Applying Omada 08: Insight Apartments

Applying Omada 08: Insight Apartments

 

This article series simulates real-world examples of network configurations completed with Omada equipment for home lab and/or business environments. Any similarities to real persons or organizations are purely coincidental.

 

 

Challenge

 

Omar is called to install APs for an apartment complex. They want good coverage in every suite and every building, totaling roughly 300 units across 5 buildings. Each building has its own gateway and internet provider, but they would like recommendations on how many Access Points to buy.

 

Project Requirements

 

The complex has roughly 60 suites per building (15 per floor) and needs to ensure that each suite has a strong Wi-Fi connection for its guests. The complex management has provided a floor plan for one of the buildings and is looking for a rough idea of what to purchase.

 

 

Implementation

 

Omar plugs the floor map into the Omada Design Hub, using the AI Wall feature to get the rough shape of the walls.
 

He then changes the material of each relevant wall to the appropriate equivalent.

 

 

Omar decides to map out a Wall Plate AP for each room. Below is the resultant heatmap for 6GHz connections.

For simplicity, each apartment has been reduced to one room with a bed. The actual coverage per apartment varies based on the wall materials.

 

With this floor plan, Omar ensures that each unit has sufficient connection, with the expected RSSI at -50 dBm. The Laundry and Snack area, however, is not covered even when checking the 2.4GHz band.

 

This is due to interference from the metal elevator walls.

 

An additional EAP775-Wall in the Laundry area fixes this, so Omar passes this plan to the complex management and recommends they purchase a controller to manage the devices. They decide to go with Omar’s plan and complete the project on their own.

 

Technical Difficulties

 

A few weeks after the project's completion, management contacts Omar again. They are having issues with the new Wi-Fi APs, but only in very specific scenarios. Users report Wi-Fi speeds are slow or see “Connected, no Internet” errors between 5 pm and 10 pm.

 

Omar requests access to their Omada Controller to diagnose the issue. He finds that devices consistently have a strong RSSI, but the channel utilization on the 5 GHz band is consistently 60-90%.

 

Solution

 

Based on these symptoms, Omar concludes that the errors are due to congestion during peak usage. He checks the 5GHz band and sees that the channel width is set to 80 MHz, so he halves it. This allows for twice as many Wi-Fi channels.

 

He also reduces the transmit power of each device to shorten each AP's range. By decreasing the overlap between neighboring APs, he hopes to reduce interference.

 

Omar advises the apartment management to let the APs run with the new settings for a few days. After a few days, they let him know that the changes appeared to work!

 

 

 

Have you ever come across a similar problem of congestion during peak usage? If so, how did you approach the problem, and did your solution work? Let us know in the replies!

 

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