Designing a wireless network to last
Mobility is the #1 issue facing Enterprise IT today. With the rapid growth of smart devices, organizations are increasingly depending on wireless to transform their businesses. Their users are highly mobile. Their processes rely on wireless and cloud access. Real-time interaction is needed. Tim Zimmerman states that, "to design a wireless LAN, implementers need to use the proper design criteria. Enterprises that don't understand the details risk poor performance, or, worse, having to "rip and replace" the entire WLAN."
Below we outline a few key parameters and best practices that we feel are important to follow to ensure your wireless network performs as expected today and tomorrow:
- Start by defining areas to cover and secure floor plans for those areas
- Find out the construction materials of the building
- Determine the types of clients you'll support (laptops, tablets, smart phones, printers, etc.)
- Determine what bands you'll support- 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz
- Come up with a capacity plan. Ask questions such as: How many simultaneous clients in each area? What's the largest average bandwidth per client (recommended 6Mbps per user where wireless is the primary connection)
Best practices for replacing your wired network
As you work through the plan, you'll want to ensure you incorporate some basic things into the design, such as:
- Maximize 5GHz and minimize 2.4GHz to increase spectrum efficiencies
- Disable 11n bonding to maximize the number of 5GHz channels
- Limit the number of SSIDs to decrease overhead
- Turn-off 802.11b as it negatively impacts performance
- Filter traffic off the air to keep the wireless clean
- Rate limit clients to ensure airtime fairness among users
- Make sure your DHCP pool is large enough and lease time limited