physical locations of AP units near brick walls

[cam2015]

New to the boards.. 

We have multiple AP units installed at the ceiling height. (30ft)  We have several "garage doors" that mobile units move through. The walls are 15 course brick with 15+' drywall - metal studs.  The units drop connection as they move through the door and have to re-sign into the program. Would lowering the AP units on either side of the doors help in keeping the connection? 

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi @cam2015

  Do you have AP on both side of the wall? They are wlc based or standalone?

What do you mean reassign in the program? The loose connect with some server? 

 How about site survey, do you have it?

-If I helped you somehow, please, rate it as useful.-

[cam2015]

I'm sorry, I'm not IT - I'm a master user of the system that's dropping connection. 

Yes, AP's on both sides of the wall.  Yes, the garage doors are metal they are in a constant upright (open) position - we have cloth/vinyl speed doors that open with the push of a button as the forklift passes through the doorway. The I-Pad on the forklift loses connection to the server and the driver must then log into the program at each pass through the door. Connection is maintained at all other areas of the building. 

If, there was a site survey, I do not have access to it at this time. 

 I've had our IT out they walked the areas with a laptop and did not lose connection. IT has not provided a resolution other then 'contact the program owners'. The program owners say it's a hardware issue to search knowledge bases for solutions. In the meantime, I have several frustrated end users, who like me, believe,  pointing in the other direction does not solve the issue. 

I'm just wondering if I have the AP's on both sides of the doorway lowered from 30' in the air to closer to the top of the door opening (10-12') will there be a better chance of carrying the signal through the doorway to the next AP unit?

Or am I oversimplifying a very complicated issue? 

[Flavio Miranda]

I dont think you are oversimplifying at all. Your suggestion makes sense, the more you lower the AP the more changes they have to hear each other and provide a proper coverage where clients can roam from one to another.

 However, the position they are today is the recommended on technical documentation. To be honest it is a bit hard to me make a picture of the environment, maybe due my poor English skill. That´s why I asked about Site survey. This could give you an important information about any shadow between those two APs that could justify the connection drop.

  The walk test you said they performed, should be done  with a similar device. If they used an notebook the result can be different considering a notebook is powerful then an tablet.

  A good test is enable debug for one tablet on the WLC then walk with it and see if they are actually loosing Wireless connection. If possible, start a ping while walking. Maybe the application is too sensitive and is getting disconnected when one or two packets is lost. Or maybe, the roaming is not happen due a configuration factor and not due coverage.

 Hope this can help someway.

-If I helped you somehow, please, rate it as useful.-

[cam2015]

Thank you for your suggestions and advice.

I'll see what information I can gather with regard to the site survey. I'll also test a tablet in debug.



I do appreciate your time.

[Leo Laohoo]

Garage doors = METAL doors?
Forget it. With that high, I'd rather go with directional antennas pointing down.
Site survey would be wise because one can specify what kind of antenna to use and you can immediately see what the pattern would look like at variable heights.

[Bernhard82]

first step would to be to perform a site survey using either Ekahau to determine you current RF environment, if the report shows shodow zones or poor RSSI/SNR based on devices requirements than additional AP's may be required to provide coverage. 

if RSSI/SNR is suitable perform test with the devices in question, they may be have difficult roaming to determine the behavior  of the client.

It may be cheaper to install extra AP here and there than rearrange current AP locations