Highly Available Network Infrastructure
In order to ensure our wireless service
availability was the highest level possible, we
required “high availability” components. We
have several wireless controllers throughout
our facilities, each of which control many APs
for a specific area of residence halls. These
wireless controllers are configured in pairs,
a primary and secondary. The secondary
controller is constantly kept in sync with the
primary so that if the primary malfunctions,
the secondary takes over operation with no
noticeable interruption in service.
Radio Resource Management (RRM) is
another high availability technology that
our network engineers implemented on our
wireless network, which truly adds to the
world class aspect and supports our ability to
guarantee the service. With RRM, every AP is
(Far left to right) Daniel Giampaolo, Dave Connelly, Cisco Engineers
aware of all neighboring APs. RRM commands
Kurt Radecki and Robert Palmer testing access points in the Student
all APs to automatically adjust their power
Affairs datacenter before installation.
Giampaolo, Network Engineer II, took on the vision and levels until they begin to bump into the signal from
neighboring APs, creating wireless signal spheres. RRM
requirements of this initiative and ran with it.
also provides a self-healing capability.
They conducted wireless surveys to determine the
current quality of wireless in each building. The surveys For example, imagine you’re in a hotel that has an AP in
involved placing APs in specific rooms and using wireless every room. If the AP in your room fails, RRM commands
survey equipment to capture the signal in not only those the neighboring APs in the rooms to your left, right,
rooms but also adjacent rooms. Survey data was then above, and below to increase their power, pushing
analyzed for signal strength and coverage pattern. From their signals out to fill the void created by the failed AP.
that analysis, a network design was made for optimal Therefore, you would still have wireless service even
placement and number of APs needed. The survey data though your AP has failed.
also revealed that, by choosing the right APs and proper
placement, and utilizing Radio Resource Management
Cisco Engineer Robert Palmer and Steven Baggett
discussing the access points.
(RRM) technology, we could establish a standard for the
desired level of service based on two key measurements:
signal strength and signal to noise ratio (SNR).
We determined that a signal strength of at least -60
dB (decibels) in every room, and an average SNR of at
least 30 dB (decibels) for the building, would achieve
the desired level of wireless experience. Using these values as our standard we can validate if we’re achieving it
by conducting follow-up wireless surveys and network
analysis after a building has been upgraded.
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HRE ALUMNI MAGAZINE | UF STUDENT AFFAIRS
Daniel Giampaolo walks around a
resident's room in Thomas Hall to
conduct a wireless survey.
Wireless Support
The final item to guarantee world class service is a
well-defined support process for service interruptions.
An individual AP that ceases to operate does not result in
a loss of wireless service because of the Radio Resource
Management (RRM). To fix those individual APs, our
network engineers also developed an automated process
that detects APs that cease operating and attempts
to reset them. If this process does not restore the AP
to operation after a specified amount of time, then an
alert would be generated to the engineers and our team
would manually troubleshoot and/or replace the AP.