User's Manual

Plotting the Plan

If you don’t already have a site plan indicating building dimensions, distances be-

tween buildings, possible obstructions, parking segment, and other gated access

points, contact your facilities maintenance or project engineer. If none are avail-

able, you will need to visit the site, take measurements and draw up a plan of your

own.

Device Identiﬁcation

Each device in the system will have its own unique identity. It will be important

for you to document that identity, along with capacities and locations, and to give

each device a common name such as “Parking Garage” or “Admin 1”. At a mini-

mum, you must record the Media Access Control number (MAC address) for each

device. This 12-digit number is assigned by the manufacturer of a network device

so that it can be recognized as a unique member of a network.

Note The MAC address is most commonly shown on the back of or inside the device, so

it’s important to record this number before you install the device.

When you move on to conﬁgure the Host computer, it is essential to have a list

identifying each controller lock and Portal Gateway recognized by the system.

We recommend creating a temporary label for each device that includes the MAC

address, device name, location, capacity, and type of antenna so that installers on

the site will have a reference for installing the correct device in a location.

Redundancy

In our sample plan, approximate Portal Gateway ranges are indicated by shaded

circles. As you can see, these circles overlap, creating a degree of redundancy

in the system. It is perfectly acceptable, in fact, desirable to create range redun-

dancy in your plan. This will provide additional coverage should a Portal Gateway

go off line, intentionally or otherwise. If the controllers ﬁnd that the nearest Portal

Gateway is down, they will “search” for the nearest Portal Gateway.

Interference

Wi-Q and Omnilock Technology transfers information between devices in the form

of data packets over the 2.4 GHz ISM band. This band frequency is very heavily

used in many devices such as wireless computer networks (802.11 b and g) and

cordless phones, which increases the risk of lost packets, that is, packets that

do not make it from a controller to a Portal Gateway because of interference.

Interference can also reduce controller battery life due to the constant re-broad-

casting of packets and lost connections to the Portals.