Marina Wifi expert advice needed

[BruceK]

That technique works well in office and educational environments, not so well in marinas. Probably why so many marinas suffer from poor wireless.

 

[mlines]

Sorry completely disagree, we use that technique in lots of places from huge arenas (Superbowl) through to festivals, shopping centres, outdoor events etc.

 

[BruceK]

And yet by your own admission in earlier posts you were quick to express disappointment over the whole affair. Perhaps I could consult for the "We" ?

 

[mlines]

I think I was just reinforcing my disappointment at the process. WiFi operates in the unprotected ISM frequency allocations therefore you are competing with all sorts of devices from CCTV cameras, microwave ovens, welding equipment, bluetooth, S-Band and C-band radar and some forms of eco lighting.. So height, which increases the noise horizon for the WiFi receiver in the AP, can actually make things worse. typically lower power, lower mounted, high density APs can mitigate this as can use of Leaky Feeder cable around the site. So we can all keep guessing at the solution and no-one will be right.

 

[BruceK]

That's correct and again works well in a built up environment. However in an open environment and one such as a marina, reducing the power does not reduce the coverage area if there is nothing to absorb the signal. Increasing the AP count just increases the amount of noise and interference regardless of the fact that you have reduced power. In this instance less is often more in terms of density and throughput. On a theoretical level just compare your office enterprise networks with your home network. You will concede I am sure that you are getting much better throughput on your cheap home broadband wifi compared to your expensive enterprise WLAN network. Why? Because your client is not trying to roam, there is less interference, and client density is managed. What you propose will augment the noise and clutter not minimise it. There are instances where such as a stadium more is better. In many instances here they put the AP's with a skyward pointing directional antenna close under the seats rather than high up to improve AP density because the RF cone is then narrower and it covers just a handful of seats before disappearing into space. You can use the spotlight approach from above too but with lesser success. Omni directional in these open areas just suck. I'd go for banks of 3 AP's with non overlapping channels using sector panels to target specific / defined areas with little or no bleed off taking advantage of the latest 802.11ac technologies such as beamforming and wave2 to further enhance targeted areas and client densities. When it comes to open area wireless you do not want the equivalent of a crowded echoing hall where everyone is overtalking everyone else, even if you do tell them to speak in whispers, it just doesn't work too well.