Mounting WAPs on ceiling with 5 degree slope

[Byron Meyer]

Hello,

I'm an architect working on a school in Victoria, Australia.
The Victorian Government's School IT provider has advised that 8302i WAPs will be installed in the classrooms, with multiple WLAN controller firmware. (I can't find that product number on the Cisco website. If it doesn't exist, please respond based on a typical current model WAP that would be provided in a classroom environment)

A typical classroom at the school measures 5.5m by 8.5m in plan, and is 3.4m high. The ceiling has a 5 degree slope.

We would like to surface mount the WAP to the ceiling, centrally in the room. (drawing attached)

The school IT provider is unsure whether the 5 degree slope of the ceiling will result in performance degradation issues, and is pushing us towards wall mounting the WAP, which we would prefer to avoid.

Our intuitive feeling is that ceiling mounting on a 5 degree slope would be fine, it is very close to horizontal so there would be no meaningful difference to the signal reception anywhere in the classroom.

Can someone confirm that this would be okay?

Thank you!

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

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@Byron Meyer wrote:

A typical classroom at the school measures 5.5m by 8.5m in plan, and is 3.4m high. The ceiling has a 5 degree slope.

The school IT provider is unsure whether the 5 degree slope of the ceiling will result in performance degradation issues

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Oh, LOL.   How about, "No, it will not".  

@Rasika Nayanajith, @Haydn Andrews, what say you?

I have some schools (ACT Schools) with 10 degree.  We put those figures into ESS and the signal propagation does not significantly impact at 10 degrees.  

The only thing I can say is a height of 3.4m will be difficult to service and replace.  Anyone doing any maintenance will need a Working At Heights ticket.

[Byron Meyer]

Thank you very much Leo! Speaking to Cisco's tech support, they also believed there would be no reduction in performance.

[Leo Laohoo]

Maybe the school IT provider is trying to "on-sell" you more (expensive) solution like a wall-mounting bracket or a pendulum/trapeze, hence, their reluctance. 

Did they even provide an Ekahau SS comparison?