04-22-22: RECOMMENDED ACTION PLAN: In-Room | Hybrid Wi-Fi Cabling

STATUS: Budget for approval
In order not to overwhelm with labor and costs, will do one (1) floor initially to live test the effectiveness. If the result is acknowledged as "PASSED" within the grading system specified below, we will roll-out one floor at a time or area-by-area and make some adjustments in between especially in monitoring overlapping RF channels and interference.

Note: This design is based on RF Wi-Fi Heat Map simulator for HEB and adjusted to reflect the actual site survey conducted in the recent HE Baguio Wi-Fi Assessment.

PHASE 1 - SECOND FLOOR

 
SCOPE of COVERAGE: All rooms in the 2/F (201-220) plus GYM 

TARGET: After the implementation, there is at least a "YELLOW" signal inside each room within the 2/F.

EVALUATION & GRADING SYSTEM: To measure the EFFECTIVENESS upon COMPLETION, live testing with RM-ATG covering the specific floor or area of completion. In this case, all rooms in the 2nd Floor only particularly room 201-220 and the GYM. Live testing shall be made inside closed-door rooms.

IoT DEVICE for TESTING: Low-End Entry-Level Smartphone – the lowest-end I got is my corp. smartphone (Oppo A5s) or the cheapest smartphone possibly active in the market that might be used by one of HE Baguio guests.

TASKS LIST
RM-ATG | HE BAGUIO ENGG | Corp. ENGG

1. Home run cabling using Belden CAT6 UTP cable.
    a. Location is middle of the room as in Fig. B PROPOSED Plan. 
    b. End to end cable termination from basement IT room to respective guest room.
    c. Give some allowance on both ends in case of adjustments.
    d. Observe maximum length – recommended not to exceed 90m to preserve acceptable cable speed transfer rate.
    e. Coordinate with IT-MIS Department for any clarification.

Note: Existing cabling can be used, IF and only IF
    - It is Belden UTP CAT6
    - Home run
    - Can reach the new location with allowance on both ends for adjustments.

2. Bill of Materials for item#1
    a. Belden CAT6 cable – how many boxes? Each box is 305m in length.
    b. Power source – must be installed in easily accessible location in case need to power off/on. 
    c. Observe proper grounding. Please noted that commercial grade IoT devices has three (3) prong plug. 

CORP. IT-MIS 

3. Provide IoT & Wi-Fi Network Devices Specifications – as hereby provided for procurement. Will send PR to PURCHASING, charge to HE-BAGUIO.

    a. One (1) Gigabit Router 
        Brand & Model: EdgeRouter 6P (SKU:  ER-6P)
        • (5) Gigabit RJ45 Ports and (1) SFP Port
        • 24V PoE Output
        • 4-Core 1GHz MIPS64 Processor
        • External 24V 2.5A power supply

     b. One (1) Gigabit Switch
         Brand & Model: EdgeSwitch 48 Lite (SKU:  ES-48-Lite)
         • 48) Gigabit RJ45 Ports
         • (2) SFP+ Ports
         • (2) SFP Ports
         • Non-Blocking Throughput: 70 Gbps
         • Switching Capacity: 140 Gbps
         • Forwarding Rate: 104.16 Mpps
         • Maximum Power Consumption: 56W

     c. Four (4) Gigabit Access Point
         Brand & Model: Unifi Access Point AC Long-range (SKU:  UAP-AC-LR-US)
         • 802.3ac Wave 1 Wi-Fi technology
         • 5 GHz band with 867 Mbps throughput rate
         • 2.4 GHz band with a 450 Mbps throughput rate
         • Signal transmission up to 183 meters (600 feet)
         • (1) GbE RJ45 port
         • Powered by 802.3at PoE* or 24V passive PoE

4. Study budget and submit to EXECUTIVE OFFICE for review and approval.

Corp. PURCHASING

5. Source out existing and new IT vendors for best price and availability of the network devices specified in item#3.
6. IT-MIS will try to assist as well on this.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE 

7. Estimated budget for review and approval: Charge-To HE Baguio.

			
* Additional on top of the pending requests.

Note:
- As stated, the estimated budget for 2/F is PHP 32,750 while the PHP 38000 is for the replacement of degraded (about 5-year-old and up) core Wi-Fi network devices which needs to be replaced every 3 to 5 years to maintain acceptable operational performance. 
- Most of the prices are based on SRP in USD (PHP52.26 conversion, round up) directly from vendor/manufacturer. 
- Once fully done, we can review room cost to include Wi-Fi maintenance cost.
 

04-19-22: Wi-Fi Assessment (04/01/22 - 04/09/22)

Actual/Existing Situation:

At low occupancy or usage or few IoT devices connected: 
     1. Wi-Fi is working without any issue on selected devices particularly those with good antennas. [3/5]
     2. Old IoT devices that are built with weak antenna are having hard time connecting to get respective IP addresses.Our APs (access points) can reach (one-way communicate) but these devices having difficulty replying back especially when the room's door is closed.

At medium to high occupancy or usage w/ many IoT devices connected:
     1. Interference (or noise) gets stronger and drops signals resulting to bad connection particularly to IoT devices that attempt to connect for the first time.
     2. Degraded modem/routers could not withstand endure the routing services and needed to reboot to refresh the resources.

The following are causing Wi-Fi issues in HE Baguio

Major Reasons:
1. Degraded entry level routers w/ low specifications (8 years old and up)
2. ISP downtime and slow response time (a week or longer)
3. RF Interference from several access points within line of sight due to Hallway Design. Best Practice: Never install an AP within line of sight of which it's signal is still strong from the next AP.
4. Conflicts between radio channels - such can interfere, slow down and or disrupt internet Wi-Fi connection.
5. Guest room structure design - T&B in front, creating a double to multiple obstructions to Wi-Fi signal. Target: Can allow maximum of one (1) obstruction only between client device and the hotel access point (AP).

Other factors that aggravate the problem
1. Degraded entry level switches (8 years old and up)
2. Daisy Chain Switches Topology w/o Uplink port
3. Degraded access points (8 years old and up)
4. Unplugged AP
5. Bad cabling. A small movement or a finger touch can cause disconnection.
6. Hidden SID
7. Misconfigured (not fine-tuned)

Recommended Solutions:

Short-term & Immediate
1. Replaced old degraded router with new gigabit router available in the area – this unit is only good for short-term fix because it did not meet the required specifications for the project.
2. Removed "hidden" yet inactive SSID - that add noise (or interference) w/o purpose
3. Re-configured & fine-tuned few APs' RF channels that conflicted. Note: Most could not remove RF channel conflicts due to Hallway design.

Long-term
1. In-room Wi-Fi cabling (as recommended way back and reiterated in 2018) – we can start with hybrid implementation to save on labor & cost.

2. CAT6 or higher
    Note: If room shall have smartTV, a dedicated wired CAT6 provision is required.

3. Industrial grade Wi-Fi devices (routers, switches w/ uplink ports, access points) - we can start with commercial grade IoT devices, then slowly to industrial grade.

4. Hotel Wi-Fi System (Captive Portal) - for beta-testing but can revert to the usual old ways to connect if failed during the test. 

5. Third Telco or ISP - RADIUS (w/ findings: contracting only with CONVERGE)
     a.Only two (2) are available in the area of HE Baguio
         i. PLDT
         ii. Converge

6. Internet bandwidth per IoT device in the ratio of:
    a. 3Mbps for SD streaming
    b. 5Mbps for HD streaming
    c. 15Mbps for UHD streaming

7. IoT device per user in the ratio of 1:3
    a. Illustration: @ 3Mbps per IoT, & 3 IoT per user
        Required BW per user = 3Mbps x 3 IoT = 9Mbps
    b. Estimated Initial BW Requirement for HE Baguio @ 1 pax, 3 IoT devices per room or venue
        i. Rooms (69 x 3)		= 207
        ii. Santorini 			= 250
        iii. Flora-Veranda 		= 100
        iv. Tuscany 			=   50
			   --------------------------------
			    607 x 3 = 1821 ≈ 2Gbps
			   ==================

8. Dedicated (Premium) Fiber Internet w/ SLA of at least 99.6% - our existing is budgeted shared Fiber Internet with no SLA (just best effort).
9. Will study budget and submit proposal once done.

***Created: 4/17/22 | Last Update: 04-21-22 ***