Cisco Aironet 340 Series, Hardware Installation Manual

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Chapter 1 Product Overview
Positioning Your Wireless Products
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Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Adapters Hardware Installation Guide
OL-0795-01
Positioning Your Wireless Products
Determining the network location of your wireless products can be influenced by
a number of factors. This section discusses those factors and provides guidelines
and tools for achieving optimum placement.
The site survey and link test tools provided with the client utilities can help you
to determine the best placement for Access Points and workstations within your
wireless network. Refer to the Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Adapters Software
Configuration Guide for information on using these tools and to the Cisco Aironet
Access Point Hardware Installation Guide for additional information on the
placement of Access Points.
Note
The site survey and link test tools are not supported in the Linux
operating system.
Site Survey
Because of differences in component configuration, placement, and physical
environment, every network application is a unique installation. Before installing
the system, you should perform a site survey to determine the optimum utilization
of networking components and to maximize range, coverage, and network
performance.
Consider the following operating and environmental conditions when performing
a site survey:
•
Data rates – Sensitivity and range are inversely proportional to data bit rates.
The maximum radio range is achieved at the lowest workable data rate. A
decrease in receiver threshold sensitivity occurs as the radio data increases.
• Antenna type and placement – Proper antenna configuration is a critical
factor in maximizing radio range. As a general rule, range increases in
proportion to antenna height.
•
Physical environment – Clear or open areas provide better radio range than
closed or filled areas. Also, the less cluttered the work environment, the
greater the range.