Importing maps for multi floor buildings

[Hammer]

Hi.

I'm wondering if there is a way for importing maps for multi-story buildings. I can't see any current documentation on the importing of maps and from what I can see, it looks like only one floor per building is allowed.

Can anyone confirm if this is incorrect?

Thanks.

[PhilipDAth]

Here are the instructions.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Monitoring_and_Reporting/Using_a_Floor_Plan_or_Custom_Map_in_Das...

Where you upload the floor plan there is a "+" to the right which lets you upload as many plans as you want.

[Limitless]

Philip,  Is there a way of ensuring that a customer is on floor 2 instead of Floor 1. We have the AP's registered to Floor 2 but looks like we are getting customers / clients also from floor 1

[PhilipDAth]

It is not uncommon to get some penetration between floors.  You can try increasing the minimum connection speed to limit this, assuming each floor has enough APs to provide good coverage.

I normally set the minimum connect speed to 12Mb/s.

[Limitless]

I assume this gets more difficult when there are huge openings in the floor like the mall below.  Can we say only when see by 3AP No 11 - 20 that are on first floor

[Hammer]

Are you a shop in the mall or are you the mall itself with APs on each level?

If you're the Mall I would recommend you position your APs away from the atrium.

What power settings are you using? Are the clients on the level below on 2.4GHz or 5GHz?

PhilipDAth suggestion helps clients from going too far from the associated AP. Personally, I start with a data rate of 24Mbps and potentially move upwards if need be.

[Limitless]

We are installing the wi fi for the full mall and AP's located close to the shop fronts and away from the void.  We locate AP1-20 Ground Floor & 21 - 40 on first floor.  We assume they are on the first floor if picked up by 21 - 40. All set on 2.4Ghz. On raw data we are getting Db reading and not Mbps.  Is there Mbps in raw data 

[PhilipDAth]

Lets say a customer gets a better conncetion to an AP on the floor above - is this a problem?  Is there a reason why you woulnd't want the customer connecting to that AP?

Also consider the case of an AP that has too many clients connected, and is refusing new connections forcing clients to move to another farther away AP.

It also sounds like this is a dense deployment.  Have you looked at RF profiles?

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Radio_Settings/RF_Profiles

The "Conference Room Profile" might be a good fit.

[Limitless]

Philip because we are looking at the shops that a customer goes into then the floor level is important.  Not sure RF profiles will work but will forward to Stu who sets the hardware up.

Thanks Gary

[PhilipDAth]

The RF profiles make changes to encourage clients to roam more aggressively to use their nearest AP.

[Hammer]

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by raw data, I'm assuming you mean when you look at clients in the dashboard it reports dB?

What I meant is modifying the minimum basic rate (MBR) aka Minimum bitrate, I personally start at 24Mbps but sometimes I look at increasing it. It will hopefully help with reducing people staying connected while they move away from the associated AP.

The MBR can be set on each SSID by going to Wireless | Configure | Access Control | Wireless options (it's at the bottom). Slide the bar to adjust the rate. Note it can be set using the RF Profiles but I personally like to do it per SSIDs (occasionally I come across a scenario where I need different MBRs for different SSIDs - usually when supporting VoIP).

Also, what do you have band selection (also under Wireless options)? Unless you can disable 2.4GHz, which being a Mall you probably can't, you'd probably want to make sure you're using band steering.

What power levels are the APs set at?

40 APs sounds like a lot, how big is this Mall? Using 2.4GHz will most likely give you a lot of co-channel interference (CCI). You'll also want to make sure your channel widths on 5GHz are narrow, i.e. 20MHz.