DESIGNING A WLAN FOR IOT? DEFINE YOUR REQUIREMENTS FIRST!

In my first post, How to design your WLAN for IoT in eight smart steps, I summarized how to design your wireless network to support the Internet of Things (IoT) and the explosive growth in number of Wi-Fi-connected devices. The key to supporting this increased strain on the WLAN is to design based on capacity and not coverage.

In today’s blog, I take the discussion to the next level by talking about defining WLAN requirements.

Planning

Planning is the key to the success of any work you undertake, Abraham Lincoln famously once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”.

Although we are not chopping down any trees, this quote still rings true for any project you may undertake. Planning should take the majority of your time and effort, not the application.

The first step in designing a WLAN to meet the capacity demands of IoT is to define sufficient requirements based on both business and technical objectives. 

Business requirements (examples)

• 100% wireless connectivity is required in all areas. This is to provide data network connectivity for laptops, tablets, smart phones and other mobile devices
• Provide secure and fast internet access for employees
• Provide segregated, identify-based access for employees, bring your own device (BYOD), and IoT devices
• Maintain industry compliance certification across WLAN infrastructure
• The wireless network will be designed to carry converged services and traffic, including data, voice, and video
• Provide SLA of 99.95% uptime on WLAN infrastructure

Technical requirements (examples)

• Provide 802.1x/EAP-PEAP secure network access, which integrates to current network policy server and backend active directory (AD) service, for employee access
• Provide support for 1080p video streaming at a minimum data rate of 65mbps
• Provision standards based, 802.11k/v/r roaming and Enterprise Voice to support 802.11g VoIP handsets at a maximum RSSI rate of -65dBm and SNR of 25dB
• It is required that the wireless solution shall fully support the use of IPv6 client devices

There are many ways in which to capture these requirements from the stakeholders who are responsible for a particular project, and judgement on the particular method used will vary between each type of deployment.

However, in each case a defined list of requirements should be documented and referenced further in the design phase to ensure the initial business and technical requirements are being met.

A few example methods for capturing these requirements are as follows:

• Request for Proposal (RFPs): This is a list of prerequisites, specified in a formal document, that ensures you have all the relevant requirements captured.
• Face-to-face interview: The most common technique for gathering requirements is to sit down and discuss the requirements.
• Questionnaires: Questionnaires are much more informal, and they are good tools to gather requirements from stakeholders in remote locations or those who will have only minor input into the overall requirements.
• Online meeting: When face-to-face meetings are not possible this is another method to capture the requirements via a conversation.
• Conference Call: When face-to-face meetings are not possible this is another method to capture the requirements via a conversation.

After a discussion about the network objectives and requirements has taken place and any initial obstacles have been overcome, it’s time to formalize these requirements into a document.

Having this information documented ensures that the network goals are clearly understood and agreed upon by all. To help assist in the process of capturing the relevant requirements, I have included a sample document, which can be used to help capture requirements that were gathered during the discovery phase or interview process. Click here to see the sample document.

Questions or comments on designing a WLAN for Internet of Things? Please leave them below. Maybe it’s something I can take up in my next blog.

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Other blogs in this Internet of Things series:

How to design your WLAN for IoT in eight smart steps