Replacing Access Points

[wirelessman]

Hello Experts!!!

WLAN in placed with mixed 1230's and 1242's.

Customer wants them out and replace with 3600's.

Is it reasonable to replace 1:1?

Will it improve WLAN experience?

Should we reduce the number of AP's since the new one is MIMO?

Is there a cisco document that supports 1:1 replacement?

Thanks!

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

Rule of thumb for 1:1 replacement is keep the location of the AP, power level and try to match the antenna and antenna gain. This way you can keep the same coverage area. Typically when I have upgraded old environments to a new environment, we perform a site survey to meet requirements for the customer. It might be just data, voice or maybe location or high density. Newer requirements tend to have more access points than original wireless locations.

Back in the days, the requirement for wireless was not how it is today, so many times you would need more AP's, but if your looking for just 1:1, I wouldn't remove any. If your existing environment is also set at 100mW, then you will need to set the osier on the 3600's to 100mW to to make sure you have the same coverage as before.

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[wirelessman]

Thanks, Fella5!

Only complain from the customer is on an area with very crowded user.

We might be adding more AP's on that area.

Other than that, we shall proceed with the rule of thumb.

Thanks!

[Leo Laohoo]

Get a wireless site survey done so you'll know where to put your APs and how many more APs you'll need to install.

[wirelessman]

Thanks, Leo!

Will consider doing a site survey for this.

Please correct me if my methods are wrong, old or time consuming.

1. Place Survey AP on a location.
2. Do RF reading with AirMagnet around the Survey AP. means going to other rooms in the area where signal will bleed.

3. Analyze reading (by drawing it on the map) and see until where signal has reached, -65dBm for voice. tho i know it's -67 by the book.

4. If readings are ok, mark this location... AP01.

5. Remove Survey AP and place it to the next possilbe AP location.

6. Repeat #2, #3

7. If readings are ok, mark this AP02... and so on..

8. If readings aren't ok,  move the Survey AP to another location until readings become acceptable and will mark it accordingly.

A single round will last for like an hour, depending on the area and longer if i had to do a second round.

In a day, a team of 2-person, one doing the rounds with magnet and the other doing the temporary mounting of the survey AP, can only survey 5-6 ap location points.

so, 300 APs, to get their airmagnet report will require 60 survey daysto complete by a single team.

is there another way around this... a shortcut probably...???

i heard our competitor can do 300 AP's magnet survey in two weeks.

my thoughts went... "give it to them!"... never left my head, tho.

[Scott Fella]

You have to remember that from the original survey, if one was done, the requirements for that doesn't work for today's wireless. We usually tell our customers that a site survey we can guarantee coverage, etc. If we have to do a 1:1, then we will not guarantee any coverage at all. There is no way to know unless you perform a post survey to see if you have adequate coverage or not. The few customers that didn't want to have a site surveyed performed always complained about something and it cost them more money to remediate.

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[Leo Laohoo]

What you've describe is typical if you are talking about doing a single floor.  What happens if you have multiple floors? 

Yes, this is the reason why site survey are expensive. 

[wirelessman]

amap, i wouldn't put an AP above and beneath an AP... been avoiding columnar positionIng.

to illustrate:

1F-AP01                         1F-AP02                    1F-AP03

                    GF-AP01                         GF-AP02

MF-AP01                         MF-AP02                    MF-AP03

[Scott Fella]

It really depends on your type if survey. Location based surveys, would require or at least try to have AP above and below each other to help clients associate to AP's in that floor. To maximize coverage you can go with a zig zag type approach with AP's not directly above or below each other to help coverage. Either way works, it just depends on the RF requirements you need.

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[wirelessman]

Thanks, Fella5!

Will try that zigzag approach in our future setups....

So, both of you agree that there isn't a shortcut to an easier rf site survey?

I have to walk those extra extra milessss?

Do you do the same for outdoor? Do you do magnet survey personally or you have a team of RF magnet surveyors?

What is the best tool for Autonomous bridging?

By the way, is there a kit for Cisco Wireless to be used for site survey? If there is, what does it include?

How do you do a survey for an AP which is just newly released and the customer requested to have these type of APs in their actual deployment.

Is it ok to do survey with an old AP and the same gain as the new AP?

[Scott Fella]

Most of all our wireless engineers perform indoor/outdoor pre and post site surveys. The only way you can guarantee coverage is to perform a site survey. We use AirMagnet currently for surveys. We also use the same ap and antennas for the site survey tha we plan on installing.

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