Preparing For A Wlan Deployment; Assessing Your Requirements; Planning; Upgrading From Existing Wi-Fi - Black Box SmartPath LWN602A User Manual

Chapter 2: Preparing for a WAN Deployment
2. Preparing for a WAN Deployment
To ensure a smooth WLAN deployment, you need to begin with a bit of planning. A straightforward review of your deployment
plan before you begin will provide the best results in the least amount of time. The goals of this chapter are to assist you in
assessing your readiness for WLAN implementation and to provide tips and tricks to resolve any issues that might arise in your
environment.
NOTE: This guide assumes an understanding of corporate data networking and past experience with LAN configuration and
deployment. It also assumes some basic Wi-Fi understanding.

2.1 Assessing Your Requirements

To get started with your Black Box WLAN installation, examine the basic requirements of your implementation. First, consider who
your stakeholders are and take the time to fully understand their access requirements. Talk to department managers within your
organization and make sure everyone has documented the full complement of potential network users. Check if the applications
are standard employee applications or if there are other requirements, such as access for guests or consultants.
Next, make a complete list of the application types that your network will need to support. Begin your list with mission-critical
applications, paying special attention to those that generate high levels of traffic and those requiring deterministic behavior.
Identify applications with heavy data requirements and expected service levels.
Demanding applications such as voice and video will require a higher density of access points. Many enterprises are investigating
the potential of VoWLAN (Voice over WLAN) in the hopes of integrating mobile phones and IP-PBX systems. Doing so requires an
evaluation of other data transmission types that can disrupt the quality of voice conversations. Because voice traffic is sensitive to
network jitter and latency, an inadequate number of access points can degrade quality. To the user, excessive jitter and delay can
cause clipped conversations or dropped calls. Additional quality and reliability issues might arise when transmitting video, such as
for training video or surveillance operations, because of the sheer size of the data stream.
Other applications such as network backup and file transfers can also have an impact on the network. Therefore, take into
account any bandwidth-intensive applications if you expect your mobile workforce to be accessing the WLAN while these
applications or services are occurring.
Considering the above issues will result in a more informed—and therefore more successful—deployment plan.

2.2 Planning

This section reviews the fundamental elements for planning your WLAN deployment. This includes conducting a site survey, both
for an upgrade from an existing WLAN and for a completely fresh—or greenfield—deployment.

2.2.1 Upgrading from Existing Wi-Fi

If you are upgrading to SmartPath from an existing WLAN, you already have plenty of data about how your current network is
performing. This information can lead to more informed decisions about your new implementation.
To begin, perform a quick site survey with the existing access points in place. If they are less than three years old and support
802.11g, their coverage and capacity will be lower than the SmartPath 802.11n radio. If the coverage is good and has the appro-
priate density for your deployment, the simplest approach is to replace one set of access points with a new set of SmartPath APs.
However, this scenario is rare because network upgrades are usually done to improve capacity and to augment the existing layout
with a denser deployment of access points.
Be sure to take note whether your existing network uses "fat" or "thin" APs (access points). A "fat" AP is an autonomous or
standalone access point, which contains the capability to connect to any Ethernet switch. With a "thin" AP, most of the intelli-
gence has been removed and replaced in a centralized WAN controller. An upgrade from fat APs to SmartPath APs is very natural.
Generally, with fat APs you simply need to unplug the existing ones and plug in the new SmartPath APs and provision them. With
this approach, you can maintain or enhance all existing VLANs and security policies. This is a huge advantage over migrating from
fat AP to controller-based solutions because you typically need to re-architect the network.
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