If you’ve ever used the iBwave software, you probably know that it is great for designing indoor wireless networks in complex venues. It enables you to streamline your projects, collaborate with your peers better and therefore do more lovely wireless projects better and faster!
With over 1,000 major operators, OEMs, system integrators and enterprises using iBwave worldwide, there are all sorts of venues around the world that got rocking wireless with iBwave solutions. Thousands of airports, subways, stadiums, malls, college & university campuses, enterprise campuses, hotels, hospitals and office buildings have all been designed over the last 13 years using iBwave.
iBwave is proud of the fantastic work our customers have done throughout the years! So here is an infographic showing a sample of the many thousands of venues whose wireless network was designed using iBwave.
Webinar Recap: The Do’s and Don’ts of Stellar Wi-Fi
On January 30th, well-known Wi-Fi experts David Coleman (CWNE #4) and Gregor Vucajnk (CWNE #96) of Aerohive Networks joined us to kick off an exciting webinar series on deploying high-performance Wi-Fi in the Enterprise.
In this first webinar, Dave and Gregor covered off the basics of deploying a Wi-Fi network that will work correctly the first time – using a 3D modeled interpretation of the USS Enterprise’s captains deck.
The 3D model was completed in iBwave Wi-Fi our powerful 3D Wi-Fi Planning and Design solution (a big thank you Chiyo, our super 3D modeling master!)
Here’s an overall view of the model with a few of the key areas highlighted:
In this part of the webinar Dave and Gregor discussed external vs. internal antennas and how the RF coverage are so different for both with external antennas having a more typical dipole omni coverage (think doughnut-shaped) while internal antennas have more of a cardiod shape (think heart-shaped).
Here are some iBwave Wi-Fi 3D antenna patterns that were shown in the webinar to illustrate the differences in vertical and horizontal coverage.
Where and How Not to Place APs
Using examples of ‘Bad-Fi’ taken from the infamous ‘Bad-Fi’ website run by Wi-Fi expert Eddie Ferrero (if you have not seen it be sure to check it out!)
Here are a couple examples of Bad-Fi that were highlighted:
2 APs are better than one?
Heavy metal?
Beyond looking at examples of poor AP placement, Dave and Gregor went through some more examples of where APs should not be placed, but also how they should be placed in specific types of environments.
They discussed in-depth, topics such as:
Where Not to Place APs (for example: reflective surfaces, too close to the wall in certain circumstances)
How to place APs in high-density environments
How to place APs on a ceiling
How to position antennas on walls
How to place APs between multiple floors
How to avoid interference
Channel Bonding
Here are a couple of pictures illustrating the topics:
And much more in between.
How was the webinar received?
With such knowledgeable hosts, I wasn’t surprised the webinar was very well received by those who attended.
“Great Presentation!”
“I cannot wait to see the future webinars in this series!”
“Looking forward to the next webinar with these guys!”
Speaking of Aerohive, did you hear their exciting news?
Just a couple of weeks ago Aerohive announced news they would be releasing three 802.11ax access points later this year. To learn more about the access points, be sure to check out Aerohive’s blog that talks about the announcement and goes into more detail about the APs themselves.
What’s Next?
Stay tuned for the announcement soon of our second webinar in this series where Gregor and Dave will discuss Wi-Fi design best practices for hospitality venues.
It took us some time but here is the final installment of our follow-up posts on this webinar. This one is all about industry-related questions posted during the webinar.
And in case you missed this webinar with Ronald van Kleunen or simply need a refresher, here is a link to the recording: Wi-Fi Design Strategies Webinar.
A big thank you to our experts Ronald van Kleunen, Vladan Jevremoivc and Ali Jemmali for taking the time to answer these questions. We hope you find these response informative, please let us know your thoughts.
Business models applicable for small ISP’s who resell internet bandwidth over a shared platform?
[Ronald] We are not covering this topic in the presentation. Typically, many parties are involved: Building owner, Tenant, IT and equipment provider, Vendor, Business owner / Marketing strategist / Branding advertisements / Analytics, the Telco/ISP (Internet Service Provider) itself. All kind of aspects need to be taken into account, for example bandwidth monitoring over the shared infrastructure/platform, performance management at the Wi-Fi side, Billing/charging mechanisms and security as well.
We would like to understand if there is any relationship b/w iBwave and eco-link? IoT?
[Ronald] Not sure if iBwave is focusing on home automation (probably different frequencies, like ZigBee, NFC). Ecolink.
How do small cells affect the economics of in-bldg?
[Ronald] I am not sure if I understand the question correctly, I think it is design related, in-building design and the economics relates to the affected costs. Unfortunately, I do not have financial calculators to calculate the RF coverage/RF density/number of active devices on the mobile/cellular network vs the Wi-Fi network. Also with the new LTE or more likely 5G networks (“700 MHz”) small cells ROI calculations need to be done if it is more cost effective and if it is meeting the bandwidth capacity requirements for the end users.
Are the dense Wi-Fi implementations at Stadiums growing, or just flat after the densification of LTE Networks from mobile operators?
[Ronald] Good question, I do not have insight in this if the mobile operators are involved in the off-loading to Wi-Fi and/or the Stadium wants to keep the clients on the Wi-Fi network (for business purposes, like wireless ticketing, remote ordering food from the bar, doing marketing analytics what customers are doing during a match e.g. watching on the internet if its a boring game).
