User`s guide

The Aruba RF Plan Tool 13
Overlap Factor
The Overlap Factor is the amount of signal area overlap that you want when the APs are oper-
ating. 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. Increasing the over-
lap will allow for higher throughputs when an AP has failed and will allow for future capacity
as the number of users increases.
The valid range of values for the overlap factor are from 100% to 1000%.
Design Models
Three 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:
The desired rate is selectable from 1 to 54 Mbps in both the Coverage and Capacity models.
Users
NOTE—The Users text boxes are active only when the Capacity model is selected.
Enter the number of users you expect to have on your WLAN 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.
High data transmission rates will require an increased number of AP to be placed in your
building. You should carefully evaluate your user’s data rate needs.
z Coverage Use this option to let RF Plan automatically determine the number of
APs based on desired data rates and the configuration of your building.
z Capacity Use this option to let RF Plan determine the number of APs based on
the total number of users, ratio of users to APs, and desired data rates.
z Custom Use this option to simply specify a fixed number of APs.