1. Home
  2. Wireless Networking
  3. Wireless warehouse

Wireless warehouse

Hello. We need to cover 256,100 sq. ft. warehouse by wireless network (multiple rooms). Warehouse if filled by aisles tall almost to the roof. Basically there is a lot of metal. At the beginning we was thinking about setting up wireless AP with the same SSID running on different channels, each access point would have connected two directional antennas through splitter so each antenna points between two aisles. We already avoided this idea because in case that we will need to move any of aisles we will need to move antennas too. This is inconvenient. My question is following: Does anyone has any ideas, experience, concerns with this kind of project and would like to share them.

I appreciate all help.

Matthew Weiss Network Communications matthew(at)nj-computers.com

Reply to
Maciej
Loading thread data ...

Maciej hath wroth:

Sure. However, I covered a few warehouse wireless horror stories in past pontifications in this newsgroup. Using Google Groups search, try: |

As for the splitter, that will work if you control the multipath. Since a warehouse is the ultimate worst case indoor reflective environment, and since the contents are always moving around, your ability to control reflections will be very limited. I ended up with one AP and one directional antenna per isle, but never tried using a splitter or had to deal with moving isles.

500ft on a side. That's a big warehouse. It's probably too big to use "leaky coax" along the roof line. How high is the roof or ceiling? Is it flat or angled? Reflective, or absorbent? I've always wanted to try bouncing a signal off a reflective roof and down into the aisles. I sorta did that during a convention. I installed a discone antenna near the metal roof line. The signal went out from the antenna at slightly above horizontal, hit the roof, and bounced down into the aisles. It worked fairly well, but wasn't up long enough to determine if it was reliable.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Roof is flat, reflective about 30 ft high and it has bunch of pipes and other stuff right under. I was also thinking hooking up APs right under the roof but I am really concerned about reflections.

Reply to
Maciej

Maciej hath wroth:

My guess(tm) is that if you position the antennas parallel to the ceiling, and at a distance where the reflected wave reinforces the incident wave (1/4 wavelength), the problems caused by reflections will be minimal. The basic problem still boils down to a line of sight issue. However, the chances of maintaining line of sight to the floor from the ceiling is fairly good if positioned over the aisles. However, if as you say, the aisles tend to move, line of sight will be a problem, especially if the merchandise is piled to the ceiling.

30ft range and 500ft long is far too long for leaky coax.

There's no perfect solution so you'll have to do the best you can with whatever you can afford.

If you can position the antennas above the aisles, a horizontally mounted sector antenna will have the optimum pattern. 120 degree "vertical" radiation angle, which will go nicely down the aisle, and perhaps 15 degree "horizontal" radiation angle, to keep the RF within one aisle. 12-15dBi gain is more than adequate. With such antennas, you can probably use power splitters as the likelyhood of a client radio "seeing" two antennas is only possible up near the ceiling. On the ground, they're isolated.

Something like these:

formatting link
formatting link
formatting link
formatting link
formatting link
carefully at the antenna patterns.

Commercial version:

formatting link

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.