Industrial Park Wireless Range

[reynoldspark]

I am implementing a wireless network for an industrial park and marina. We are located in Green Cove Springs, FL., an old navy base http://www.reynoldspark.com . We have 12 1800ft long piers that extend a mile of waterfront. The entire park is 1700 areas which is 2.6 square miles. The application is to blanket an area that would be strong enough to go through buildings to offer wireless services (via standard wireless adapters, etc) to tenants through the park. We were told that a Cisco 1310 with a 12dbi omni antenna would cover a 4 mile range at 2mbps. I somehow wish it was even close to that but we are not getting past a half mile LOS. Is this how it is suppose to work? Is there another alternative to boost the singal so we don't have to purchase more costly equipment to cover the area? If you visit http://www.reynoldspark.com/wirelessmap.jpg you can get a good picture, the legend is at the bottom of the picture. Each dot has internet at it. Any sugguestions would be greatly appreciated. I only wish CDW had a better understanding of what I wanted to do. Thanks for your help,

Matt

P.S. I wish I could get Visio to overlay a map instead of me using paint. I'm a beginner with Visio I need to take a class I guess.

[scottmac]

A confusing word: " Blanket" (as in "Blanket the area")

Do you want "wireless everywhere" such that someone could walk around the park with a PDA or laptop and have uninterrupted Internet (network) access? OR do you mean to "connect the dots" so that people within the building have access, and the buildings are connected wirelessly to a main distribution point?

Complete and total line-of-sight (including the Freznel zone) is an absolute requirement. If someone walks behind a building they are almost certainly in an RF shadown ... maybe some bounces, but nothing reliable.

Next, and qualified by " You ***MUST*** do a solid and comprehensive site survey" I'd think about something like:

For a fixed location/ wireless access scenario:

APs with a sector patch aimed down each pier to cover the pier (inside the boats/ships would probably still be spotty)

An AP with a high-gain omni at one of the buildings with a APs / Yagis at the peripheral locations aimed at the omni.

For a "Blanket" scenario:

Cisco 15K MESH system with enough nodes to provide the coverage to the outside clients with/without addtional point-to-multipoint nodes for inside the buildings

A lot will depend on the construction of the buildings (most Navy buildings I've been in have either been concrete block & steel or all-metal quanset huts (not to mention metal hulls)... none of which are very good at passing RF.

You need a good site survey to start. Compare the results with the goal, then design from there.

In no scenatio I can think of would a single omni cover that entire campus ... way too many structures. Absolute best case, maybe a cluster of sectors on a tall mast ... but still not very likely.

I'm disappointed that CDW would offer that as a solution, they're usually much better than that.

Post up some more details and we can mull around some other possibilities. What I offered are extrememly general and should not be considered actionable. I provided the example only to show you how wide the possibilities can be.

You cannot properly plan without knowing the RF environment, and you can only get that with a site survey.

Also: forget about "boosting the signal," if you meant "adding amplifiers" ... I'm assuming you want to stay safe and legal. AMps should not be needed if the AP density is sufficient and proper antennas are used.

Good Luck

Scott