Breadcrumb
- Home
- Wireless Networking Articles
- Case studies
- Willowbook Nursery
Willowbrook Nursery & Garden Centre is a family-run business based in the Somerset area, specialising in the sale of plants and other services. Operating across internal and external areas, Willowbrook look to provide wireless connectivity for the use of hand-held scanners for staff, as well as guest access for their customers.
In order to streamline product scanning and inventory processes using the hand- held scanners, as well as providing better guest and staff Internet access, a robust wireless local area network needed to be integrated to service both the internal and external areas of the garden centre. This was made more dif cult due to the fact that connectivity back to the network in the external areas was not possible. The garden centre was also looking for a managed solution where the WLAN controller could be hosted for them to prevent increased IT administration.
DigitalAir were contacted to complete a full wireless site survey of the premises, to assess the viability of installing the network, check the levels of coverage provided and investigate sources of interference. Following the survey, and in line with our 4 step plan, we were able to design a network suitable for this type of environment, identifying the mounting locations of the access points and specifying the technology to be used.
The eventual solution comprised of Ruckus ZoneFlex R500 802.11ac wireless access points for the internal coverage, Ruckus ZoneFlex T300 802.11ac access points for the external coverage with all access points being centrally managed by the CloudCoded platform. Due to Ruckus’ patented PD- MRC antenna technology the ZoneFlex access points were ideal for providing wireless coverage to the hand-held scanners with their ever changing orientation.
In order to provide resilient network connectivity to the external areas, Ruckus Smart Mesh technology was used to provide a backhaul to the network between access points using the 5GHz radio, with the 2.4GHz radios providing the wireless coverage.
DigitalAir completed the installation of the solution in a single day, utilizing a team of experienced engineers to con gure, install and commission the hardware. The external APs were installed using poles that were mounted strategically on the sides of buildings, and the internal APs were mounted to the ceiling beams within the retail and café areas. The hardware was then commissioned to the Cloud based platform to ensure continuity of wireless services without any downtime, and the Smart Mesh was ne tuned for performance and resiliency.