Balancing Wants, Needs, and Capabilities
As a knowledgeable consultant or network administrator, you must understand the nature of the LAN that is in place at the facility and the propose the right WLAN to best suit the needs of those using it. I have had to introduce people to the realities of WLAN many times in the past and will likely have to do so countless times to come. In so doing, I keep expectations at a realistic level, and then I design the best possible WLAN based on the information I have collected.Based on the information from the completed pre-site survey form, you will know the wants of the customer and be able to determine whether the equipment they have chosen is capable of such wants or needs. Any decision on equipment and implementation should begin with needs, to establish a baseline of performance that is absolutely required.Suppose, for example, that a small doctor's office wants your assistance with WLAN connectivity throughout the office. The office has already purchased an 802.11b AP for this purpose. You must first determine what applications and devices will be using the WLAN, and then how many users and where will they be using WLAN devices. If several high-bandwidth applications are identified, including some that would be life threatening if not available, you must consider the actual capabilities of 802.11b devices as insufficient for this purpose because of their low data rates and an identified need for redundancy or fallback protection. You should then recommend more than one AP capable of higher data rates, such as 802.11a/g devices.Continuing with this example, if the area is small enough to be covered by one AP, but the application bandwidth requirements and number of users are so great that they would overload the AP capabilities, you must survey to implement more APs to increase the load-carrying capabilities of the WLAN in that area. Although this is logical to those who understand the realistic capabilities of WLAN devices, be sure to explain your reasoning to the customer, who is now required to purchase additional equipment that perhaps was not previously accounted for in the budget.In this example, the customer's desire (want) to have one AP did not match (capability-wise) the needs identified. Be sure to assess all aspects of the customer wants, needs, and capabilities for every facility or application, even though many might be similar. |
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