Questions about Wireless Networking

[terycoils82]

So I am relatively new to professional IT. I have been given control of a ton of things with the company I am with. One of those is our Wireless Network. We are not a huge company. About 200 in office workers total. We have 4 main buildings containing the bulk of those employees and a few warehouse with 2-5 people in them.

Currently we have one access point deployed in each building which seems to give enough coverage for the people in them. I have been focused on getting the new APs up and running with the WLC as when I came on with the company that had not been done yet. As I am past that now I am working to get the deeper settings configured on the WLC. One of the things I am a bit foggy on is CleanAir. I have had a few people I know that work in tech rave about it to me. I have been reading up on it and it seems like you need a dedicated CleanAir AP that does not transmit for the network. This seems like it doesn't fit our need. Mostly looking for confirmation here if I am correct on this.

My other question here is does RRM take care of some of the same things in a more limited way without the extra monitors?

Currently we have one AP per location and each AP is in a separate WLAN with its own VLAN. Given that these locations are pretty far apart would it be feasable and/or a good idea to merge these all into a single network with a single SSID so if someone is traveling in the company their devices will link up at all locations with no additional config.

And finally can someone link a guide or reference to setting a guest network that is isolated from the internal network? I will be honest that I have not even done a cursory google search on this issue yet as it is a back burner issue for me at this time.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@terycoils82 wrote:

I have been reading up on it and it seems like you need a dedicated CleanAir AP that does not transmit for the network. This seems like it doesn't fit our need. Mostly looking for confirmation here if I am correct on this.

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First of, allow me to start by saying there are, at least, two "generations" of CleanAir APs.  The first generation of CleanAir APs (3500,2600/3600, 2700/3700) will detect co-channel interference and change the channels &/or power.  The second "generation" will disable 2.4 Ghz and turn on a micro 5.0 Ghz radio. 

Next, CleanAir will depend entirely upon how "dirty" the air is.  Co-Channel Interference does not come from other APs but can come from everyday appliances like microwave ovens, baby monitors, old DECT wireless phones, etc.  Co-Channel Interference can even come from motion sensors.  

The only environment (or industry) that totally "hates" CleanAir are hospitals, clinics and other medical facility.  

Otherwise, I'd leave CleanAir and Event Driven RRM enabled.  

[Scott Fella]

RRM algorithm only works when there are three or more aps near each other. In your case, the AP’s are probably on the highest power and possible on the same channel which is default.  I never really focused too much on CleanAir as it just works or doesn’t. The more important thing for you is understanding is what was designed and installed is right. One ap per office, is not really a good thing, especially if that ap dies. Also 15-25 drives per ap is a rule of thumb, so if you are seeing more, then maybe look at adding another AP. There are a lot of info about CleanAir and how that feature is deployed on specific access points like Leo mentioned. I however would look at seeing if other things need to be changed and what is your signal/coverage in each office.