OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide TM i
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Copyright Copyright © 2005 Alcatel Internetworking, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications in this manual are subject to change without notice. Originated in the USA. Trademarks RF Director, AOS-W, OmniAccess 6000, OmniAccess AP60, OmniAccess AP61, and and OmniAccess AP70 are trademarks of Alcatel Internetworking, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. Any other trademarks appearing in this manual are the property of their respective companies.
Table of Contents Table of Contents iii Preface v Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . v Text Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . v Contacting Alcatel . . . . . . . . . . . . vi The Alcatel RF Plan Tool Getting Started . . . . . . . . . System Requirements . . Installing RF Plan . . . . . Launching RF Plan . . . . RF Plan Basics . . . . . . . . . Page Summary . . . . . . . Screen Layout . . . . . . . Page Fields . . . . . . . . . . Applying and Saving . . . Next Step Button . . . . . Using RF Plan .
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Building Specifications Overview Page . . . . . . . . . 9 Building Specification Page 10 AP Modeling Page . . . . . . . 12 AM Modeling Page . . . . . . . 14 Import and Export . . . . . . . . 16 Locate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Planning Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Planning Floors Page . . . . . 19 Floor Editor Page . . . . . . . . 21 Area Editor Page . . . . . . . . . 22 Access Editor Page . . . . . . 23 AP Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Preface This preface includes the following information: z A list of related documentation for further reading z A key to the various text conventions used throughout this manual z Alcatel support and service information Related Documents The following items are part of the complete documentation for the Alcatel system: z Alcatel AOS-W User Guide z Alcatel AOS-W Reference Guide Text Conventions The following conventions are used throughout this manual to emphasize important concepts: TABLE P-1 Text Con
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide TABLE P-1 Text Conventions In the command examples, italicized text within angle brackets represents items that the user should replace with information appropriate to their specific situation. For example: # send In this example, the user would type “send” at the system prompt exactly as shown, followed by the text of the message they wish to send. Do not type the angle brackets.
The Alcatel RF Plan Tool RF Plan is a three-dimensional wireless deployment modeling tool that enables Network Administrators to design an efficient Wireless Local Area Network (Wireless LAN) for their corporate environment, optimizing coverage and performance, and eliminating complicated Wireless LAN network setup.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide z 128MB RAM z 10MB available hard drive space z Windows 2000 or Windows XP z Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher) z Macromedia Flash 6.0 (of higher) plug-in for Internet Explorer NOTE—Internet Explorer on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 blocks RF Plan by default. To run RF Plan on this platform, configure Internet Explorer to Allow Blocked Content. Installing RF Plan To install RF Plan, use the following procedure.
RF Plan Basics Page Summary The following is a summary of the functionality of each of the pages in RF Plan. z Building List Page The Building List is the first page displayed when RF Plan is launched. This page provides a list of buildings that you have created and saved. You may use this page to add or delete buildings from you saved database. You may also import or export buildings here.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide z AM Plan The AP Plan page is used to initialize the position of Air Monitors and launch RF Plan’s positioning algorithm. Screen Layout When RF Plan is started, the browser window will show the default RF Plan page. For ease of navigation, all of the pages in the RF Plan tool have a similar page structure.
z Data Entry Fields–Boxed text fields contain user-configurable data. To enter or edit the information, click inside the field box. z Pull-down Menus–These fields allow you to select an item from a preset list. The currently selected item is displayed in the box. When the arrow button is selected, a list of available options will appear. You can change the current selection by clicking on any item in the options list. z Scrolling Menus–These fields allow you to select an item from a preset list.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Using RF Plan Task Overview Before you begin, review the following points. These points outline the general steps to create a building model and to plan the Wireless LAN for it.
Planning Requirements You should collect the following information before beginning to plan your network. Having the information below readily available will expedite your planning efforts.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Building Pages Building List Page The Building list is the first page you see when you start RF Plan. This list contains all the buildings you have defined using the RF Plan software. The first time you run the application, there should be no buildings in the list. You may add, edit, and delete buildings using this window. You may also import and export buildings.
Building Specifications Overview Page The Overview page shows the default values for your new or existing building, most of which you can change in the following pages. The Overview page includes the following: z Building Dimensions: Your building’s name and dimensions z Access Point Modeling Parameters z Air Monitor Modeling Parameters z Building Dimensions button (in the upper right-hand corner of the page). Click on this button to edit the building dimensions settings.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Building Specification Page The Building Specification Page is allows you to specify the identity of your building and its dimensions. To access this page, click Building Dimension in the upper right-hand corner of the Building Specifications Overview page. Naming Your Building Naming your building is as simple as entering the correct values in the text boxes in the Dimension window. z Building ID This consists of two decimal numbers separated by a dot.
Dimensioning Your Building Entering the correct values in the text boxes in the Dimension window. z Width & Height Enter the rectangular exterior dimensions of the building. The valid range for this field is any integer from 1 to a 12 value corresponding to 1 ×10 . If your building has an irregular shape, the width and height should represent the maximum height and width of the overall footprint of the building as seen from above,.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide z Units Specify the units of measurement for the dimensions you specified on the page. The choices are feet and meters. AP Modeling Page The AP Modeling page allows you to specify all the information necessary for RF Plan to determine the appropriate placement of your APs.
Radio Type Specify the radio type(s) of your APs using the pull-down Radio Type menu on the Modeling Parameters page. Available Radio Type Choices: z 801.11a 5GHz, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with data rates up to 54Mbps. z 802.11b 2.4GHz, Direct Spread Spectrum (DSSS) multiplexing with data rates up to 11Mbps. z 802.11g 2.4GHZ, OFDM/CCK (Complementary Code Keying) with data rates up to 54Mbps.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Enter the number of users you expect to have on your Wireless LAN in the Users text box. Enter the number of users per access point you expect in the Users/AP text box. The numbers entered in the these two text boxes must be no-zero integers between 1-255 inclusive. Rates NOTE—The Rate pull-down menus are active only when the Coverage or Capacity design models are selected. Select the desired data rates from the pull-down menus for 802.11b/g and 802.11a.
Design Models Two radio buttons on the page allow you to control the kind of model which will be used to determine the number and type of APs. Design Model Radio Button Options: z Coverage Use this option to let RF Plan automatically determine the number of AMs based on desired monitor rates and the configuration of your building. Desired rate is selectable from 1 to 54 Mbps in the Coverage model. z Custom Use this option to simply specify a fixed number of AMs.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Import and Export RF Plan allows you to import and export files that define the parameters of your buildings. The files that you import and export are XML files and depending on how many floors your buildings have, and particularly how many background images you have for your floors, the XML files may be quite large. (See “Background Images” on page 21.
Export Buildings The Export Buildings page allows you to export the configuration of the Wireless LAN you just created so that it may be imported into and used to automatically configure your Alcatel switches. Files exported from RF Plan will be placed in the following directory on your hard drive: C:\Program Files\Alcatel RF Plan\data\ When exporting a building file it is recommended that you check the Include Images check box. When naming your exported file, be sure to give the file the .
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide The Deployed Access Points and Air Monitors table displays information on each of these devices. To add a device, click Add Device. To delete a device, click Remove Device. To select a device, click Choose Devices.
Planning Pages Planning Floors Page The Planning Floors page enables you to see what the footprint of your floors look like. You can select or adjust the following features on the Planning Floors Page. z Zoom Use this pull-down menu or type a zoom factor in the text field to increase or decrease the size of the displayed floor area. z Approximate Cover- Use this pull-down to select a particular radio type age Map (select radio type) for which to show estimated coverage.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Zoom The Zoom control sets the viewing size of the floor image. It is adjustable in finite views from 10% to 1000%. You may select a value from the pull-down zoom menu or specify a value in the text box to the left of the pull-down. When you specify a value, RF Plan adjusts the values in the pull-down to display a set of values both above and below the value you typed in the text box.
Coverage Rate Adjusting the coverage rate will also affect the size of the coverage circles for AMs. Adjusting the rate values will help you understand how the coverage works in your proposed building. Floor Editor Page The Floor Editor allows you to specify the background image, and name the floor. The Floor Editor is accessible from the Floors Page by clicking on the Edit Floor link.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide z Image Scaling Images are scaled (stretched) to fit the display area. The display area aspect ratio is determined by the building dimensions specified on the Dimension page. Area Editor Page The area editor allows you to specify areas on your buildings floors where you either do not care about coverage, or where you do not want to place an AP or AM.
You may also use the drag and drop feature of the Area Editor to drag your area to where you want it and resize it by dragging one or more of the handles displayed in the corners of the area. Don’t Care areas are displayed as orange rectangles and Don’t Deploy areas are displayed as yellow (Don’t Care) (Don’t Deploy) Access Editor Page The Access Editor allows you to manually create or modify a suggested access point. Naming RF Plan automatically names APs using the default convention “ap number”.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Location 262 ft. The physical location of the AP is specified by X-Y coordinates beginning at the lower left corner of the display area. The numbers you specify in the X and Y text boxes are whole units. The X coordinates increase as a point moves up the display and the Y coordinates increase as they move from left to right across the display. Y 98 0,0 126 X 418 ft. Fixed Fixed APs don’t move when RF Plan executes the positioning algorithm.
802.11a channels begin at channel 34 at a frequency of 5.170 MHz and increase in 20MHz steps through channel 161 at 5.805 Mhz. 802.11b/g channels begin at 1 and are numbered consecutively through 14. The frequencies begin at 2.412 MHz on channel 1 and increase in 22 MHz steps to Channel 14 at 2.484 MHz. 802.11 Power Levels The power level drop down menus allow you to specify the transmission power of the access point. Choices are OFF, 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide AP Plan The AP Plan feature uses the information entered in the modeling pages to locate access points in the building(s) you described.
Initialize Initialize the Algorithm by clicking on the Initialize button. This makes an initial placement of the access points and prepares RF Plan for the task of determining the optimum location for each of the APs. As soon as you click the Initialize button you will see the AP symbols appear on the floor plan. Access points are represented by this symbol.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Viewing the Results The results of optimizing algorithm may be viewed two ways: graphically and in a table of suggested APs. You may obtain information about a specific AP by placing the cursor over its symbol. An information box will appear containing information about the exact location, PHY type, channel, power, etc. The Suggested AP Table lists the coordinates, power, location, power setting, and channel for each of the APs that are shown in the floor plan.
AM Plan The AM Plan feature calculates the optimum placement for your air monitors (AMs). Initialize Initialize the Algorithm by clicking on the Initialize button. This makes an initial placement of the air monitors and prepares RF Plan for the task of determining the optimum location for each of the AMs. As soon as you click the Initialize button you will see the AM symbols appear on the floor plan. Air Monitors are represented by this symbol.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide The Suggested AP Table lists the coordinates, power, location, power setting, and channel for each of the APs that are shown in the floor plan.
RF Plan Tutorial This section will guide you through the process of creating a building and populating it with access points and air monitors using RF Plan. You can use the RF Plan portion of RF Director or you can use the stand-alone Alcatel RF Plan product. NOTE—If you haven’t yet installed RF Plan, you should do so now. See “Installing RF Plan” on page 2. To Launch RF Plan, select Start > All Programs > Alcatel Offline RF Plan > Alcatel RF Plan.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide Create a Building In this section we will create a building using the information supplied in the planning table. 1 Click the New Building button. The Overview page appears. 2 Click Save. 3 Click the Building Dimension button. The Specification page appears.
4 Type the following information in the text boxes. Text Box Information z Building ID 1.1 z Building Name My Building z Width 100 z Length 100 z Inter Floor Height 20 z Units Feet z Floors 2 5 Click on Save. 6 Click on Apply. Notice that each time you click on the Apply button RF Plan automatically moves to the next feature in the list. In this case RF Plan moves to the AP Modeling Parameters page.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide 5 Click Save, then Apply. Model the Air Monitors You will now determine how many air monitors are required to provide a specified monitoring rate. In this example we will continue to use the Coverage Model and make the following assumptions: z 802.11 b|g monitor rate: 48 Mbps z 802.11 a monitor rate: 48 Mbps 1 Select “24” from the 802.11 b|g Monitor Rate pull-down box. 2 Select “24” from the 802.11 a Monitor Rate pull-down box.
1 Click on the Edit Floor link at the right of the Floor 1 indicator. Edit Floor Link 2 Type Entrance Level in the Name box of the Floor Editor Dialog. 3 Use the Browse button to locate the background image for the 1st floor. The file will be located in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Alcatel RF Plan\tutorial\tutorial floor 1.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide 4 Click Apply. You should see the following type of image: Repeat the process above for Floor 2. 5 Click on the Edit Floor link at the right of the Floor 2 indicator. 6 Type Second Level in the Name box of the Floor Editor Dialog. 7 Use the Browse button to locate the background image for the 1st floor. The file will be located in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Alcatel RF Plan\Tutorial\tutorial floor 2.jpg 8 Click Apply.
Defining Areas Before you advance to the AP and AM Planning pages you will want to define special areas. In this section you will learn how to define areas where you either do not want to physically deploy (Don’t Deploy) an AP, or where you don’t care if there is coverage or not. In this exercise we will assume that we: z Don’t care if we have coverage in the Shipping and Receiving areas. z Don’t want to deploy APs or AMs in the Lobby Area Create a Don’t Care Area 1 Go back to the AP Planning page.
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide 7 Using your mouse, left-click and drag the box over the Shipping and Receiving area. Drag one corner of the box to a corresponding corner of the Shipping and Receiving area and using one of the corner handles of the box, stretch it to fit exactly over the Shipping and Receiving area. Your floor plan with the Don’t Care box should look similar to this: 8 Click Save.
6 Using your mouse, left-click and drag the box over the Lobby area on the floor plan. 7 Drag one corner of the box to a corresponding corner of the lobby and using one of the corner handles of the box, stretch it to fit exactly over the lobby area. Your floor plan with the Don’t Deploy box should look similar to this: 8 Click Save. 9 When you are finished defining area in the Floors page, click the AP Planning button to advance to the next step in the process (AP Plan page).
OmniAccess RF Plan User Guide: User Guide 1 Click the Initialize button. You will see a total of 5 AP symbols appear on the two floor diagrams, 3 on Floor 1 and 2 on Floor 2. You will also notice that the Suggested Access Points tables below each floor diagram have been populated with information about the suggested APs for each corresponding floor. 2 Click the Start Button. After you Initialize the APs you must start the algorithm.
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