Network Solutions

During the wireless network design stage, we consider the specific challenges and requirements of the network, the environment and the client.

A one size fits all approach does not work with wireless - each environment requires its own bespoke solution – offices have different needs to warehouses, and airports have specific criteria that commercial yards do not.

We design wireless network solutions ranging from single autonomous AP deployments, right through to multi-site / multi-campus lightweight cloud- or controller-managed fully resilient solutions. We design wireless networks consisting of many thousands of access points across the world, we design fully resilient wireless networks (quite a big claim), we design wireless networks to our clients’ specific requirements (if they have them), in whatever flavour it comes… we love designing wireless network solutions (and we’re pretty good at it too)!

Clients can rest-assured that we guarantee our designs, we provide comprehensive reports and design documentation, and we continue the project and relationship into the installation and commissioning phases.

The best of designs can be installed badly, and they won’t work - it seems like an obvious statement, but we’ve seen it time and time again.

In the same way that our wireless surveyors have cabling experience so they can consider cabling requirements when determining Access Point locations, our installation engineers have knowledge of wireless principles and the full support of our wireless surveyors and designers throughout all installation activities.

This knowledge, and the support structure between our engineers and project managers is absolutely critical and a key strength of ours when completing and overcoming challenges during an installation. We even take this a step further - our wireless network implementations are proactively overseen by the network surveyor / designer to ensure the process runs quickly and efficiently, to liaise with the client and to better make preparations ready for the Commissioning phase.

Where clients instruct one company to complete the wireless network survey, then another to complete the cabling survey, then a combination to complete the install, this rarely ends well. We pride ourselves on taking ownership of the project from start to finish - this gives the client a single party to deal with and allows us to ensure quality and conformance is maintained throughout the solution.

The configuration of wireless networking equipment is frequently completed offsite in our test-bench environment.

This is the most efficient way of delivering a project and helps to minimise time onsite. We regularly complete offsite configuration and testing of large and complex WLANs for shipment to site (often in other countries) to be installed and commissioned by our skilled and trusted installation engineers.

During the Commissioning and Testing phases we work very closely with our clients to help integrate the new wireless network solution into their existing network environment (assuming we aren’t providing a new LAN also). Many clients have to maintain 100% uptime as we commission and test the new solution then migrate users from old to new. In these cases, we produce detailed migration procedures to ensure that business operations remain uninterrupted.

Following successful commissioning of a WLAN we begin the testing and verification procedure. Connectivity, resilience and failover testing is completed with the client (if applicable) then post-deployment wireless verification surveys are conducted to help verify the coverage provided by the new solution. The coverage is rarely optimum to begin with, so our skilled technical engineers spend time adapting the WLAN configuration to the specific environment and testing each change with both industry-leading survey tools and client devices. Post-deployment verification surveys are often overlooked but are a critical component of the overall solution.

Following all of the above, handover documentation is created and provided to the customer containing all of the necessary technical, coverage, support and warranty information. We really do provide a comprehensive package when it comes to wireless networking – one of the many reasons why so many national and international organisations come to us for their wireless networking needs.

During the planning and design phases we consider the specific challenges and requirements of both the network and the client – including port-count, throughput, bandwidth, security, segmentation, resilience, routing complexities, and application specific requirements.

These are all key considerations for any network deployment irrespective of size or vendor.

We design networks ranging from a single switch with a couple of VLANs right through to multi-campus complex layer-3 architectures with RADIUS / 802.1x authentication and fully resilient core and distribution layers. We have designed networks that occupy a single room, and we have designed networks that quite literally span the globe, but most importantly we design networks that fulfil and exceed our customers’ requirements.

Although we work predominantly with our preferred manufacturers Cisco, Meraki, Aruba and Unifi, we pride ourselves on being vendor agnostic so can often respond to bespoke and unusual requests and can always provide a solution that meets both the technical and financial requirements.

Clients can rest-assured that we guarantee our designs, we provide comprehensive reports and design documentation, and we continue the project and relationship into the installation and commissioning phases.

Our preferred approach is to complete the majority of the configuration and testing offsite within our controlled lab environment.

This allows us to resolve any hardware issues prior to attending site, complete the configuration more efficiently, and to keep costly onsite attendance to a minimum. Following offsite configuration and testing the equipment can be available for client testing if so desired prior to taking it to site.

Whether the network is being installed within a new or existing site, our trusted and skilled in-house installation engineers work under the expert guidance of our technical engineers to facilitate the installation of the equipment within the customers’ comms cabinets. If migrating from old equipment to new our engineers will methodically remove existing patching, creating detailed documentation as they go, before installing and connecting the new equipment. Our installation engineers working in conjunction with our technical engineers helps to minimise any network downtime experienced by the client, while completing a neat and tidy job.

Where clients often have to instruct one company to complete the switching and routing work, then another to complete the installation, cabling and patching, we pride ourselves on completing the project as a whole. Not only does this make the installation more coordinated and efficient, this gives the client a single party to deal with and allows us to ensure quality and conformance is maintained throughout all aspects of the solution.

We pride ourselves on completing the project as a whole – so our clients do not need to instruct one company to complete the switching and routing work, then another to complete the installation, cabling and patching. Not only does this make the installation more coordinated and efficient, this gives the client a single party to deal with and allows us to ensure quality and conformance is maintained throughout.

Following successful installation and connectivity of network hardware our technical engineers begin the Commissioning and Testing phases which are often completed hand-in-hand with the client.

We actively encourage client involvement at this stage as it helps to introduce the new solution and allows the client to complete testing of their own whilst our engineers are on site.

In some instances, testing is a fairly simple exercise, and in others it can be a very complex and time-consuming process, but either way testing is a critical component of the overall solution. It’s an element that is often rushed or overlooked and this can lead to issues post-completion.

As we complete testing with our clients (as much as possible) this also doubles-up as a demonstration and handover activity. Whilst comprehensive documentation is provided following the successful deployment, there’s nothing quite like having the experts show you over your shiny new network (over a cup of coffee or two)!