A small Sydney CBD-based import/export business, Bancroft Systems, has recently expanded by buying a warehouse. The warehouse is located 15km from the CBD in the suburb of Botany, which is adjacent to both the international shipping port and the international airport. The company presently has 22 employees, however with the purchase of a dedicated warehouse they will recruit a further 11 staff for jobs at the warehouse location.

The Brief

The warehouse is to be networked, it is 100 meters by 40 meters with a 15 meter tall ceiling. The network will not be heavily used since there are only a few workers working in the warehouse during a shift, but the coverage needs to be complete as a worker may be on a forklift, ladder, or cherry picker, in any position within the building when they need to update the warehouses stock database. The owners have explained that not much bandwidth is required (the workers are not meant to be streaming video, listening to audio, or playing interactive games on the network).

Choose an appropriate WiFi technology (ie. which 802.11 variant: a, b, g, n, ac, ax, or ad). Prepare a recommendation explaining how you would position multiple WiFi access points within the warehouse., and what band (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 60GHz) and channels you would have each instance operate on, to ensure complete coverage, appropriately low interference, and minimal total cost. Be sure to explain clearly the proposed position and channel for each router (after all, someone else will be installing them, not you). As always, justify your recommendation.