Discussing environment

INTRODUCTION ● Course Overview ● Course Objectives

KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES ● Given a floor plan of a facility and a checklist the trainee will be able to map, identify, and locate the installation points for a wireless network with 80 percent accuracy.

Point of Entry Coverage ●Throughout the site survey process, a handy tool to be aware of is the signal strength indicator native to every Meraki AP. From any device with a web browser, clients can navigate to my.meraki.com in their browser to get real time signal strength and channel utilization data. ●Site surveys should be performed using the same Cisco Meraki access point model as that would be used in the customer infrastructure. ●Ensure that the AP is not mounted close to any metal or concrete walls that can contribute to heavy attenuation of RF signals. ●Have a blueprint of the location being surveyed handy, to document the signal readings, data rates and record any interference sources during the survey. ●With the proliferation of clients with varying wireless capabilities, it is important to survey for the ‘worst’ clients in order to ensure a consistent experience across all your clients once your wireless network is in production.

Point of Entry Placement ●Now that the AP’s are placed on the map in the Meraki dashboard, it is easy to assign channels and power levels determined during the site survey. For manual channel assignment, navigate to the Wireless > Radio Settings page in dashboard. Select the newly placed AP’s and configure the channel and power settings on the right column. Notice that when an AP is selected for configuration, AP’s operating at the same channel are highlighted to ensure minimal channel overlap ●If manually setting the channel assignments is too much of a task, Meraki has a built-in feature called Auto RF that automatically optimizes the channel and power level for any environment.

EXAM

References ● Wallace, K. (2012). CompTIA Network+ Authorized Cert Guide. Indianapolis, IN, USA: Pearson Education, Inc.