Mounting WAP's on or below a metal suspended ceiling

[dpotts001]

Hi

I'm a design consultant working increasingly on WAP design, can anyone provide some insight on mounting WAP's under or recessed into a suspended metal tile ceiling? In my opinion this acceptable as the metal plane of ceiling is not blocking the direction of signal of the WAP?

[Ric Beeching]

If you're mounting them with the metal behind the Access Point then that is generally fine however depending on the AP type, mounting them recessed/inside/encased in metal will likely be detrimental to the AP.

E.G For the 'standard' 2702i/3502i/3702i etc - these all have an omni directional output when mounted facing downwards meaning being enclosed in metal will cause degradation on the signal output and also difficulty processing signal coming in from devices. 

Chapter 3 here has some handy RF Graphics to help visualise.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-1/Enterprise-Mobility-8-1-Design-Guide/Enterprise_Mobility_8-1_Deployment_Guide.pdf

I know you said you're a design consultant so I hope that helped instead of stating the obvious!

Ric