Deploying and troubleshooting wireless networks for mobile UC

While mobile working is now a given for many employees, a key challenge has been to deploy wireless networks that are robust enough to manage bandwidth-hungry applications with low tolerance for latency, such as unified communications (UC).

Employees expect that collaborating via UC should be as simple as launching an app on their smartphone or tablet. And with more and more applications being run on organisations’ wireless infrastructure, including supporting BYOD initiatives, user mobility and UC, enterprises need to ensure that wireless performance issues won’t significantly impact user productivity and cause potential revenue loss.

Surveys have shown that personnel say mobile device integration is a very important UC capability. Furthermore, Gartner says enterprises should consider adopting a mobile-first strategy where UC applications are designed first around the mobile user experience and then extended for PCs, rather than the other way around.

Wireless mobility comes with new IT headaches. Deploying reliable wireless networks requires networking best practices and ongoing network analysis, monitoring and management. If the wireless network has performance issues, then users will find it impossible to use UC solutions effectively, resulting in wasted time and money for the enterprise.

There are three key steps network engineers should take to effectively deploy and troubleshoot wireless networks:

1. Design specifically for mobile UC

Ensure cells have appropriate overlap without putting too many access points (APs) in place, which can cause poor roaming choices for users. Consider user density and other networked applications that may interfere with the UC application’s performance.

2. Validate deployment based on true end-user experiences

Run active, passive, throughput and spectrum surveys to gain a full and comprehensive understanding of how the network is performing.

It’s important to remember that signal strength is not a reliable indicator of network performance. Interference is one of the most forgotten but common causes of network performance issues — and it can come from anywhere, such as a microwave oven or Bluetooth device you’re not even aware of. It’s important to map sources of interference for best analysis.

Throughput tests are critical since users will notice even minuscule latency issues in calls. For UC over wireless, you may need up to 45% cell overlap, compared with typical Wi-Fi applications that only require a maximum of 20% overlap.

3. Fast and accurate troubleshooting

Network engineers need to gain full visibility, which isn’t possible using AP-level analysis, freemium apps, packet analysis or looking only at the network as opposed to other potential sources of interference.

Full wireless troubleshooting means the engineer must behave like a user to gain an accurate understanding of user issues.

Network engineers need to take a more proactive, systematic approach to deploying and troubleshooting wireless networks, especially when they are to be used for mobile UC. Using a commercial testing and troubleshooting software suite such as NetScout’s AirMagnet suite can simplify the process and lead to better outcomes and lower costs for organisations.

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