What should you pay attention to when it comes to hotel WiFi coverage?

When hotels use wireless APs to deploy WiFi, many hotels will find that the actual effect is far from expected, and various phenomena such as network instability, frequent disconnections, and unlimited video buffering will still occur. .

The reason for the above phenomenon is that there is no better understanding of the complex and diverse structure of each hotel area, and there is no reasonable deployment of wireless APs, resulting in problems with the fluency and roaming of the hotel WiFi.

In today’s article, the editor of Crestar will explain in detail the precautions for deploying WiFi in hotels, the three networking modes commonly used in hotel WiFi construction, and their respective advantages.

First, the structure of each hotel area is complex and diverse

The hotel includes many functional areas such as guest rooms, corridors, conference rooms, large suites, offices, restaurants, etc., and the guest bathroom has become the largest WiFi signal obstacles. After a general smart terminal passes through two layers of walls, the signal has been attenuated a lot, so it is naturally difficult to support its signal requirements.

For example, the empirical values ??of penetration loss of 2.4GHz wireless signals (electromagnetic waves) for various building materials are as follows:

Blocking of partition walls (brick wall thickness 100-300mm): 20-40dB;

The obstruction of floors: more than 20dB;

The obstruction of wooden furniture, doors and other wooden partitions: 2-15dB;

Thickness Glass (12mm): 10dB

At the same time, when measuring the penetration loss of AP signals on walls, etc., the AP signal incident angle also needs to be considered (as shown in the figure).

For example, on a 0.5-meter-thick wall, when the straight-line connection between the AP signal and the coverage area is incident at a 45° angle, the wireless signal is equivalent to penetrating a nearly 1-meter-thick wall; at a 2° angle It is equivalent to a wall more than 14 meters thick, so to obtain better coverage, try to make the AP signal pass through the wall vertically.

To prevent signal dead spots in the guest room, detailed planning of signal coverage is required, especially the situation in the bathroom and bedside of the guest room.

Second, three modes of hotel WiFi construction

In order to achieve comprehensive signal coverage in the hotel that meets strength standards, and to meet the needs of stable signal and smooth data for settled users, we analyze the following three types of WiFi Deployment plan: AP installed in the wall, one to two, AP installed in the wall, one to one, high-density installation in the corridor.

1.? AP into the wall, one for two

This solution uses two guest rooms as a coverage unit, deploys an AP on the TV wall of the room, and the AP covers through the wall The front of the panel corresponds to the guest room. In special environments such as conference rooms, restaurants, and presidential suites, separate ceiling-mounted APs are provided for coverage. The guest room aisles are arranged as needed depending on the terminal signal strength. Pay special attention to the dead ends of the aisles. Weak signals will cause roaming problems (as shown in the figure below).

In WLAN projects, it is necessary to understand the materials of buildings and surrounding materials through on-site surveys, and estimate their impact on wireless signals, so as to determine the installation location of WLAN equipment.

For example, placing the AP in a relatively open location can effectively eliminate fixed or moving obstructions between the AP and the wireless terminal, thereby ensuring effective signal interaction between the AP and the wireless terminal. Improve the coverage quality of WLAN and ensure the smooth flow of WLAN network.

The advantage of this solution is that it can ensure uniform WiFi signal strength in the guest rooms and save project costs.

2.? One-to-one AP in-wall

This solution uses one guest room as a coverage unit and deploys an AP on the TV wall of the room to cover the room. In special environments such as conference rooms, restaurants, and presidential suites, separate ceiling-mounted APs are provided for coverage. The guest room aisles are arranged as needed depending on the terminal signal strength. Pay special attention to the dead ends of the aisles. Weak signals will cause roaming problems (as shown in the figure below).

The advantage of this solution is that it can ensure uniform strength of the WiFi signal in the guest room, high forwarding rate, guaranteed bandwidth, etc.; the disadvantage is that there are too many APs, which can easily cause self-interference; turning on automatic channel scanning consumes the AP device CPU , reducing AP performance.

3. High-density installation in the corridor

Deploy wireless AP in the guest room. The flashing wireless AP indicator light may not meet the acceptance standards of some hotels. In this case, you can install it in the corridor Solved by high-density installation.

When installing an AP in the corridor, the location of the AP is very particular. It should be at the junction outside the doors of two adjacent guest rooms so that the AP signal can cover the innermost part of the guest room in a straight line. Each two guest rooms adjacent door to door, or four guest rooms adjacent door to door, are covered by one AP (as shown in the figure below).

The main reason that affects the hotel WiFi experience is that the signal of wireless terminals is not strong and unstable during roaming. To build a WiFi network with comprehensive coverage, uniform signal, and signal strength that meets the standards, you can refer to the above points. This solution can be deployed based on the actual situation.