Using Mikrotik for Wlan in a Hotel

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hello,

I need to install a WLAN services in a hotel with 11 floors (28m x 20m), a second building with 3 floors (20m x 100m).
The two building will be connected via a 5MHz bridge, or via an existing cable.

The WLan service is not meant for customers (yet), but for the internal personal using wlan for a software they use to facilitate needs in the hotel.

The idea is to have a continuous (through-going) network to be able to roam from one hotspot to another without interruption or packet loss. VoIP is NOT the goal, but an uninterrupted experiance using the software.

As we cannot use the preexisting network within the hotel we would have to rewire the hotel to connect the hotspots, and I would like to keep wiring to a minimum.

My ideas (first thoughts):

  1. Put a switch on each floor, connect Mikrotiks via cable and set all routers on same SSID on different channels.

  2. Put a switch on each floor, connect one Mikrotik to it and use others in a mesh on each floor.

  3. Put a Switch on the top and bottom floor as “mesh exit points” and use Mikrotiks in mesh mode on the floors as needed. The mesh is used to transport data trough the two wired access points to the server/internet.

  4. Use Mikrotik Wlan-Routers on each floor, connected via a 5MHz connection to replace cabling between the floors. Use other Mikrotik Routers to span the hotspot on the floors. Mikrotik’s WDS mesh solution could be used to extend the range of the wlan network on the floors and maybe between floors.

My questions:

  1. Is there any experiance how the Mikrotik Mesh solution works, which hardware is needed?
  2. What could the range of a Mikrotik be? The walls in the hotel are not concrete. The center of the hotel is steel-concrete with lifts on the inside (12x5m).
  3. Could I use several Wlan-cards in one box and just use extension cables for the antennas to extend the range of one Hotspot?
  4. Could I use one Mikrotik in the ceiling to cover two floors? Is it feasible to just install Routers every second floor?

I am very courious about your experiance, your ideas and your warnings.
Do you have any other ideas, setups or plans how to set this up?

Thanks for relpying in advance!

Robert

PS: Floor Plans

2

I’ve done a motel with similar problems.

If you are in the US, use SR9 or XR9 w/WDS to tie the AP’s together. Should work fine.

Everything would be bridged, this may be an issue depending on your bandwidth needs.

Keep the channels swapped around on the 2.4GHz AP’s to keep interference down.

Just to make sure I understand, are you setting up both buildings or just one?

3

I am looking into how to add WiFi hot-spots in our casino and hotel - thus I have a pretty good idea what you are facing. Metal walls and metal firewalls totally stop your signal.

Today I just found out about Radiax coax. I am going to order a chunk and test it out.
From what I have found out so far - it appears you can one Radiax coax down the hallway and the entire coax acts like an antenna. Some of the hallways I am looking at would need 5 AP just to make sure a hand-held WiFi device can stay connected as you roam. Instead of 5APs per hallway - it appears a single Radiax coax can be run 100 to 300 feet. As the person walks under the Radix and turns a corner - the connected device does not roam - it stays connected through the Radiax coax back to the one AP on the floor.

I don’t yet if you can T or X the Radiax yet - such as a hallway intersection and have all the Radiax on the floor connect up to a single WiFi wlan radio card…

4

Hi, were you able to solve this problem in the hotel?
I have a similar issue with a showroom in a store which is 3 stories and employees want to use Motorola’s bar code scanners, etc.
I am wondering if I should use WDS in each floor and switch channels and use the same SSID among floors.
Do you know something about this?

Regards