Wireless LAN/ NTC/247 May 28, 2012

Site Survey of Apex Designs A site survey is necessary to develop the wireless network plan and wire less security policy for Apex Designs. During the site survey, the consulting te am will walk the entire layout of Apex Designs building to determine the best pl acement for the wireless access points (WAP). The Team will look for issues that might cause signal loss or blocked signals to prevent interference problems and any other structural related problems that would cause poor wireless signal. Th e site survey will also provide more information on where any network equipment should be located and how to run any backbone cables. Team C has received the floor plans of Apex Designs but the plans are ve ry basic and do not show any structural designs such as the type of walls, ceili ngs, or current wiring designs. A site survey is beneficial when there could be many users in one location. Multiple WAPs would need to be implemented or anothe r type of WAP to balance the number of users for the required bandwidth. During the site survey, a radio-frequency (RF) device will be used to de termine the best placement of the access points. By using an RF device and softw are, a graphical overlay of a floor pan will be illustrated to show the access p oints. Additionally, the RF device is able to examine interference and can ident ify any signals that could interfere with the new implementation. Having this in terference data upfront is important as stated in the Ziobron (2007) article, it states, Having interference data in advance can help you determine if any addition al equipment is needed to maintain a higher power level than those coming throug h ceilings, floors, or windows . Wireless Access Point Placement A preliminary WAP design has been created to give Team C an idea of the number of WAPs needed but this number could change after the site survey is comp leted. The preliminary WAP design shows that eleven WAPs are needed in the execu tive office space and four WAPs in the customer relations office. There will be a total of fifteen WAPs for Apex Designs, this is due to the long hallways locat ed in the building and the amount of users located in one general area. The numb er of WAPs should be trimmed down when using the RF device during the site surve y. The Apex Designs floor plan presents certain issues upfront that we need to work through but will receive more information from the site survey. The flo or plan shows a large space in the executive offices where many cubicles are loc ated and this could be an area where multiple WAPs are used. By using so many WA Ps we will have to review signal strength to ensure that there is a good transit ion between WAPs for laptops and other mobile devices. Another challenge is the customer relations office space, there are large rooms with steps and we may hav e to adjust the WAPs in this area. The Food Court and the Record Keeping area co uld pose a problem. The wall type is unknown in the food court, it could be an o pen food court or there could be partitions that are stood up creating a loss in signal strength. The record keeping area is going to have thicker walls and a s teel door. By looking at the floor plan this would be typical for storing import

ant data in a secured area. Once the RF survey is completed we will need to check the signals that m ay extend outside of the building. There may be an adjustment to the signal stre ngth or WAP placement so the signal stays inside of the building to protect agai nst someone from attempting to gain access. In addition to ensuring the signal d oes not extend outside of the building, security type and settings will need to be selected to ensure the wireless LAN is protected from any leakage that may oc cur. Switch We have four network switches that will be utilized for the wireless net work plan. The core aggregation network switch is located in the data center in the executive offices. The three floor switches are located in the customer rela tions office, 2nd floor north east area and the 2nd floor southern area. The agg regation switch will be connected to the three floor switches with a 10GB backbo ne connection. Switches are configured to use the correct Virtual Local Area Net work (VLAN) along with other wireless configurations. The core switch will consi st of a Layer 3 for routing and the floor switch will be a Layer 2. The two swit ches are both considered 10GB/1GB but there will be multiple uplinks from the co re switch to the floor switch for redundancy and port bonding to increase the th roughput if desired. All three switches will have Power over Ethernet (PoE), whi ch will be beneficial if no power is located near the WAPs. After the site survey is completed, we will know with certainty if we need to ad d another floor switch to the executive office space near the food court. If we do add a second floor switch, then it will connect to the core switch via fiber optic just like the first floor switch. Wire Layout Each WAP will be connected to a switch, using category 6 (CAT 6) copper wiring which will run a 1GB. The reason that CAT 6 was chosen as the WAP medium is due to fast bandwidth, faster transmission parameters, and CAT 6 is quickly b ecoming the standard for twisted wire pairs. The maximum distance to run CAT 6 i and there should not be any issues with meeting the requirements but will hav s 328 e more information once the site survey is completed. The three floor switches will be connected by using fiber optic cable an d the backbone will run at 10GB. Fiber optic cable was selected to allow for fut ure proofing these connections. Fiber optics is capable of running at many times higher than the 10GB signal being used in this case. This will allow for easy u pgrades to future additions or upgrades to this building without a need to chang e the cabling. There will be multiple uplinks between the switches which will pr ovide redundancy incase one link is shutdown or the links can be bonded to incre ase the backbone speed. Each WAP will need to have access to standard 120 Volt power. If the WA P does not have a power source nearby then the POE switch will be able to power the WAP and power will not be required. Each cable length will be determined dur ing the site survey and will be measured by a cable wheel, which counts the spec ified distance between nodes. By using the measuring wheel, accurate distances c an be measured so exact length of cables can be ordered. Scenario The company will need printer stations within the office complex so that employe es can print documentation as needed. The company has a wireless telephone system that runs on a 2.4 GHz network band and may cause interference with the wireless LAN. The telephone system that is being used has access points for the telephones alr eady installed and will not be a part of the wireless LAN network build out. The users require no more than 32Mbps throughput speed for their workstations. I put this calculation in there because currently what I am calculating is for th e Northwest corner of the building, 55 users on 6 Wi-Fi hotspots and the hotspot s having 802.11 N with 300Mbps throughput speed. A larger calculation will be pe rformed for all users on the floor making sure that connectivity stays at 32 or above.

Here is a list of the user accounts I have calculated for the floor of the build ing: Cubicles 45 users Executive Offices 22 users Conference Room 15 users Meeting Room 10 users Food Court 50 users With the assumption stated, the next portion will be concentrating on the deploy ment scenario using an infrastructure wireless LAN that uses hardwired devices o n the network to connect to peripheral devices. The 1st plan of action for the deployment scenario would find out what the custo mer requirements are. Customer Requirements: As I stated in the assumptions, speed will be at 32Mbps per desktop user, the co verage will need to be throughout the floor. How much security is the customer willing to use before the system becomes unusa ble, and what type of budget the company is looking to spend to keep their netwo rk secure. Design survey: Once all of the customer requirements have been acquired, the design of the syst em needs to take place 1st by drawing out a desktop plan, and then visiting the location and performing a site survey. The site survey will include measurements of different radio frequencies within the building and different points making sure that the system designed will not receive interference causing connectivity problems. After these frequencies have been identified the location of the hots pots connecting back to the wired infrastructure will be identified. As stated i n the assumptions, I have listed the amount of users, and I believe we can use t hat as a baseline since we do not have an interface to an actual customer. Initial design: After the site surveys performed and all of the data is collected, the system th en needs to be desktop engineered. This basically means that all of the informat ion and different items needed to build out this wireless network will be calcul ated to see what the costs will be for the installation, configuration and testi ng of the system before it is put into production. This initial design will also include the configuration of each one of the desktops so that the deployment of the security items needed to connect to the wireless network is a process that is recognized and understood. Once the customer looks over the configuration and deployment of the system, a final design can be prepared and finalized. Implementation: Once all of the designs are finished and the customer blesses off on the install ation, the actual work can be commenced. The 1st portion of the implementation w ill consist of the hardware installation. This entails the actual running of the cable from each aggregation point to the wireless access points mounted either on the wall or in the ceiling, the devices needed to create aggregation points ( L2 Switches), the installation of the software on the system, and the software c onfiguration to make the system work. There will be 2 aggregation points; one wi ll be in the data center, which is on the Northwest side of the building. The 2n d aggregation point will be at the very Southeast corner of the building behind the snack area. The reason for this is the category 6 cabling can only run 100 m eters from switch to device. The 1st aggregation switch will be located in the d ata center so that space will not be taken up by a single switch somewhere else within the area. The 2nd aggregation switch can be located either on a wall or i n an area where no one can get to the device and mess with it. To connect the 2n d aggregation switch to the main data center, the use of fiber optic cable will be used due to the flexibility and distance that fiber-optic can run past a 100 meter mark. The fiber optic cable will need to be tested for insertion loss, opt ical return loss, and other fiber optic characterization. Fiber cabling will nee d to be tested from the switch back through the carrier network to ensure the fu ll broadband signaling is available for an efficient network. Testing:

After all hardware and software is installed, configured and running, the system will need to be tested. The 1st test will need to be the software test, which w ill make sure the system is running stable. The 2nd test is a hardware burn in t est, which will take place over a period of 30 days. The 3rd test will be agains t the systems security protocols and encryption. This will include a test of the signal strength at and around each wireless access point to ensure the users ca n move throughout the building and maintaining signal strength. The last test wi ll be a system test, which will include a test run of an everyday user s requirement s.

Fig.1.1 Customer Relations Office

Fig.2.1 Executive Office

Fig.3.1 Logical Diagram Logical Diagram

References Ziobron, Betsy (2007). WLAN planning moves to RF coverage software. Retrieved from http://www.cablinginstall.com/index/display/article-

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