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Building out wireless network for a factory

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Jehu

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A company, NewCo, is spinning off of a parent company. NewCo's site has 10 Cisco WAPs, Cisco AIR-CAP2602E-A-K9. The controller for these stays with the parent company. NewCo owner does not want to pay ~$5,200 to get and configure a replacement controller because this series is EOL soon.

The building is 2 stories, 94K sq feet, with ~18K-22K of office space on each floor. The Cisco WAPs were laid out to provide coverage for office and factory floor. The new wireless network does not need to cover the factory floor.

What is the best approach to cover this area?

My initial thought was going with something mesh. If for any reason, easier to manage. I looked at the Orbi Pro, It expands to 6 satellites, which should cover 17,500 sqft. Correct? But then I would need to Orbi circuits, one for each floor. So maybe Orbi Pro is not best fit.

Is EnGenius a better option? Which devices should I look at?
 
Talked with NetGear. They suggested the WAC540 being a better option than Orbi. Orbi Pro won't work because of 2 strings of Orbi Pro would be needed, one for each floor, and no roaming between the two.
 
I really think you need to hire this out. WiFi in an Enterprise environment is not something that a non-network/WiFi person will usually be very successful with. Especially when you say you are looking for "easier to manage" as one of your goals. it would be one thing if this was a small shop with 5-10 employees. But getting coverage across the sqft you listed doesn't sound like 10 employees.

1.) What security (authentication) are you doing on the WiFi?
- EAP-TLS, EAP-PEAP-MSCHAPv2, WPA2-PSK?
- connecting to central system for AAA? (RADIUS, LDAP, PKI, etc)

2.) Does your business fall under any regulatory and/or compliance requirements?
- PCI, DFARS, HIPAA etc (something that mandates specific security controls/postures)

3.) Where are you planning to mount the new APs?
- site survey
- confirmation cabling exists where they are needed
- confirmation mounting options are compatible (ceiling/wall mount brackets, etc)

4.) Who is going to be installing/mounting the new APs?
- are you getting up on a ladder to hang them all?

5.) Do you have a guest requirement or just single business SSID?

6.) What are your management/controller requirements?
- if the solution requires a controller, are you prepared to buy, build, and manage one?

If you still want to do this yourself, there are gobs and gobs of options out there. You have already mentioned two, but there are plenty of others. If you want simple, go look at Meraki equipment. Cisco has other options as well. Ubiquiti equipment can probably do it as well, although it may take a bit more effort to get it running. Ruckus, Aruba, and many others all make WiFi solutions for this space.
 

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