steel wall framing anything to consider?

[Mark Graham]

i'm going to start doing a survey in an area of our building that was recently remodeled with steel framing instaead of traditional wood.  in one area i'm thinking of putting a patch (or one for 2.4 and 5 ghz bands)   to light up a hallway and hopefully some rooms in between that are using the steel beam construction. 

what kind of interference would i intend to expect?  

i have a 1242 LWAPP that i will be using, as those are what we are going to be using.  we are planning to upgrade an isolated area with N LWAPP's that are for outdoor use (mobile video upload) and then use the old 1242's  on our 5508 WLC. 

also, with the new ap"s can i still use the outdoor dipole and patche's, i am going to need another for 5ghz and MIMO right?   i'm pretty sure these AP's only have one diverse 2.4 antenna on them, but i will have to check again.  

[Scott Fella]

Most new construction is using these metal studs and I haven't yet had issues.  I don't use patch antennas pretty much anymore.  As you can see from what you stated, you want to light up the hallway and HOPEFULLY cover some rooms... this is not a good idea if you need coverage in the rooms.  I typically place AP's in rooms and make sure it also bleeds into the hallways.  Now one thing to keep in mind is that if you mix 802.11n and non-802.11n AP's, your 802.11n clients will hold onto the 802.11n AP as long as they have a connection and wont roam to a non 802.11n AP until it drops off. 

AP's these days have diversity as long as you have at least two antennas on the specific radio. 

Thanks,

Scott

Help out other by using the rating system and marking answered questions as "Answered"

[Leo Laohoo]

Don't use the 1242 to use as a survey because this will cause alot of inaccuracy, particularly when you said that your AP will be using 802.11n.

The rule-of-thumb is to use the same model for site survey as what you'll be installing.

[Mark Graham]

For the area I am going to put the older AP's I will be using 1242's   The area that was already surveyed previously will be getting the N upgrade. 

And thanks Scott, I will have to do some surveying.  I wish I had a wispi handy!  I should pick one up.