The WCC’s initial concerns are with Wi-Fi RF Network Planning, Specification, Design, Survey, Installation and Validation.
These are crucial areas to get right for today’s Wi-Fi networks, yet many Wi-Fi deployments fail to deliver, or are overly costly, because no standards previously existed.
The WCC Standards therefore define:
- Information that must form part of the User Requirements Definition, the Wi-Fi RF Network Specification, Capacity Planning Guides, individual Capacity Plans, Site Survey Data Sets, Installation Documentation and Network Validation Reports.
- Acceptable methods for evaluating Wi-Fi Signal Strength, Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR), AP Count, Channel Overlap, Mutual Interference and more for a Wi-Fi network Design and Post-Installation Survey.
- Best Practices for Wi-Fi network Planning, Design, Survey, Installation, Validation Auditing, Security Auditing - areas that have often been performed badly – or not at all – in Wi-Fi network deployments.
- Acceptable methods for Spectrum Analysis, assessing external Radio Frequency Interference, and the likely effects on WI-Fi network performance.
The WCC have also defined methodologies for each stage of Wi-Fi network deployment - the complete life cycle of Wi-Fi network ownership.
These methodologies can be applied by Wi-Fi network engineers working both in-house and by third party IT support organisations, but the WCC has defined standards against which all work can be audited for compliance.
Category 5 cable (Cat 5) is a twisted pair cable used in structured cabling for Ethernet networks. Although we often refer to “Cat 5″ cabling, the Cat 5 specification has in fact been superseded by Cat 5e and Cat 6 – standards for higher-quality cable which support higher speeds.
Although the specifications for Ethernet are defined by the IEEE 802.3 standards, the Cat 5 and Cat 6 standards are defined in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, with clarification in TSB-95.
ANSI – American National Standards Institute
TIA – Telecommunications Industry Association
EIA – Electronic Industries Alliance