Survey
Work with existing conditions

When possible, work with the existing conditions and layout. There may be times when the location of the APs may be dictated by available network connectivity. For example, copper has a length limit of 100 m (328 ft). Whatever the problem is, there is almost always a way to correct it. In Figure , the network connectivity in the warehouse is only available along one wall. The warehouse is filled with shelving that creates long, narrow aisles.

A good solution for this warehouse may be to locate APs along the wall where they can be connected to the network. Yagi antennas could be run down the aisles, covering an aisle and a portion of two other aisles. The coverage could be overlapped to cover the entire warehouse. The signal may bounce off the metal walls at the far end of the warehouse and fill in the dead spots created by the shelving.

Sometimes there will be areas within a site that cannot be covered. Figure shows a radiology room in a hospital. The surrounding Emergency Room (ER) is covered. The ER has drop tile ceilings, sheetrock walls, a tiled linoleum floor, and presents very little challenge.

A patient may be brought into the radiology room and have x-rays taken there. However, the radiology room has heavy wooden doors, a hard cap ceiling, concrete walls, and a poured concrete floor that are lead-lined to protect the surrounding ER.

In the example in Figure , there is no coverage in the radiology room. The radiology room is designed to be extremely sterile and the hospital administration did not want exposed wiring and APs in the trauma room. Because of this, the hospital application was redesigned to accommodate the occasional disconnect. The application was changed so that during periods of disconnect, the node would store all the data as a batch unit, and then send the data once connectivity was reestablished.