An in-depth review of five common WiFi installation solutions to determine which one is better!

Choosing a wireless WiFi coverage solution is just like buying a commodity. There is no such thing as the best, only the right one! The solutions applicable to enterprises will vary depending on their own business and development needs! Summarizing ten years of wireless construction experience, this article briefly analyzes the five common office wireless network solutions for enterprises, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each solution, and what type of enterprise it is suitable for.

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Home WiFi

Solution 1: Only router or AP coverage

Brief description: Use routers or APs to cover multiple wireless blind spots, and deploy multiple APs to achieve coverage of the entire area.

Applicable users: small offices, restaurants in small areas, etc. (the "small" here only means that the coverage area is small and the number of users is small).

advantage:

• The equipment cost is low, the price of a home wireless router is around 100 yuan, and the price of an ordinary wireless AP is only around 300 yuan.

shortcoming:

• The coverage is poor and there are many blind spots, so the number of wireless access devices needs to be increased.
• The wireless access of a single device is limited to about 10 users, which cannot meet the access needs of a large number of users.
• The more wireless access devices there are, the more likely it is to cause wireless interference between the wireless access devices.
• Power must be taken nearby. If installed inside the ceiling, it will be inconvenient for maintenance and have a great impact on the signal; if installed outside, it will affect the appearance.
• Management is inconvenient. Each wireless access device must be manually configured and recorded, which makes planning difficult and prevents faults in a timely manner when they occur.
• When a wireless access device fails and needs to be restarted, it is necessary to go to the installation location to power off and restart, which is inefficient.
• The equipment has poor reliability and low performance.

Comments:

This wireless coverage networking method is only suitable for small offices that do not require management. For enterprises or hotels, such a solution is equivalent to doing nothing and is just fooling yourself.

There was a case where a hotel had more than 100 rooms. When applying for fiber optic cables, China Unicom gave them more than 100 routers as gifts, so the hotel placed a router in each room. Since then, the engineering department has been dealing with these routers almost every day. It's a headache to manage more than 100 routers individually!

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Office WiFi

Solution 2: AP+AC (thin AP+wireless controller)

Applicable users: high-density user access, seamless roaming required, complex wireless environment (multiple APs deployed in the area), and other user environments.

advantage:

• Fit AP is generally designed for enterprise applications and has powerful hardware processing capabilities. Generally, a single AP can support 20 to 30 standby users.
• The equipment has good reliability and high performance.
• APs can be easily managed through AC.
• The equipment generally supports POE power supply, which is safe and convenient to manage.
• You can choose enterprise-level wireless access authentication equipment to provide high-level stepless security.
• It can automatically adjust the wireless transmission power to reduce wireless interference between devices.

shortcoming:

• The price of a single AP is generally between 1,000 yuan and several thousand yuan. ACs are priced based on user authorization (the number of APs managed by each AC).
• Product debugging is professional and requires maintenance by professional technicians.

Comments:

The thin AP+AC coverage solution has obvious advantages in large-scale enterprise networking. Perfect management, load, automatic power, channels, etc. provide enterprises with a stable network environment. However, due to the high cost of the product, especially the AC, which is basically above 2W, small enterprises generally use it less, and it is suitable for large enterprises. For example, the Hanting Hotel chain requires the use of Cisco's thin AP+controller for first-class urban stores.

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WiFi at the venue

Solution 3: WOC Solution (WLAN Over Cable)

The cable TV network transmits wireless signals to each guest room without the need for rewiring, replacing the original TV signal sharer and guest room cable TV panel, and then connecting to the wireless AP.

Applicable users: community operation, hotel industry

advantage:

• The signal in each room is good and there is no blind spot.
• The wireless transmission power in each guest room is low, eliminating wireless interference between devices.
• The wireless signal is stable and the Internet access is good.
• Wireless AP can be freely selected.

shortcoming:

• The project cost is high, the equipment needs to use high-power telecommunications-grade equipment, and the WOC panel needs to be replaced in each room.
• The quality of the original limited line is required to be high. At present, the limited network wiring structure of the hotels that have been completed in China is generally not standardized and the line quality is not standardized, so the actual application effect is far from the theory.

Comments:

In the hotel infrastructure, cable TV network is more important than wifi. With the help of cable TV network equipped with wifi coverage, cable TV failure risks are caused, so basically APs are deployed in the corridor to provide coverage.

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Supermarket WiFi

Solution 4: Wireless coverage of antenna feed system (distributed antenna) - the mainstream solution currently used by China Telecom and China Mobile

Each AP is connected to multiple antennas through feeders, and the antennas are arranged in the coverage area to achieve large-scale coverage of a single AP.

Applicable users: public areas, hotels, large-scale low-density environments.

Scenic area wireless WiFi environment construction large area wireless WiFi coverage

advantage:

• A single AP can achieve coverage of multiple areas. (High-power equipment can be connected to up to 12-20 antennas if feeder attenuation allows).
• There is no interference or roaming problem between the coverage areas of the antennas connected to a single AP.
• The signal effect is good and the channel is easy to plan.
• There is a wide range of choices for AP antenna and feeder systems.

shortcoming:

• The cost is high, and the cost of accessories related to the antenna and feeder system is high.
• The process requirements are high. The production of the connectors installed in the antenna feeder system has high process requirements. The production (manual) has a very obvious impact on signal attenuation.
• The antenna feeder system needs to be wired.

Comments:

Many medium-sized brand hotel chains use this method, and the coverage effect is very good, with full signal in every coverage area. However, this solution also has its own shortcomings.

Because the same device covers multiple areas through multiple antennas, all traffic and loads in these coverage areas pass through one AP, which places high demands on the performance of the AP. When designing the solution, in addition to considering signals and coverage, the number of users in the area must also be considered. Secondly, the 802.11G networking method is generally used, because the core of 802.11N technology is MIMO antenna, i.e. antenna array. In the networking using the antenna feed solution, ordinary antennas and single feed lines are generally used. Of course, in theory, three groups of feed lines and MIMO antennas can be used to achieve MIMO access, but the cost is relatively high.

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Hotel WiFi

Solution 5: Embedded AP Wireless WiFi Coverage

This solution can be said to be an extension of the thin solution (AP+AC). The thin AP solution mentioned earlier in this article refers to the traditional AP. The embedded AP (86-type AP, wall-mounted AP) is a new product, a wireless access point designed with the standard 86-bottom box size. It can be directly installed in the 86-bottom box and embedded in the wall.

Applicable users: Hotels

advantage:

• The construction is simple, no rewiring is required, only the existing panels need to be replaced.
• Centralized management of multiple APs is achieved through a controller (soft/hard AC).
• It uses POE power supply, which is safe and easy to manage.

shortcoming:

• It is not suitable for high-density user access. Generally, the processing capacity of a single AP is 10-15 access users.
• The users are limited and it is basically only suitable for project environments such as hotels and apartments.
• Among the brands I have come into contact with, the coverage effect of different brands is very large, which may be caused by the different positioning of the manufacturers for this product.

Comments:

The first in-wall wireless coverage solution appeared in the second half of 2012. At that time, most of them were fat APs, that is, devices that could not be centrally managed, which made management very difficult when multiple APs were deployed. Starting in 2013, mainstream manufacturers including H3C launched centrally managed and FIT-type devices. This solution was perfected.

For example, for a hotel, if APs are arranged in the corridor, the signal needs to penetrate the bathroom at the entrance. This results in poor coverage of a single AP and a small coverage area. Antenna solutions require a lot of construction for operating hotels, so there are limitations. The wall-mounted AP solution avoids these problems. Just install POE in the weak current room and replace the panel in the room.

In actual network solutions, the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions are often combined with the actual needs of users to adopt flexible configuration combinations to meet the final application requirements.