These minimum standards have been endorsed by the Joint Network Management Committee and will be reviewed on an annual basis. Any queries should be addressed to the Wireless Team.
Context
The University Wireless Service has set minimum standards for network connectivity to wireless access points (APs) that are hosted on institutional networks. Adopting these standards will help facilitate high quality services and a greater degree of standardisation across the Collegiate University. Where institutions are unable to meet these standards, this will cause degraded performance of wireless equipment and, in the future, result in reduced support provision from the Wireless Service.
It is recognised that adopting these standards will need time to implement and as such we do not expect institutions to adopt these standards straightaway. However, when considering equipment replacement as part of a sensible product lifecycle or, say, building refurbishments, these standards should be implemented for full Wireless Service support.
Standards
Minimum network requirements
The following requirements are the minimum supported standards for University Wireless to operate on institutional networks that are not operated by Information Services.
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Switch edge ports are 1Gb/s – switch port connections to Wireless Service access points (APs) at the edge should have a minimum speed of 1 Gbps.
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Support 802.3at / POE+ switch power – switches should be able to provide minimum 802.3at / POE+ to APs to facilitate full functionality of the access point.
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Support LLDP for enhanced power management – Link Layer Discovery Protocol should be enabled to facilitate APs to negotiate the correct power allocation from the switch.
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Appropriately sized switch backhauls to the UDN connection – where the connection to the UDN is 10Gbps or greater, we recommend 10Gbps uplinks from edge switches to the network for greater wireless traffic throughput.
New cabling installations to support access points
Minimum Cat6a cabling – Cat6a should be the minimum used when installing new cabling. Additionally given most of any new cabling installation cost is the labour charge, it is recommended a ‘more than is needed’ approach is taken during installation to facilitate future flexibility and reduce unforeseen expenditure at a later date. Furthermore, the current trend for wireless deployments is for a greater density of access points. This is due to the increasing use of higher frequencies that do not propagate as well. This will also result increased cabling requirements.
Two network points per AP – two ethernet connections should be installed per AP location to support LACP for high-capacity AP throughput requirements and/or network redundancy. High-capacity APs should have two ethernet connections for higher power requirements,1 unless using Smart Rate or mGig connections.
Recommendations
Below are additional recommendations when hosting for Wireless Service APs. It should be noted at some point in the future these recommendations will also become the minimum requirements for University Wireless.
- Switch edge ports are 802.3bz compliant – for example, Aruba Smart Rate or Cisco mGig switch edge ports
- Support 802.3bt/POE++ switch power for high-capacity APs.
- 10Gbps uplinks from edge switches
- 10Gbps connection to the UDN
1 Higher capacity APs can exceed 1Gbps throughput. They also require 802.11at (POE+) power on two connections or 802.1bz (POE++) power on a single connection.
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