Building a WI-FI Network for a 100 Room Hotel

Dannywp · Nov 15, 2014

I am building a WI-FI network for a Hotel in US.
My boss is asking to make 2 quotes. One with best equipment .. latest technology. 802.11ac gigabit and 2nd with little cheap solutions. So I proposed Ruckus and Cisco products. (Thinking about Net gear. Any other suggestion?) Commercial grade.
We will require a Router, APs, (Controller switch?), UPS. Any other hardware?
Topology:
Total 100 Rooms. There are 25 Rooms on each floor. 4 floors in total.
-Lobby, breakfast room, gym and swimming pool.
Please advice and recommend me:
1. What routers to use 802.11ac? Which company. What features should I look for?
2. What access points to use 802.11 ac or older. Which company? What features should I look for?
3. How many Access points do I need to install per floor
4. Do I need a controller switch? Managed?
5. Software to manage guest log in, authentication, bandwidth limit etc. windows based and remotely accessible.
6. One silly question. If I have 802.11ac router and AP, (which I suppose only support 5 ghz) and any guest have older laptop supporting 802.11g or older, will he be able to connect to the internet?
7. Do I miss any other hardware?

smitbret · Nov 16, 2014

Dannywp :

Ack!! It can be done, but this just looks like something that should be addressed by a specialist.

That failing, you may want to look heavily into a Ubiquiti setup. I don't have much experience with those, but this seems like the type of arrangement it was developed for. Equipment is easily available from most tech websites like NewEgg and on Amazon:

www.ubnt.com

If you wanna go old-school:

Everything, of course is wired back to the main router and managed switch which really should not be consumer grade.

Stick to something with Dual-Wan so you can run two internet connections (Primary or Backup) :
Router - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704123
Switch - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704152&cm_re=24_port_managed_switch-_-33-704-152-_-Product

You could get by with consumer grade routers as Access Points. I really think you should drop the idea of 5GHz and AC since penetration stinks with 5GHz and AC could create bottlenecks with the system by a couple of power users, not too mention it would be completely unnecessary for simple internet connections. Depending on the square footage of each floor and the makeup of the walls you could just wire a couple of RJ45 ports on each floor and set up a decent router as an AP at each location and "probably" cover your needs. If you want to be safe, divide each floor into thirds and space them out appropriately, giving each SSID the same name. You could possible even just go every other floor as long as you don't cheap out on the horizontal coverage.

Router as AP - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=asus+rt-n66u&N=-1&isNodeId=1

and then set them up as APs instead of routers. You could keep the 5GHz on or even just reserve that band with hidden SSIDs that you would use internally for hotel business.

You could always just cheap out and get something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704039

If you are looking to save some $$$ at any point in the process, APs are the place. More cheap APs are better than fewer expensive ones and placement is key to keep interference to a minimum while assuring adequate coverage.

Lots of Cat5e would probably be sufficient if your runs are short enough but if I was already investing I would run Cat6a (skip Cat6) just to be safe and possibly future proof for 10gig connections.

There's plenty of software available for log-in management, Just Google "windows based hot spot management software"

yumri · Nov 16, 2014

well firstly i totally agree with the person above that this is a job for a network speciialist as unless you are going to do some internal wireing you will need To diasy chain them together through the wireless with each one plugged into a in the ceiling power socket.
failing a specialist and also failing that you are willing to pay for new RJ-45 plugs on the ceiling a good way to go is in every hallway have a access point leading back to a few switch on each floor then have a access point in each room then all those switches plugged into another switch beside which have the router and modem for the internet connection.

smitbret · Nov 17, 2014

yumri :

I wouldn't even consider this project without running cables between floors. Granted it's not complicated but it is anything but easy. Serving a hotel, you aren't going to want to lose half your bandwidth by using repeaters.

yumri · Nov 17, 2014

smitbret :

most hotels dont go up more than 100m so Cat6a should be good even without repeaters the switched system is to get all the cables from a floor together and push it through a single cord instead of haveing a router with a massive built in switch whcih yes is a option just much more costly than doing as i described is all.

smitbret · Nov 17, 2014

Yeah, I guess I should have clarified. Each floor would have its own 8 port switch; really wouldn't even need to be managed on a floor by floor basis. As long as each floor gets its own gigabit run back to the main switch then congestion shouldn't be an issue for simple internet access.

yumri · Nov 17, 2014

smitbret :

i think we have totallly diffenret ideas of what the hotel looks like as both what you say and what i say will work which one is better um i am inclined to say mine mainly because mine will work in more configurations of a hotel but yours will work better in a hotel with straight hallways and rooms on each side. alot more cables to hook up to a center switch though as in mine i assume that each room would get a access point to negate the effects of the rooms on the ends haveing slower speeds than the rooms closer to the access point.
and also yes i know mine will cost alot more but it will work alot better in that it just depends on if Dannywp thinks it is worth it as yours is around $2,000 ~ $4,000 and mine is around $6,000 ~$8,000 because of all the rooms.
either way all the access points will need to hook up to a switch then to a router and then to a modem either inside the router or beside it.
P.S. the $2,000 ~ $4,000 cost on yours, smitbret, is assuming that Dannywp goes with the ac access points that have drop then reconnect between passing the wireless areas of each one but the cheaper ones that do not have that will cost less and thus require less cash to get in place and working.

turkey3_scratch · Nov 17, 2014

Switches are the way to go, but you will need to run tons of ethernet throughout the walls and ceilings. Might want to get someone to do that for you. I am also not sure what configuring must be done for switches to work. As I am curious myself for the answer, how does one configure switches? Is it basically plug and go?

USAFRet · Nov 17, 2014

This is a solved problem.
Why are you trying to wing it?

Many, many hotels...large and small...provide internet to their customers.
How do they do it? Start with that...

yumri · Nov 17, 2014

turkey3_scratch :

depending on the switch and what you want it to do it is diffneret but most times switches rae just plug and go the only thing that the OP will have to look for is enough ports for all the access points he/she will get and 1Gbps ethernet on each and everyone of them.

smitbret · Nov 18, 2014

yumri :

I managed hotels (between 90-175 rooms) for 8 years during the time when Hotels were starting to install internet access in the rooms. I watched and laughed as one of my sister hotels, a 120 room Best Western dropped a ton of cash to install a wired connection to each room. I had a pretty good relationship with the ownership group,s VP and told him to just hold off because wireless solutions were coming down the pipe in a matter of months. The GM of the hotel convinced him otherwise since the 2002 Olympics were coming in the Winter-Spring. 18 months later, the other 9 hotels in the group had wireless installed at about half that cost.

You can get adequate coverage with a few APs and putting one in each room is absolute overkill. Most hotels limit their guests to about 1-1.5mbps per unless they pay for service and can then get bumped to something like 10mbps or unlimited so even half of a wireless N connection will be perfectly adequate for taking full advantage of the speed offered. Unless the hallways are really, really long then APs can be put in the housekeeping rooms and service closets since they are typically stacked on top of each other with 2-4 on each floor depending on the layout. APs can also be put into stairwells, meeting rooms and vending areas. Typically, none of these rooms (except vending) are on the ends of the hallways since corners are reserved for more expensive rooms and suites. That makes them perfect mounting spots since the signal is usable in both directions and is usually pretty good for 3 rooms or possibly 4 each way and across the hall (Each AP could cover 12-16 rooms). I don't remember if they skipped every other floor but I would bet it's a possibility if budget is an issue and may cut down on interference from competing APs.

Cables can be brought up through conduit in elevator shafts or even disguised behind trim coming up stairwells. Once again, where the connections are for internet service and not really a shared network then a single gigabit switch on each floor is plenty for a 100 room hotel.

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