July 1, 2024
This blog post is part of a multi-part case study series on how we at Metro Wireless upgraded a marina WiFi network to help it provide a great internet experience for its members and staff. We now manage that outdoor WiFi network, and support the marina in monetizing its WiFi connectivity, allowing them to recuperate their investment.
This article is all about structured cabling and upgrading the marina’s underlying cabling and electrical power infrastructure prior to upgrading the WiFi hardware!
We’ve broken this blog series into a few parts:
The fastest way to get started on your new marina or other outdoor WiFi and wireless network is to email us at sales@metrowireless.com or call us at (888) 203-5826. It’s helpful if you also provide:
Our design and technical engineering team will assist you every step of the way, and we provide FREE remote surveys, which will give you a predictive picture of what your project will look like once completed, as well as a budgetary estimate to install and maintain your network.
Once the preliminary design is completed, we’ll schedule an on-site survey to finalize the network design. After our business clients accept the proposal and pay the deposit, we can order, provision, and install most WiFi networks within eight weeks.
While it’s comparatively unsexy compared to the other parts of a WiFi upgrade project, structured cabling and the underlying power and electrical infrastructure that supports a wireless network must be fully designed and considered in order to have a successful deployment.
In other posts in this multi-part blog series, we detail how we deploy the WiFi access points and multi-point wireless backhaul network, as well as configuring and managing the network via cloud-based portal.
During our on-site survey, which we mandate as part of our design and consultation process for any managed WiFi project, we learned that the current structured cabling infrastructure was in very poor condition.
Many areas of the marina campus needed remediation in order to adequately prepare it for a new upgraded managed WiFi deployment.
As seen in the photos, across the more than 25 equipment sites currently deployed with WiFi access points and PtmP fixed-wireless backhaul, we found multiple instances of the following:
In order to prepare for the new WiFi network, we replaced the existing failing NEMA enclosures with models that were marine-grade. The new models had proper weather gaskets to forbid any water or dirt entry, had fans to keep the interior-mounted hardware cool during hot summers, and were secured with keys we provided to the marina management team. These NEMA enclosures also have DIN mounting rails, which we’ve leveraged in other projects where we’re installing more equipment inside.
Our team enjoys performing a clean installation, and here you can see below how we installed the NEMA enclosures and mounted the various hardware parts (picture taken before we vacuumed and sealed the enclosures). We can handle most electrical needs, like in this case we mounted traditional 110v AC outlets, but we’ve done DC power conversions for NEMA enclosures in other projects.
Cabling connectors routed to the outside of the NEMA box, such as POE and network ethernet CAT5e or CAT6 cabling, run through pigtail connectors that have rubber gaskets, again to keep water, dirt, and bugs out.
These NEMAs only needed to hold POE injectors for the wireless backhaul system, since our PtP fixed wireless hardware has POE out, which powered the WiFi access points in this project. However, we wanted to use a slightly larger NEMA enclosure to provide space for any future needs, especially since it came at a nominal cost increase.
Finally, the old NEMA enclosures didn’t use any flexible conduit, and hence the exposed power cabling was at risk for getting cut by landscaping and other maintenance teams. We remediated that by installing the new NEMA enclosures both higher on the light poles vertically, as well as adding flexible conduit to wrap the power cabling, hopefully extending the longevity of the infrastructure.
We wouldn’t want a weed wacker or lawnmower to cut through our conduit or cabling! As you can see, we care about the little things here at Metro Wireless.
Fortunately, since this project site already had an existing outdoor WiFi network, it was evident where to install the new gear. This was mostly a rip and replace effort on the existing light poles that were used to mount the WiFi access points up high on the pole. We also tapped into the electrical power that was otherwise utilized to power street lights.
In other projects, we’ve custom made and installed tall (up to 30 feet or more) poles that were either bracket mounted to a dock or surface, or mounted to cement we put in the ground.
In either case, we’re always trying to use commonly available, strong materials like unistrut, and thick steel poles. Again, it’s all about being cost effective and using commonly available parts versus stuff that’s hard to find a replacement for when a repair is needed!
We also added a couple of new sites to increase the density of the WiFi access point network. The old network had access points that were spread too far apart, leading to dead spots in network coverage.
Another consideration is that newer 5Ghz (and 6Ghz) based WiFi networks will by definition have worse RF (i.e., signal) propagation into the fiberglass and metal boats than older 2.4Ghz networks, but higher performing modern WiFi AP antenna designs and less interference on the 5Ghz and 6Ghz spectrum typically lead to net neutral performance compared to 2.4Ghz.
Further, anecdotally, we’ve heard that spacing out WiFi nodes about every 6-8 dock slips is best practice. We recognize that can get costly, so we sometimes advocate to spread out a bit farther apart initially, and we can always infill with additional WiFi access points as needed to bolster coverage. We always have this conversation with our clients up front to set expectations.
In this case, we ended up adding three new WiFi access points to the network after our initial install, to help bolster coverage in some dead zones.
This part of the entire WiFi upgrade project required fewer than two weeks, and comprised about one third of the total project cost. Fortunately, we at Metro Wireless can lean on our deep expertise and knowledge of best practices to know how to design and remediate bad structured cabling and IT infrastructure.
We know how to get things done cost effectively – where it’s important to spend the money, and where we can save clients a buck or two. After all, it all adds up!
While not sexy, upgrading the structured cabling and electrical infrastructure prior to deploying a new managed WiFi network ensures that any new network equipment will have reliable electrical and network connections.
The true value in upgrading this infrastructure so robustly won’t be felt for many years. We fully expect the new NEMA enclosures and electrical power solution to be operational for more than a decade.
Our structured cabling approach can be applied to many use cases, such as outdoor campground WiFi, RV parks, and more (we’re working on a Zoo’s outdoor WiFi design right now!).
To learn more about our Managed WiFi offering, check out our managed WiFi solutions page here. Of course, Metro Wireless deploys a lot of indoor (e.g., office, warehouse) type focused solutions, in addition to outdoor WiFi networks.
We run a robust, yet streamlined and fast process to consult, design, deploy, and manage outdoor WiFi networks like this Marina’s.
In order to start the process, send an email to sales@metrowireless.com with:
Our design and technical engineering team will assist you every step of the way, and we provide FREE remote surveys, which will give you a predictive picture of what your project will look like once completed, as well as a budgetary estimate to install and maintain your network.
Once the preliminary design is completed, we’ll schedule an on-site survey to finalize the network design. After our business clients accept the proposal and pay the deposit, we can order, provision, and install most WiFi networks within eight weeks.
Tyler Hoffman
