Selection of equipment for WLAN: how not to spend money in vain


    Today, for staff or visitors of any organization, wireless Internet access is a must. In time, this need will only grow. When choosing equipment for your network (or if you are a reseller, then when choosing a Wi-Fi solution for the customer), three important factors must be considered.

    1) The capacity and growth of the network in the future

    When you select access points and other Wi-Fi equipment that will serve your network today, it is important to find out if they can provide the network in two to three years. This is a more important factor than theoretical performance, as Wi-Fi problems most often arise when many devices are connected to the wireless network and are not related to the nominal speed or available bandwidth.

    Just adding new access points to the Wi-Fi network can increase its coverage, but it will not solve the problem of signal overlap. On the contrary, an increase in the number of points can lead to network congestion and conflicts between points using the same channel. If the number of devices that need to provide Wi-Fi connection in a certain area increases significantly in a couple of years or at a certain time it will increase sharply (for example, in an exhibition center or theater), then you need to plan the installation of additional access points.

    Technologies that optimize signal transmission between the router and other wireless devices can solve this problem. The choice of technology depends on the specific situation. One option is to use MIMO Wave 2, but client devices that will connect to your Wi-Fi network should also support this technology. Smart antenna technology provides this or even more significant performance improvement and is compatible with all mobile devices. This option is a bit more expensive, but more effective in the long run.

    2) Visibility and control

    All organizations care about their information security, and given the legislation of the Russian Federation, you need to know exactly who has access to their data. It is extremely important to control access to the wireless network and to fix the entrance to the network of each user. You may need to block access to certain types of sites and content.

    It is also necessary to ensure constant connection of users to the network. Users and guests want Wi-Fi to work not only quickly, but also stably, so you need to consider not only the quality and reliability of the equipment, but also how its failure will affect the network and what solutions are used to restore its functionality. It is worth paying attention to the self-healing functions used in some routers and access points.

    You should also consider the option of concluding a service level contract (SLA) to guarantee the replacement of the faulty product at a specific time, or other options for the purchase and maintenance of Wi-Fi equipment.

    3) Options for the acquisition and maintenance of network equipment

    Most companies already use applications and services hosted in the cloud for which they pay the provider once a year or month, or upon use. The same payment schemes are already available for network equipment, so you can get devices based on the latest Wi-Fi technology from your provider for temporary use, along with services for services, remote performance management and security monitoring.

    There are several acquisition options. For example, you can entrust all network management and monitoring to the equipment supplier or another company, or you can do all this work on your own. In any case, you have several options and it is worth analyzing them, choosing the best one for you and applying it at the right time.

    If you are a reseller, then consider what options you can offer customers - it makes sense to offer all three to one customer, and none of them suits the other.

    All these factors must be considered when planning the development of your wireless network in the future.

    Well, if you need help - contact! :-)

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