Wireless design

husycisco · ‎06-02-2008

Hi experts!

I have couple of questions for Wireless in a company that has 3 floors.

My first question is, how can I measure the current backbone throughput of my current AP (Dlink DWL-2100AP)? There are about 10 wireless clients, 5 of these are Wireless IP Cameras (Dlink) and only AP is the one above. How can I see the utilization? Its web interface just shows %100 transmit and some packet info,

What is RTS according to the following output from my AP

RTS Success Count 91922

RTS Failure Count 32469132

In wireless clients section under the "Band" tab, "G" is marked for wireless cameras. What does that mean?

Now our other floors will be utilized, and I need a covered wireless. I have heard of Wireless switches, you have 1 device that you plug all antennas, and you place antennas to floors as you wish. Omni antennas for center and bi antennas for corners etc. Does Cisco has products like that and what are your recommendations Place APs in each floors?

Regards

Scott Fella · ‎06-02-2008

The only way you can test the bandwidth you are using is by using snmp tools that can measure the switch port of the AP. As for the "G", your wireless camera supports 802.11g.

Depending on how may ap's you need to provide coverage throughout 3 floors or coverage required in only certain areas. Cisco makes a Wireless LAN Controller that can support 6, 12, 25, 50, 100 or 300.

WLC2106 supports 6 AP's

WLC4402-12 supports 12 AP's

WLC4402-25 supports 25 AP's

WLC4402-50 supports 50 AP's

WLC4404-100 supports 100 AP's

WiSM supports 300 AP's

1242 (802.11a/b/g) AP's should be good enough for what you are trying to do. There are various antennas you can use, but you might want to look at the ceiling mount antennas.

AIR-ANT5959

AIR-ANT5145V-R

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps7183/ps469/product_data_sheet09186a008008883b.html

-Scott
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husycisco · ‎06-02-2008

Hi Scott,

Thanks for prompt reply. I am not so good at wireless and trying to understand some things, so I may ask absurd questions :)

With "backbone throughput", I meant the RF utilization of AP, that how much simultaneous and dense wireless traffic can it have at the same time.

For example I have 5 x G band Wireless cams (G utilizes 54Mbits right?), and my AP is 108Mbitps and its 100MBps fast ethernet is connected to switch X. What happens when 3 users connected to switch X view 5 cameras at the same time? Ho does Carrier Sensing Multiaccess - Collision Avoidence work at that time?

Why would I purchase a WLC device while I can directly connect APs to my Access Layer or backbone switch? I ment a structure where 6 antennas are connected to a switch which has 6 SMA ports for Coaxiel antenan connection and 1 Fast ethernet port that connects to 1 AP in a centralised fashion. Does that exist or what I heard is wrong?

Regards

Scott Fella · ‎06-03-2008

What you need to look at is how much bandwidth is required by the cameras. Just because it says 54Mbps, doesn't mean that is uses 54Mbps. It supports 54Mbps...

You need to look at the ap's Cisco sells. These ap's only support 2 antennas per radio for diverisity unless you look at the new 1252's that support 'N'. Your D-Link support 108, but that is proprietary. So clients that run intel, etc will not reach that speed. You don't need a WLC, but it just simplifies management. If you want to see the utilization of the radio, then you need a tool that runs snmp capable for that. Also the ap must have the mibs for that.

-Scott
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