CWDP 305 - Chapter 1 Introduction to WLAN Design
First blog while studying for my CWDP certification
Writing this blog for the starting off my journey towards CWNE, but let's start by mastering the first chapter of CWDP in order to get certified!
Chapter 1 introduced the WLAN design process from a high-level perspective, breaking it down into the key phases: Define, Design, Deploy, and Validate/Optimize. It also emphasized the importance of understanding project management fundamentals to ensure your project stays on track—delivered on time and within budget.
The Significance of a Good Design
Many WLAN deployments rely on simply mounting access points and maximizing transmit power, believing that higher power will solve coverage issues. However, this approach often leads to more problems, which can’t be fixed until power is reduced, leaving the original issue unresolved. A proper design is crucial for an effective WLAN. The design process starts with the CWDP asking key questions, such as the business use case, environment details, device types, and application requirements, to ensure a tailored and optimized solution.
Later on In Chapter 2 the focus lies on the critical skill of eliciting requirements—something that hinges on asking the right questions. Without thoughtful, targeted inquiries, you risk missing the essential information needed to design an effective WLAN for your client or organization.
Dealing with bad design - Yikes!!
Insufficient Coverage: Insufficient coverage can reflect shortcomings in WLAN design and often points to errors made during the site survey. A poorly executed survey is a common cause, typically resulting from either a misunderstanding of RF behavior or improper use of surveying tools. — Sufficient coverage refers to the presence of a wireless connection that meets the required data rate and stability necessary for client devices.
Accurate surveys require a strong foundational understanding in three key areas:
- Wireless Frequency Behavior – Knowing how RF behaves in the environment you're surveying.
- Survey Tool Interpretation – Understanding the data provided by the tools and what it means in context.
- Tool Proficiency – Using the tools correctly and effectively during the survey.
Neglect in any of these areas can lead to incomplete or misleading data and ultimately insufficient coverage.
Insufficient capacity: Another problem with poorly designed WLANs is the lack of needed capacity. This issue arises when a WLAN is designed well based solely on signal coverage of the facility, but no consideration is made for the number of client devices within the requirement areas or for the applications being used on those devices. Many users carry multiple devices, and not all apps use bandwidth equally—video conferencing requires far more than messaging, for example. Ignoring these factors leads to poor performance. Effective capacity planning starts with understanding both device density and application needs.
Lack of scalability: When a WLAN is designed for client devices and applications in use at the time of the design, and no consideration is made for future technology changes, device upgrades, or added employees, lack of scalability is the common result.
Lack of required functionality: Functional capabilities of a WLAN include roaming, metrics measurement, support for multicast and streaming, and other functional capabilities.
Using the wrong equipment: Designs that use the wrong equipment may result in several problems. The primary task the prevents bad design is good requirements engineering.
Installing from “Cookie-Cutter” Designs Reusing the same WLAN design across locations can be risky, even if the spaces appear similar. Differences in materials, layout, and RF environments mean no two sites are truly identical. While standardized designs may work in chain locations, they still require verification. A good WLAN designer relies on proper assessment—not assumptions—to create an environment-specific design.
What? NO design?!
Network administrators often add APs without considering existing coverage, leading to interference and network issues over time. When expanding WLAN, it's crucial to verify current coverage, account for potential interference, and ensure proper integration. Professional design knowledge is key, though full-scale design may not be required.
A "shotgun" implementation places APs without considering their impact, leading to inconsistent coverage, overloading, excessive costs, and performance issues. It makes network expansion and troubleshooting difficult.
The Design Process - YES!!
Define Specifications for the WLAN, Design the WLAN, Deploy the WLAN, and Validate and Optimize the WLAN.
Define: The Define phase is where the requirements analysis is performed before the design begins.
- Information gathering
- Requirements engineering
- Documenting the requirements
Design: The Design phase of the WLAN design process is where the technical expertise of the designer is used to translate the business and stakeholder requirements into pure technical requirements and to generate the WLAN designs.
- Performing a spectrum analysis of the facility
- Performing a site survey for AP placement
- Making proper equipment selections to support the customer’s needs
- Creating design documents using wireless network design software
- Defining equipment configurations
- Designing or recommending the WLAN’s supporting infrastructure
- Creating a Bill of Materials (BoM)
Deploy: Deployment of a large WLAN is usually a complex stage in the process that can involve multiple contractors for various parts of the project. This means that different people or groups may be performing tasks in every part of the implementation, making it easy to run into problems if a good plan is not followed.
- Install network cabling
- Configure Infrastructure
- Provide PoE
- Test the Infrastructure Configurations
- Configure the APs
- Deploy APs
Validate and Optimize: The final phase of a WLAN implementation project is the Validation phase. Here is where the WLAN is thoroughly tested and validated to ensure that it meets the customer’s requirements that were detailed during the Define phase.
- Required coverage
- Desired capacity
- Necessary capabilities
Implementing Effective Project Management
According to the Project Management Institute, a project charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides a project manager with the authoritto apply organizational resources to project activities.
Describe the problem, issue, Goals , objectives deliverables of project. Many companies will require a non‐disclosure agreement (NDA) . The scope of work or statement of work (SoW) defines the work to be done, and it often represents a high‐level scope initially but then develops into a more detailed scope as the project progresses.
- 1. Site survey
- 2. Install fiber for new switches
- 3. Install cabling for new APs
- 4. Install new switches
- 5. Install new APs
- 6. Test and verify WLAN
Effective project management requires understanding of the project lifecycle, its stages, and documentation, along with the ability to manage all project resources throughout the life of the project.
As we close out Chapter 1, we've laid the foundation the WLAN design process. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into about the importance of requirements engineering, IEEE 29148‐2018, and key considerations for WLAN projects. Proper requirements analysis is essential for building effective WLAN designs that meet organizational needs is covered in Chapter 2.
Until next time, keep the signal strong!
Source(s):
Carpenter, T., et al. (2024). CWDP-305: Certified Wireless Design Professional Study Guide (1st ed.). Durham NC, USA: Certitrek Publishing