Conducting a WLAN Site Survey and Implementation for the Cisco Unified Wireless Network

When preparing to conduct a site survey for a Cisco? wireless LAN (WLAN) installation, follow the Cisco network design methodology. Cisco's Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate, and Optimize (PPDIOO) addresses the network in a phased approach. When conducting a site survey and installation the Prepare, Plan, Design and Implement phases should be followed.

The prepare phase addresses specifics such as what the organization can justify financially. What the wireless network design should support. What services are to be supported on the wireless network, data, voice, location based services? What clients are to be supported, laptops, handhelds PDA's, active RFID tags? You need to have the answer to all these questions prior to entering the planning phase.

During the planning phase a project plan is developed to manage tasks, responsible parties, resources and milestones.

If there is a current network in place, what will the impact be by adding controllers and access points to the existing network? Is there existing available ports for access points and controllers to be connected to or will additional switches be added to the network to support the controllers and access points? Do current switches for access points support Power over Ethernet (POE)? Will there be N+1, N+N redundancy or N+N+1 redundancy?

If this is to be a new network then the site survey and design phase will dictate what equipment is needed to support the controller based WLAN.

If you purchased the Wireless Control System (WCS) from Cisco, load campus buildings and floor plans that will support WLANs into WCS. Use the planning tool feature in WCS to determine the amount of access points and placement for the services you plan to support, data, voice, location based services.

The WCS can generate access point density and coverage based on the services you have decided to support as well as the amount of users that will access the WLAN. Once you have determined the amount of access points needed this will dictate the amount of controllers needed to support the access points.

Once you have accomplished the above you are ready to perform a site survey which includes the following:

Cisco's Spectrum ExpertT can identify and locate any non 802.11 devices that may cause interference with the proposed WLAN be it in the 2.4 or 5 GHz spectrum or both. Sweep all areas where access points will be deployed with Cisco Spectrum ExpertT to identify any devices that may interfere with the proposed WLAN. These devices could be cordless phones, microwave ovens or any other devices that use the license free Industrial Scientific Medical Band (ISM band) or Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure bands (UNII 1-3) but, are not IEEE 802.11 devices. Once any of these devices are identified that can cause interference they can be removed or replaced by devices that do not operate in the 2.4 or 5 GHZ frequency bands. Cisco Spectrum ExpertT will also identify other 802.11 devices that may be heard from surrounding WLAN installations in the area.

Use Ekahau Site Survey software for the site survey. This survey program gives you all the data you need to insure a proper site survey for data, voice or location based services.

The site survey is a process of identifying access point placement for coverage so that additional access points can be placed to achieve the appropriate signal to noise ratio (SNR) for WLAN services supported. The site survey process insures needed signal levels and overlap with minimal interference to other access points.

Prior to performing a site survey you must know what devices are being supported on the WLAN to determine appropriate signal levels and these vary depending on the following:

Data
WLAN data-only networks are dependent only on SNR for data rate supported and proper cell overlap (Normally 10 to 15 percent. Twenty percent is recommended).
Voice
WLAN voice networks are critical to SNR, data rate supported, and proper overlap (20 percent). Quality of Service (QOS) must also be configured on controllers at installation for voice. Data rates below 18 Mbps should be disabled. It is recommended to use the 5 GHz band due to the amount of channels available (23 in all). This helps to avoid co-channel and adjacent channel interference.

If you are surveying for data and voice only, ensure your cell edges are at a minimum of -67 dBm with 20 percent overlap. Access points on the same channel should have at least a 19 dBm SNR ratio of separation from each other. For more information on deploying WLAN voice refer to the Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7921G Deployment Guide available at Cisco.com.

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Many in Muslim world want sharia as law of land: survey

By Religion Editor Tom Heneghan

Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:14pm EDT

n">(Reuters) - Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of sharia as the official law in their countries, but they disagree on what it includes and who should be subject to it, an extensive new survey says.

Suicide bombing was mostly rejected In the study by the Washington-based Pew Forum, but it won 40 percent support in the Palestinian territories, 39 percent in Afghanistan, 29 percent in Eygpt and 26 percent in Bangladesh.

Three-quarters of respondents said abortion is morally wrong and 80 percent or more rejected homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.

Over three-quarters of Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia want sharia courts to decide family law issues such as divorce and property disputes, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said on Tuesday.

Views on punishments such as chopping off thieves' hands or decreeing death for apostates is more evenly divided in much of the Islamic world, although more than three-quarters of Muslims in South Asia say they are justified.

Those punishments have helped make sharia controversial in some non-Islamic countries, where some critics say radical Muslims want to impose it on Western societies, but the survey shows views in Muslim countries are far from monolithic.

"Muslims are not equally comfortable with all aspects of sharia," the study said. "Most do not believe it should be applied to non-Muslims."

Unlike codified Western law, sharia is a loosely defined set of moral and legal guidelines based on the Koran, the sayings of Prophet Mohammad (hadith) and Muslim traditions. Its rules and advice cover everything from prayers to personal hygiene.

Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist who was special adviser for the project, said Muslims in poor and repressive societies tended to identify sharia with basic Islamic values such as equality and social justice.

"In those societies, you tend to see significant support for sharia," she told journalists on a conference call. By contrast, Muslims who have lived under "narrow if not rigid" Islamic systems were less supportive of sharia as the official law.

POLITICS AND VIOLENCE

More than four-fifths of the 38,000 Muslims interviewed in 39 countries said non-Muslims in their countries could practice their faith freely and that this was good.

This view was strongest in South Asia, where 97 percent of Bangladeshis and 96 percent of Pakistanis agreed, while the lowest Middle Eastern result was 77 percent in Egypt.

The survey polled only Muslims and not minorities. In several Muslim countries, embattled Christian minorities say they cannot practice their faith freely and are subject to discrimination and physical attacks.

The survey produced mixed results on questions relating to the relationship between politics and Islam.

Democracy wins slight majorities in key Middle Eastern states - 54 percent in Iraq, 55 percent in Egypt - and falls to 29 percent in Pakistan. By contrast, it stands at 81 percent in Lebanon, 75 percent in Tunisia and 70 percent in Bangladesh.

In most countries surveyed, Muslims were more worried about Islamist militancy than any other form of religious violence.

SEX AND VEILS

Views on whether women should decide themselves if they should wear a headscarf vary greatly, from 89 percent in Tunisia and 79 percent in Indonesia saying yes and 45 percent in Iraq and 30 percent in Afghanistan saying no.

Majorities from 74 percent in Lebanon to 96 percent in Malaysia said wives should always obey their husbands.

Only a minority saw Sunni-Shi'ite tensions as a very big problem, ranging from 38 percent in Lebanon and 34 percent in Pakistan to 23 percent in Iraq and 14 percent in Turkey.

Conflict with other religions loomed larger, with 68 percent in Lebanon saying it was a big problem, 65 percent in Tunisia, 60 percent in Nigeria and 57 percent in Pakistan.

A section of the survey on U.S. Muslims noted they "sometimes more closely resemble other Americans than they do Muslims around the world". Only about half say their closest friends are Muslim, compared to 95 percent of Muslims globally.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Michael Roddy)

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