Cisco shop and use the following convention for APs:
AP naming convention: BLDGCODE-ROOM#/HALLWAYFLOOR#-AP#-MODEL#-BASERADIOMACADDR such that you get BRA-219-01-702W-bc67.1c8c.7d80 for a 702W located in Brady Hall (BRA) in room 217, with a base radio MAC address or IRE-2nd-06-2702e-58f3.9ccb.f6c0 for a 2702e located in Ireland Hall (IRE) in the hallway on 2nd floor. It is the sixth AP on that floor, and I order them numerically north to south, west to east as necessary. The logic here is that it sorts properly when you output a huge list of these. By building, then by room/hallway floor, then by an arbitrary number, and you get a model# to look at and a radio MAC addr. *The reason for the radio MAC addr is that when you perform a wireless survey, you can see the AP on the map you are creating, and it makes it easier to correlate.* My other choice would've been the ethernet MAC addr, so that confirmation can be more immediate using Cisco Discovery Protocol lookups. Thanks!--JW On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 4:56 PM, Watters, John <[email protected]> wrote: > We likewise use a similar naming convention to that used by Austin College > (see below). We do, however, separate the building abbreviation from the > room number with a dash and also follow the room number with a dash if a > direction, an AP count (in a really dense deployment), or if an "-H" is > appended meaning "in the hall near the door to". Our campus room number > standard has an optional leading letter followed (with no separation) by > four digits (which also indicate the floor) followed by an optional letter > (again, with no separation). > > > > Hence an AP name with a specified building location could look like any of > the following: > > > > LIB-101 > > LIB-A101 > > LIB-101A > > LIB-A101A > > LIB-A101A-NE - an AP in the northeast corner of A101A > > LIB-A101H - a valid room number not to be confused with > > LIB-A101-H - an AP in the hall outside of room A101 > > LIB-A101H-H - an AP in the hall outside of room A101H > > LIB-P404A-23 - the 23rd AP (numbered clockwise starting immediately left > of the main entrance door) in room P404A of building LIB > > > > > > LIB-101AF or LIB-AF101 or LIB-AF101HM or LIB-G-103-4 are all *invalid* > room numbers --- *not* in the form: optional single leading character, > three or four digits (rapidly renumbering rooms to 4 digits now), optional > single trailing character with no separation between the three parts > > > > We print a label to go on the outside of each AP giving its name. Our > Cisco APs are white, so we use a 1/2" white tape with black characters to > make the label. This size is easily seen from the floor of even a tall room > but blends into the AP housing quite well. We are starting to have some > resistance to visible APs is new auditoriums with "cloud" type ceilings and > even sometimes in black, exposed ceilings. So far though we have been able > to get them treated with the same respect as a fire sensor. > > > > So, our AP names (6K+ right now) give physical location info with their > name and nothing more. This tells the tech exactly where the AP is. He > might not even need to know what closet it is wired from depending on his > task. But, if he needs to know and doesn’t already know that info, he can > go to any comm closet in the building and look at a printed map posted > there of the entire building showing what areas of the building go to which > comm closets. > > > > The person who does the hands-on work with the APs needs to know where the > AP is or should be. He usually doesn't care what the IP address is, and may > not even care whether it is working or not. If he has been told to go > replace the AP named LIB-101. He doesn’t really need to know anything else. > Our installation/maintenance techs do not do any troubleshooting other than > maybe pull a phone out of their pocket to see if it works or maybe look at > the lights. In by far the majority of cases, our NOC has determined that an > AP is bad and needs to be replaced and simply dispatches a tech to do that. > For new installs, once again the tech pulling the wire, mounting the APs, > and patching the wiring to the switches has nothing to do with the > configuration of the AP/controller. All he needs to know is which AP gets > put where and what comm closet does it need to be fed from, which we supply > to him via a printed AutoCAD floor plan that has been properly marked. > > > > > > > > > > -jcw > [image: UA Logo] > > > > > John Watters The University of Alabama > > Office of Information > Technology > > 205-348-3992 > > > > *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Thomas Carter > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 02, 2016 11:57 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Naming conventions for WLAN devices > > > > We do something similar to what you are thinking of. With a smaller > campus, we have an IT standard 3-letter naming convention for all buildings > (e.g. LIB might mean library, etc). This is used across IT for naming > (printers, switches, APs, etc). Then, like you, room number and an optional > location description (more later) for multiples in one room. Our room > numbers always denote floor, so floor number is redundant. And a majority > of APs are the only one in a room, so we leave off the optional location > for those. So in your case, the ap might be BSD101. If there are multiple > in one larger room, we use compass directions, so the one on the south side > of the room would be BSD101S and the north side BSD101N (we have a couple > of SW / NE / etc). > > > > We also don’t care to have the function in the name. When dealing with > names, we generally already have narrowed the function – for example, AP id > BSD101 has failed and needs to be replaced. We haven’t had a problem with > confusing an AP with a similarly named switch or PC or printer. YMMV. > Maybe it’s my aging brain, but the short names are easier to remember, work > with, and communicate. > > > > Thomas Carter > > Network & Operations Manager > > Austin College > > > > > > *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [ > mailto:[email protected] > <[email protected]>] *On Behalf Of *Norman Chu > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 2, 2016 11:38 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] Naming conventions for WLAN devices > > > > We’re looking for ideas to improve our current naming convention for > network devices. > > > > For an access point, it currently consists of: > > <buildingName>-<floornumber>-ap<arbitrarynumber> > > e.g. burnside-1-ap24 > > > > For controllers, we use: > > wireless-<its role>-wmc > > e.g. wireless-local1-wmc > > (wmc = wireless mobility controller) > > > > For access points, we’re thinking of adding location info instead of the > arbitrary number, so something like: burnside-1-ap101a where 101a is the > first AP in room 101 (101b would be the second AP, etc.) > > > > Switches: burnside-sw1, burnside-sw2 > > UPS’s: burnside-ups-1, burnside-ups2-1 > > PoE midspans: burnside-poe-1, burnside-poe2-1 > > > > What do other organizations use for naming conventions for their network > devices? > > > > Thanks. > > > > Norman Chu > > Network Analyst – Network Infrastructure group > > Systems Engineering – McGill NCS > > (514) 398-7299 > > > > ********** 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/.
