Scope
Our customer, a global residential property and lettings management provider, acquired a 300 apartment complex in a repurposed office building in London as a going concern. The building needed extensive decoration and modernisation to turn it into a lifestyle hub in keeping with their distinguished identity and community living values.
The existing fibre broadband supplier’s exclusivity contract had expired, which presented an opportunity to allow the residents to move away from individual contracts and gave our customer the ability to present a “whole building” WiFi environment. Residents could then benefit from reduced costs, improved performance, and an internet connection that was useable everywhere, from their bedside to the car park and even the Gym. The customer would be able to monetise this and generate revenue whilst also providing a superior service.
Litenet’s task was to design a solution that could deliver fast, reliable WiFi connectivity that covered the whole complex, gave continuous service throughout the building, could be secured individually to each resident and presented good value for money.
The Design
Internet connectivity was accomplished with dual Gigabit leased lines, giving redundancy as well as load sharing. We worked with the internet service provider to upgrade the existing intake cabinet, giving more room for their equipment and more security, and ran new cables from the intake room to the main comms room.
The core network consisted of a fibre-optic backbone running through the building riser from a fibre aggregation switch in the main comms room to 24-port Gigabit switches on each floor of the building. Each floor would then have between 18 and 22 WiFi access points mounted in the central corridor.
Security and individual residential access was taken care of by using Private Pre-Shared Keys (PPSK) and separate VLANs for each apartment. PPSK allowed the customer to give each resident their own individual password to a single WiFi SSID, making deployment, identification and management simple and clear for both residents and the customer, while also allowing them access to their “network” anywhere in the building.
In addition we deployed a staff SSID for employees and a bandwidth restricted guest SSID for visitors. The whole building would be covered by only three SSIDs.
The Installation
An extensive survey was carried out by Litenet engineers prior to design. We looked at the suitability of rooms and cable runs, building materials, apartment layout and existing service to build a cost effective proposal. Our assessment would consider:
- Access Point Placement
- Potential sources of Co-Channel Interference from other WiFi sources
- Comms rack requirements
- Cabling requirements
- Assumed resident usage habits
- Engineering time to install and configure
- Ongoing maintenance and administration
With the project given the go-ahead our engineers began the process of deploying the system.
We installed new OM4 Multimode fibre-optic cables into brand new racks on every floor, all returning to the main comms room. For cost purposes we chose to have a Gigabit backbone, reducing the expensive hardware elements while still being well within expected bandwidth tolerance.
Each floor required brand new CAT6 copper cabling from the switch to the access points. The Ceilings were finished plasterboard with access panels which, even though it was time consuming, meant that cutting holes and redecorating was not required.
Installation was carried out during the refurbishment of the building so that impact on existing residents was kept to a minimum.
Physically cabled connections were presented for the newly built cinema rooms and entertainment areas, each individually assigned to a different VLAN for security purposes.
Building management system connections were provided for heating, lighting and CCTV.
The full system was installed and tested inside the refurbishment window and ready for the site launch party.
The Result
A computer aided WiFi signal survey was carried out post-installation. This provided a heatmap of the building showing where signal was strongest and weakest, identified possible WiFi channel conflicts and allowed our engineers to fine-tune the appropriate WiFi signals.
Functional tests were carried out with Smart TVs, Laptops and Phones. Roaming throughout the building was now possible using a single WiFi connection, allowing a resident to make a WiFi call or stream music/video all the way from their apartment on the top floor, down to their car in the basement.
The outcome was a resounding success. Full, seamless building WiFi coverage delivered by Litenet within timescale and within budget.