Help to build wireless network for computer lab

[sht747]

In our school, they are planing to build a wireless network for a computer lab.

We need to know what HW devices (Router,switch,AP) are suitable to acomplish that ?

There are a lot of options and models for routers, switches, APs, we would really appreciate your help to determine the number of required APs and the suitable router and switch, knowing that computers have built-in wireless network card which will be used to connect to APs.



We would really appreciate your help and support.

 

[christinebcw]

How big is the lab area? One room? Can the transmitting antenna (the "wireless router") be centered, say, up on the ceiling?

How many connections will be made at one time? Dozens? 50? 5?

Home-routers that are marketed commonly won't be the best solution and a 'commercial' or 'business class' wireless router will address larger quantities of log-in's with superior speeds and connectivity for each.

 

[bill001g]

I would first look at the "packet tracer" software used by the cisco networking. It has some wireless stuff in it.

Your main issue building a lab is going to be interference. When you put bunch of wireless equipment very close together especially when you have multiple groups of people with mulitple groups of wireless equipment you will get massive interference. In the test lab we have at work where they are testing radio equipment they actually cable all the antenna connections together so they can control which wireless signals they see.

The main problem with a LAB related to wireless is you have to be able to control the signal level seen by a device. If for example you wanted to demonstrate that a PC will roam from one AP to another when the signal level drops to a certain level how would you ever do that. You either need a way to artificially control the signal levels of you need to actually mount the AP large distance apart.

 

[sht747]

How big is the lab area? One room? Can the transmitting antenna (the "wireless router") be centered, say, up on the ceiling?

How many connections will be made at one time? Dozens? 50? 5?

Home-routers that are marketed commonly won't be the best solution and a 'commercial' or 'business class' wireless router will address larger quantities of log-in's with superior speeds and connectivity for each.

Thanks christinebcw,

The room area : 40 X 25 foot²
# of connections : 30 Desktops using wireless PCI Card.

I agree with you, business class equipment are required.

What we are thinking is to have a router and 3 access points and balance the load between the desktops, is that possible ? do we need a switch ? or the ports of the router will be enough to connect the APs ?

Thanks in advance

 

[sht747]

I would first look at the "packet tracer" software used by the cisco networking. It has some wireless stuff in it.

Your main issue building a lab is going to be interference. When you put bunch of wireless equipment very close together especially when you have multiple groups of people with mulitple groups of wireless equipment you will get massive interference. In the test lab we have at work where they are testing radio equipment they actually cable all the antenna connections together so they can control which wireless signals they see.

The main problem with a LAB related to wireless is you have to be able to control the signal level seen by a device. If for example you wanted to demonstrate that a PC will roam from one AP to another when the signal level drops to a certain level how would you ever do that. You either need a way to artificially control the signal levels of you need to actually mount the AP large distance apart.

Thanks bill001g,

What do you recommend for the hardware equipment? for the mentioned area and # of desktops?

Can we make each 10 desktop connect to one AP?

10 Desktops ------> Access point A
10 Desktops ------> Access point B
10 Desktops ------> Access point C

Is that possible ?

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

I mis read your post thinking you were building a lab to actually test wireless.

Still when the equipment is that close together I would use a ethernet switch rather than wireless. You could use wireless but you are going to have to force things like 20mhz channels and force different SSID on the AP. 10 active machine on a single AP could also be a problem. It really depends how much traffic they pass.

I would still make a effort to go as much wired as you can it is much more stable and is much easier to fix. Lab machines unless you lock them down very tightly tend to have lots of changes made that can mess up wireless.