Outdoor AP put indoor

[Amjad Abdullah]

Guys,

I have a gym in a school that needs wireless coverage. I have 1242 APs and 1522 outdoor.

It was suggested to use one outdoor AP inside the gym rather than using indoor one.

I am not sure if there are any recommendations about putting outdoor AP's inside buildings. Gyms is not very big it is about 80 * 30 meters square.

as you know antennas gain for outdoor AP is much larger than indoor one.

outdoor AP was suggested to be put because users inside may sometimes exceed what indoor AP may usually handle.

any suggestions about this or best practices?

Thanks.

Amjad

[Scott Fella]

It's not a good idea to do that.  You need to stick with an indoor AP, maybe one or two depending on the density required. Most of the time, you may want to cover the AP so that kids don't hit it with a ball or another object in which can damage the ap or even fall.  I don't use a wire cage, but there are some plastic protective coverings that go over the exit signs that fit.  Another thing to note is that you don't want to use excessive antenna gain to provide coverage, due to the clients TX power that you want to match.

[Amjad Abdullah]

Thanks Scott.

My recommendations so far is not to use the outdoor AP inside. I am just studying the possibilities and if there are any other reasons I am not aware about.

we will use wooden box to keep the AP safe.

We can lower the power for the outdoor AP if we put it inside. but if for whatever reason the AP fall down it will do a disaster because it is too heavey.

I did not find any document stating not to use outdoor APs inside.

I knwo it is not a good idea and that is why they are named "outside APs". But- as i just stated - I am studying the possibilities, pros and cons.

Thanks.

Amjad

[Scott Fella]

The main thing is to match the clients EIRP to the AP EIRP. If the AP total EIRP is higher than the clients, you will have one way conversation. Also, look for a plastic clear cover, I wouldn't use wood or a wired cover.

Thanks,

Scott Fella

Sent from my iPhone

[Amjad Abdullah]

But we have outdoor antennas outside and clients can connect fine to them?

I am aware about this power issue which usually cause one-way-voice in VoWLAN networks. But this is happening with all APs!

as stated earlier, lowering the power level to level 7 for example for that AP will make the EIRP much less than usual power it should have which makes total EIRP resonable. right? or I am missing something here?

[Scott Fella]

You are right... but when you are talking about best practice, its not best practice to put a 15xx inside.  That being said, you can, but for the cost and the liability, makes using an indoor ap more attractive.  I just don't see the reason you would pay for an outdoor ap to just lower the TX power to match your clients.  Using an indoor AP is my suggestion for a gym area. 

I understand that your outdoor LAP's works fine in your outdoor environment, but again, your client traffic needs to reach the AP, so there is a distance that is allowable.  The RSSI the client will see from the outdoor AP might not be the same RSSI the AP will see depending on how far the device is from the AP.  You would be able to see this from your edge mesh ap's by walking further away from coverage.

[Amjad Abdullah]

Scott;

Thanks a lot.
yes I fully understand your poin and it is absolutely valid. both AP and client hear each other but each hear the other on different RSSI level.
This make it client's dependent somehow for good coverage. right?

In our gym I guess all client's insdie will be able to connect to the AP because it will be somewhere in the middle (same line of mid-line of the court inside the gym). So I think it is not an issue for the problem of the power.

I anyway suggested to install indoor AP.

Many thanks for all your help on this.

[Scott Fella]

No problem... In many of my installs for education, I usually have one AP and in some case two fi they require density.  Some of my clients prefer mouning then on opposite ends of the gym and some on the beams on the ceiling.  Either way will work.

[sancaksancak]

"users inside may sometimes exceed what indoor AP may usually handle"

exceeding for the number of clients or about the coverage?

[Amjad Abdullah]

sancak,

I meant number of clients