Aruba RF Plan For Windows v2.0.3 User’s Guide 180 Great Oaks Blvd. Ste B San Jose, California 95119 Net www.arubanetworks.com Tel 408.227.4500 Fax 408.227.
Copyright Copyright © 2004 Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications in this manual are subject to change without notice. Originated in the USA. Trademarks RF Director, AirOS, Aruba 5000, and Aruba 52 are trademarks of Aruba Wireless Networks, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. Any other trademarks appearing in this manual are the property of their respective companies. Legal Notice The use of Aruba Wireless Networks Inc.
Table of Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Text Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Contacting Aruba Wireless Networks . . . . . . . . . vii The Aruba RF Plan Tool . . . . . . . . . . 1 Getting Started . . . . . . System Requirements Installing RF Plan . . Launching RF Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv Aruba RF Plan v2.0.3 User’s Guide Using RF Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Task Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning Requirements . . . . . . . . . . Building Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Building List Page . . . . . . . . . . Building Specifications Overview Page Building Specification Page . . . . . AP Modeling Page . . . . . . . . . . AM Modeling Page . . . . . . . . . Import and Export . . . . . . . . . . Planning Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planning Floors Page . . . . . .
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 Aruba Wireless Networks support and service information Related Documents The following items are part of the complete documentation for the Aruba system: z Aruba AirOS User’s Guide z Aruba RF Director Starter’s Guide Preface v
Text Conventions The following conventions are used throughout this manual to emphasize important concepts: TABLE 1 Text Conventions Type Style Description Italics This style is used to emphasize important terms and to mark the titles of books. System items This fixed-width font depicts the following: z Sample screen output z System prompts z Filenames, software devices, and certain commands when mentioned in the text.
Contacting Aruba Wireless Networks Web Site z Main Site http://www.arubanetworks.com z Support http://www.arubanetworks.com/support E-mail z Sales sales@arubanetworks.com z Support support@arubanetworks.com Telephone Numbers z Main 408-227-4500 z Fax 408-227-4550 z Sales 408-754-1201 z Support In the U.S.
viii Aruba RF Plan v2.0.
The Aruba 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 (WLAN) for their corporate environment, optimizing coverage and performance, and eliminating complicated WLAN network setup.
Getting Started System Requirements Aruba RF Plan requires the a PC with the following: z Intel Pentium® III 800Mhz (minimum) or equivalent 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 Installing RF Plan To install RF Plan, use the following procedure. N OTE—RF Plan only runs on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. 1 Locate the file named Aruba RF Plan.zip.
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.
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. For example, as shown on the Building Overview page: Feature Tree Page Display Selected Feature FIGURE 1 RF Director Page Elements z Feature Tree–Each feature has its own information or configuration pages and sub-pages. The feature tree lists all of the available features.
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. Use the scroll arrows to view the available options. To select a specific item from the list, click on the item when displayed.
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 WLAN 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.
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. This page includes the following buttons: 8 z New Building Use this button to create a new building.
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.
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 on the Building Dimension button in the upper righthand 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. The first is the campus ID.
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 value corre12 sponding 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,.
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. Controls on this page allow you to select or control the following functions, each of which is described in further detail in the following sections: z Radio Type Use this pull-down menu to specify the radio type. z Overlap Factor Use this field and pull-down to specify an overlap factor.
Overlap Factor The Overlap Factor is the amount of signal area overlap that you want when the APs are operating. Overlap is important if an AP fails. It allows the network to self-heal with adjacent APs powering up to assume some of the load from the failed device. Although there may be no holes in coverage in this scenario, there will likely be a loss of throughput.
AM Modeling Page The AM Modeling page allows you to specify all the information necessary for RF Plan to determine the appropriate placement of your AMs. Controls on this page allow you to select or control the following functions, which are explained in more detail in the sections that follow: 14 z Design Model Use these radio buttons to specify a design model to use in the placement of Air Monitors. z Monitor Rate Use this pull-down menu to specify the desired monitor rate for your Air Monitors.
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.
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 20.) Buildings exported from RF Plan will be imported into an Aruba switch and used by the version of RF Plan that is integrated into the RF Director Software.
Export Buildings The Export Buildings page allows you to export the configuration of the WLAN you just created so that it may be imported into and used to automatically configure your Aruba switches. Files exported from RF Plan will be placed in the following directory on your hard drive: C:\Program Files\Aruba 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 .XML file extension.
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. 18 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 Coverage Map (select radio type) Use this pull-down to select a particular radio type for which to show estimated coverage.
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.
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. Naming You may name the floor anything you choose as long as the name is an alpha-numeric string with a maximum length of 64 characters. The name you specify will appear just to the right of the Floor Number displayed just above the background image in the Planning view.
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. Open the Area Editor by clicking on the New link in the Areas field just below the area where the background image is displayed. Area Editor “New” Link You specify these areas by placing them on top of the background image using the Area Editor.
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”. It assigns the number starting at 1 and increasing by one for each new AP. When you manually create an AP that new AP is then assigned the next “ap” number in sequence and added to the bottom of the suggested AP list. You may name an Access Point anything you wish.
Fixed Fixed APs don’t move when RF Plan executes the positioning algorithm. NOTE—You might typically set an AP as fixed when you have a specific room, such as a conference room, in which you want saturated coverage. You might also want to consider using a Fixed AP when you have an area that has an unusually high user density. Choose Yes or No from the drop down box. Choosing Yes will lock the position of the AP as it is shown in the coordinate boxes of the Access Editor.
AP Plan The AP Plan feature uses the information entered in the modeling pages to locate access points in the building(s) you described. 24 Aruba RF Plan v2.0.
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.
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. 26 Aruba RF Plan v2.0.
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.
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 Aruba RF Plan product. N OTE—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 > Aruba Offline RF Plan > Aruba RF Plan.
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.
Model the Access Points You will now determine how many access points are required to cover your building with a specified data transfer rate and overlap. In this example we will use the Coverage Model and make the following assumptions about the performance of our WLAN. z z z z Radio Types: a/b/g Overlap factor: Medium (150%) 802.11a desired rate: 48 Mbps 802.11b desired rate: 48 Mbps 1 Select “801.11 a|b|g” from the Radio Type pull-down box. 2 Select “Medium” from the Overlap Factor pull-down box.
Add and Edit a Floor You will now add floor plans to your floors and specify “Don’t Deploy” and “Don’t Care” areas for each floor. In this section you will: z Add a background image floor plan for each floor. z Name the floors. z Specify any Don’t Deploy and Don’t Care areas. 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.
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\Aruba RF Plan\Tutorial\tutorial floor 2.jpg 32 8 Click Apply. 9 Click Save in the Planning window. Aruba RF Plan v2.0.
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.
Your floor plan with the Don’t Care box should look similar to this: 8 Click Save. Create A Don’t Deploy Area 1 Click the “New” link in the Areas box located below the lower left corner of the floor plan in the AP Planning window. 2 Type Lobby in the Name text box in the Area Editor. 3 Select “Don’t Deploy” from the Type pull-down menu box. 4 Click the Apply button. Notice that an yellow box appears near the center of 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).
Running the AP Plan In this section you will run the algorithm that searches for the best place to put all your access points. You might want to zoom in on the floor plan. Zoom using the Zoom pull-down near the top of the AP Planning page, or type a zoom factor in the text box at the left of the pull-down and press the enter key on your keyboard. Try entering a zoom factor of 400. Notice that the number of required APs is 5, the same value that you saw when you modeled your APs above.
