General Considerations - Wlan Best Practice Guidelines - Cisco Aironet 1850 Series Deployment Manual

Revised: January 25, 2017,
General Considerations – WLAN Best Practice Guidelines
Following are some guidelines to remember regarding AP deployments:
• Always try to mount the AP as close to the users as possible for best performance. Be aware of the environment; for example,
hospitals have metal doors and coverage can change when the doors close. Old buildings can have metal grid work in the plaster
or asbestos. Avoid mounting the AP or antennas near metal objects, as doing so can change the coverage area.
• When using the 2.4 GHz frequency, the same 1, 6, and 11 channel scheme is used as the 5 GHz channel scheme
Example of Channel Usage in 2.4 and 5 GHz (Two Channels used if 40 MHz), on page
same channel, and reuse channels as you can. See other deployment guides for more on this topic.
Figure 29: Example of Channel Usage in 2.4 and 5 GHz (Two Channels used if 40 MHz)
• Try to determine which clients are going to be used and check the coverage using those clients. For example, a PDA or Wi-Fi
phone might not have the same range as a notebook or tablet.
Verify coverage using the worst performing clients that you intend to deploy.
Tip
• The Cisco AP 1850 series supports standards based transmit beamforming and is positioned for newer Wave-2 MU-MIMO and
4-SS clients. The Cisco 2700 and 3700 series APs with ClientLink 3.0 will perform better than the AP 1850 when using legacy
.11g/n and .11ac Wave-1 clients. This is because the performance improvements with the AP 1850 are designed to take advantage
of 4-SS and Multi-User MIMO (Wave-2 clients) and does not support Cisco's enhanced Client Link beamforming for legacy
clients.
• While site surveys are generally recommended, if the design is done at half power and Cisco RRM is in place, sometimes a
limited site survey (coverage check) is adequate for smaller venues. If it is a very challenging environment such as train
connectivity, Gas & Oil verticals, large hospitals, and so on, Cisco has an Advanced Services team that can be contracted to
help you get up to speed or perform your installation. Contact your Cisco account team for more information.
• The rule of thumb coverage plan is 1 AP per 5,000 square feet for data and 1 per 2,500 square feet for voice and location services,
which roughly means 1 AP per 50 feet for best performance.
(Figure 29:
35). Avoid putting all the APs on the