Planning a wireless network for a 2000 square meters manufacturing company. Which AP products are best suited, do I need a Zonedirector?

[Anonymous]

We are
designing a stabile Wi-Fi Architecture for a small manufacturing company. This wireless network needs to support seamless roaming for Mobile VoIP. The building is 2000 square meters (50m x 38m) and 10 meters high. The manufacturing area is separated by brick walls into 4 sections of 30m x 15m. The other 20% is office space on one side of the building which is divided into two stories. The second floor had a sheet metal floor over concrete.

In my first research I found that Ruckus has the product to fit our needs for this company. The challenge for is the choice for the most suited AP, the placement and how many would I need to cover the entire building.

I hope someone can give me a good directions for this Wireless design plan.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tom,

Where in the world are you? For that size building I'm not sure that you would need a controller but the network design may dictate that. If you could let me know where you are we or another Ruckus partner would be happy to assist. If you have a layout and distances, walls etc we could also run some simulations to give us a rough specification.

Kind Regards

Gideon Kay

[Anonymous]

The Netherlands

[DarrelRhodes]

Hi Tom,

You are absolutely correct that Ruckus technology will be ideal for your requirements. Howeer you need a wireless design that takes in to account the challenges that are specific to your building, use-case and device requirements.

I would strenuously recommend you employ the services of a professional and experienced Wi-Fi design company to provide you with an on-site survey and fully under-written design. The company providing you with the service will use a Wi-Fi design tool such as Ekahau: https://www.ekahau.com/blog/2010/02/19/wi-fi-network-planning-best-practices-for-designing-wi-fi/

Designing Wi-Fi for seamless VoIP application is one of the biggest challenges in Wi-Fi. You could deploy the most expensive access points on the market and it won't make any difference to the performance of the network if the underlying design is not optimised, especially for VoIP and specifically tailored to your building's characteristics.

If you PM me at [email protected] I can put you in touch with a Ruckus partner in your area.

Best regards,
Darrel.