Coverage Area Requirements; Building Type; Building Homogeneity - Alcatel OmniAccess Wireless System 2.1 Product Manual

Protocol/Band
802.11 b/g only
802.11a only

Coverage Area Requirements

Customers typically want seamless full RF coverage or partial RF coverage in conference rooms, lunch
rooms, etc.
•
Full or partial coverage.
•
What percentage of coverage holes is acceptable? (0 - 10%)
Coverage holes are areas where clients cannot receive a signal from the wireless network. When
deploying wireless networks, there is a tradeoff between the cost of the initial network deployment and
the percentage of coverage hole areas. A reasonable coverage hole criterion for launch is between 2
and 10 percent. This means that between two and ten test locations out of 100 random test locations
may receive marginal service. After launch, the Alcatel OmniVista AirView Software will identify these
coverage areas and report them to the IT manager, allowing the IT manager to fill holes based on user
demand.

Building Type

Building Type
Identifying the building type and its RF characteristics is critical in determining how many OmniAccess
Radios will be needed. The following table shows three basic building types that are common in the
enterprise market. If the building does not fall into one of these categories then some amount of
professional service may be needed.
Building Type
Typical Office Space
Drywall Office Space
Brick/Concrete
Walled Office Space
Other

Building Homogeneity

•
Is the floor-to-floor and/or building-to-building floor plan layout similar? (Yes or No)
11/5/04
90-100831-300 Rev 2Alcatel OmniAccess Wireless Access Point Quick Installation Guide
Pros
Supports legacy clients
Lowest cost OmniAccess AP 1200 or
1250
High performance
High Capacity
Coverage Area Requirements
This is the most common enterprise building. This type of building consists of
large open cubicle areas with walled offices and conference rooms.
This type of building consists of mostly offices with dry wall characteristics.
This type of building consists of concrete or brick walls for both exterior and
for interior office space. Old buildings found on college campuses are good
examples of this type of building.
There are some buildings such as sports arenas and stock exchanges that do
not fit into one of the typical categories. These buildings typically require
some special consideration or professional service.
Building Homogeneity
Step 1: Determining Deployment Requirements
802.11g performance is limited in the
presence of 802.11b users
Limited capacity
Does not support 802.11a clients
Does not support 802.11b/g clients
Description
Cons
4