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Cisco 2700 Series Wireless Location Appliance Deployment Guide
OL-8478-01
Deployment and Design Requirements
•AIR-ANT-5145V-R
•AIR-ANT-5160V-R
Access Point Placement
To determine the optimum location of all devices in the wireless LAN coverage areas, you need to
consider the access point density and location.
Ensure that no fewer than 3 access points, and preferably 4 or 5, provide coverage to every area where
device location is required. The more access points that detect a device, the better. This high level
guideline translates into the following best practices, ordered by priority:
1. Most importantly, access points should surround the desired location.
2. Roughly one access point should be placed every 50-70 linear feet (~17-20 meters). This translates
into one access point every 2,500 to 5000 square feet (~230-450 square meters).
Following these guidelines makes it more likely that access points will detect tracked devices. Rarely do
two physical environments have the same RF characteristics. Users may need to adjust those parameters
to their specific environment and requirements.
Note Devices must be detected at signals greater than -75 dBm for the controllers to forward information to
the location appliance. As such, no fewer than three access points should be able to detect any device at
signals below -75 dBm.
Meaningful placement of the access points is important for location information to the system.
Following a few basic rules contributes to location accuracy.
1. Focus on placing access points along the periphery of coverage areas to help locate devices close to
the exterior of rooms and buildings (see Figure5). Access points placed in the center of these
coverage areas provide good data on devices that would otherwise appear equidistant from all other
access points.
Figure5 Access Points Clustered Together Can Result in Poor Locationing
2. By increasing overall access point density and moving access points towards the perimeter of the
coverage area, location accuracy is greatly improved (see Figure6).