Wireless Access Point Placement Considerations - SonicWALL sonicpoint ACI Getting Started Manual

Wireless access point
placement considerations
Physical placement of the SonicPoint ACi wireless access point
has a measurable effect on who can and cannot access your
wireless signal.
Access points should be kept clear of Radio Frequency (RF)
interference sources. RF barriers can be circumvented by
deploying multiple access points.
A site survey will help find the optimum wireless access point
placement, but you can find usable locations without it.
Considerations include:
• Number of access points versus user density – If too
many users are serviced by a single access point,
maximum transfer rates are reached and that access
point may become a bottleneck for the whole system.
• Bandwidth – How much data is moving upstream and
downstream for a given type of user?
• Ethernet cabling – Where are you running the powered
Ethernet (PoE) cable to and how are you securing that
cable? Is your PoE switch 802.3at compliant and able to
power all access points with 25 watts each?
14 SonicWall SonicPoint ACi Getting Started Guide
To maintain 25 watts of power to the SonicPoint ACi,
the maximum length of CAT5e cable from the 802.3at
PoE injector to the SonicPoint ACi is 30 meters.
• Hubs / Switches – Your wireless deployment has to tie
back into your network security appliance and LAN
resources. Consider where your key networking devices
are deployed and how they will connect efficiently with
your wireless appliances. What speed is needed for
your Ethernet connection to accommodate the number
of access points you are installing? A Gigabit Ethernet
interface is recommended when connecting a
SonicPoint ACi to your SonicWall network security
appliance.
• Legacy clients ‐ Older laptops and mobile devices may
not support 802.11ac. Although clients with 802.11a/g/
b hardware are supported by the SonicWall SonicPoint
ACi, the presence of these legacy clients within range of
your wireless network could affect the connection
speed of your 802.11ac clients.
For example, an 802.11b device authenticated to the
SonicPoint ACi could limit all clients connected to that
radio to 802.11b data rates.