I've seen a few threads with opinions and discussions about Ubiquiti wireless AP's. I've done some reading from the Ubiquiti site. I am by no means a Wireless Network Engineer. I have responsibility over my office infrastructure along with my user support, server support everything else support.
Apologies if this turns into a really long post but there is information that needs to be written out in order to get the best opinions/suggestions possible from the forum.
Wireless coverage for my office is horrible and unreliable. Factors: 15+ wifi networks broadcasting in the vicinity, all 2.4Ghz with significant channel overlapping. 10+ Cordless telefone handsets in use in my office (VoIP and two regular phones). Office layout - basically an inverted L shape. Short leg of about 20 meters, the long leg is about 40 meters. At the angle is a slightly open "common" space. The short leg has the bosses' work area and reception area. The long leg is divided into multiple smaller work spaces with a mtg room about 10 meters down. The room divisions are wall with a glass pane type "door" section. There is a lower floor that is basically an open space of +/- 30 meters long, 6-8 meters wide, 5.5-6 meters tall. Then below that is an underground space of about 15 meters by 6 meters by 5 meters that also needs coverage.
I need to provide internal LAN/WAN access along with "Guest" access for wireless connectivity in ALL areas. There are currently 3 Cisco WAP-200 devices in place for LAN/WAN, one D-Link 1353 for LAN/WAN, Apple Airport Devices for Gst access.....You get the idea. Random devices, spotty coverage, no WiFi Roaming, Cisco devices that need to be managed from a Win XP pc with IE8 due to the SSLv3 problem with the Management interface.... Fun Stuff. The kicker is I probably only have at MOST 6-8 actively connected wireless clients for work at any time. Most of the time the wireless devices connected are employee cell phones. Of course one of the wireless clients is the IT Director who comes in from time to time but is not based in my office location.
I'd like to propose to my bosses to install and configure 3 Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Lite AP's (one near the angle and one 3/4 down the long corridor on the first floor; and the third placed centrally on the ground floor for there and the below ground level). Considering the range specs (122meters) and given the office layout and construction, any thoughts about coverage? And before it is suggested, I cannot just buy one first to see how it works and covers the space.
I also want to use the central manage SW, the range, the RSSI roaming ability, and the ultimate cost of just about €350 for equipment to sell this to the bosses. The cisco devices cost €350 four years ago.
I hope that gives enough of an idea of what Im dealing with here. Any thoughts suggestions input would be greatly appreciated. As I said, IMO, the most daunting obstacles are simply the saturation of the 2.4Ghz band along with the office layout/floor plan (both of which I really cant do anything about).
If you've read this. Thanks.
Apologies if this turns into a really long post but there is information that needs to be written out in order to get the best opinions/suggestions possible from the forum.
Wireless coverage for my office is horrible and unreliable. Factors: 15+ wifi networks broadcasting in the vicinity, all 2.4Ghz with significant channel overlapping. 10+ Cordless telefone handsets in use in my office (VoIP and two regular phones). Office layout - basically an inverted L shape. Short leg of about 20 meters, the long leg is about 40 meters. At the angle is a slightly open "common" space. The short leg has the bosses' work area and reception area. The long leg is divided into multiple smaller work spaces with a mtg room about 10 meters down. The room divisions are wall with a glass pane type "door" section. There is a lower floor that is basically an open space of +/- 30 meters long, 6-8 meters wide, 5.5-6 meters tall. Then below that is an underground space of about 15 meters by 6 meters by 5 meters that also needs coverage.
I need to provide internal LAN/WAN access along with "Guest" access for wireless connectivity in ALL areas. There are currently 3 Cisco WAP-200 devices in place for LAN/WAN, one D-Link 1353 for LAN/WAN, Apple Airport Devices for Gst access.....You get the idea. Random devices, spotty coverage, no WiFi Roaming, Cisco devices that need to be managed from a Win XP pc with IE8 due to the SSLv3 problem with the Management interface.... Fun Stuff. The kicker is I probably only have at MOST 6-8 actively connected wireless clients for work at any time. Most of the time the wireless devices connected are employee cell phones. Of course one of the wireless clients is the IT Director who comes in from time to time but is not based in my office location.
I'd like to propose to my bosses to install and configure 3 Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Lite AP's (one near the angle and one 3/4 down the long corridor on the first floor; and the third placed centrally on the ground floor for there and the below ground level). Considering the range specs (122meters) and given the office layout and construction, any thoughts about coverage? And before it is suggested, I cannot just buy one first to see how it works and covers the space.
I also want to use the central manage SW, the range, the RSSI roaming ability, and the ultimate cost of just about €350 for equipment to sell this to the bosses. The cisco devices cost €350 four years ago.
I hope that gives enough of an idea of what Im dealing with here. Any thoughts suggestions input would be greatly appreciated. As I said, IMO, the most daunting obstacles are simply the saturation of the 2.4Ghz band along with the office layout/floor plan (both of which I really cant do anything about).
If you've read this. Thanks.
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