Wired + Wireless: Smart Planning for New Network Infrastructures

IntroductionWhen installing or upgrading a structured cabling plant, IT departments can demonstrate significant time and money savings by determining their wireless LAN (WLAN) requirements and folding them into the project right from the start. The reason is that while WLANs Smart Planning for New provide over-the-air communication in the access network in areas where mobility and Network Infrastructures portability are needed, they also create new cabling requirements at the back end, often in hard-to-reach places. It's far less expensive and labor intensive to do all cabling at once, When you have the luxury to cable a building from scratch, it pays to include without ceilings, walls and other obstructions in the way, than to install WLAN cabling wireless networks in your upfront plan later as a separate project. and budget. The most common way of deploying WLAN access points (APs) is to mount them in ceilings and cable them directly to an Ethernet switch port. Generally, a 15- to 20-foot piece of cable called a By Ahmet Tuncay, Chief Technology Officer and service loop is left in the ceiling (Figure 1) in case an AP later needs to be moved slightly to tune Vice President, Trapeze Networks coverage or avoid interference from other RF devices, such as wireless phones and microwave and Paul Kish, Director of ovens. Planning for those cable runs upfront, in addition to your other network cabling needs, is Systems and Standards, Belden financially and operationally prudent, allowing your organization to purchase all the necessary materials and labor in bulk with a corresponding volume discount. If you consider only your wired network as you plan for your new infrastructure, you'll likely have to pull additional cabling for your wireless equipment as a separate project. You might also have to change out some switches and power injectors. That situation can be painful on a number of fronts. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Where to Install Wireless Cable After-the fact Costs 2 Other Floors How to Plan for WiFi 2 Telecommunications Room First Floor Considerations 4 Cable and Power Types 6 PoE Service Ethernet Conclusion 6 LoopSwitchTelecommunications Room End Point IntegrityCan your deviceEquipment be trusted?Room or Application Servers Virus definitions, Data Video Voice Firewall, EncryptionData Center Riser Public Switched Access ControlCable Telephone Network What access doyou deserve?
Main Cross-connect InternetEthernet Router/ Switch Firewall
Figure 1. Additional cabling from telecommunications room switches to Wi-Fi mounting locations in ceilings should be accounted for in the upfront cabling plan, leaving a 15- to 20-foot service loop at the end as wiggle room in case AP locations later require adjusting.After-the-fact CostsThe after-the-fact approach involves the Ethernet switches, Power over Ethernet (PoE) network design and cabling infrastructure as cost of opening up ceilings and walls, as well switches and power injectors, phone system one cohesive project makes installing wireless, as the possible cost of business downtime elements and uninterruptible power supplies, when you are ready, a smooth process with while the environment remains ripped apart. for example. These active devices require minimal associated costs and headaches.These factors can increase the overall cabling heating, ventilation and air conditioning project cost by 2 to 4 times, depending on the How to Plan for Wi-Fi(HVAC) and AC or DC power and can thus be size and structural complexity of the property. more costly if installed after the building has If your new building is under construction, The greater the importance of aesthetics in been constructed. how do you know where ceilings will be for a building, the more difficult and expensive the after-the-fact cabling job is likely to be These are among the reasons that a mounting APs? How do you plan around
(Figure 2). universal IT best practice is to evaluate all sources of interference that might eventually network infrastructure requirements any be present? Don't you have to wait until the For example, there might be ... [download for more]