MikroTik

Hello all,

I have a project I'm working on.
I want to know about your experiences with large warehouse scenarios.

Is mikrotik suited fo the job?

My scenario is about the following:

total area: aprox 75.000 sq ft
ceiling: 40feet high, all metallic
racks: metalic, 35 feet high , 2,2m wide,
aisles between racks: 3,2m wide


My main concerns:

- client devices are symbol and motorola handhelds:
how good are this things roaming between APs?
They won't be using heavy traffic, but handoffs of 1min are unacceptable

- is CAPsMAN working fine for: auto channel selection? dynamic power adjusting and other features competitors with wireless controller systems (cisco, extreme, aruba etc) brags to have?

- Due the fact that APs need to be on the ceiling, is there a right equipment for the job?
I guess omni-directional antennas will be a waste of energy. They need to be directional, aimed from top to bottom and have coverage of all the aisle.
One AP per aisle, or two at most, if they are placed at the walls facing each other.

Maybe you can learn about problems from this thread or contact it's poster:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=146457

We made a project with a large chemical products enterprise. Many floors with metallic mesh floors, offices, etc. We used SXT with CAPsMAN. They use the wireless network mainly with iPads for watching videos about repair procedures for machinery. We expanded the same network to offices, adding wAP-AC. We had to provide a minimum of 50 Mbps everywhere and roaming. We used about 10 SXT for Interior / 2 for Exterior and 4 wAP for Offices and it works very very well.

- client devices are symbol and motorola handhelds:
how good are this things roaming between APs?
They won't be using heavy traffic, but handoffs of 1min are unacceptable

Roaming largely depend on device network / wireless implementation. We had problem with a particular iPad model but everything was fine for other devices including our laptops, smartphones, etc.

- is CAPsMAN working fine for: auto channel selection? dynamic power adjusting and other features competitors with wireless controller systems (cisco, extreme, aruba etc) brags to have?

In our setup, CAPsMAN dynamically adjusts/optimizes frequencies. The thing i saw that others offers is "Band Steering", which CAPsMAN doesn't offer. But you can use "WiFi Signal Power ACL", but devices must behave correctly with it. I saw iPad sticking to an AP even if the signal was bad and there was a better nearer signal... In our case, the SXT were 5 GHz only so the 2.4 / 5 GHz steering was not a concern.

- Due the fact that APs need to be on the ceiling, is there a right equipment for the job?
I guess omni-directional antennas will be a waste of energy. They need to be directional, aimed from top to bottom and have coverage of all the aisle.
One AP per aisle, or two at most, if they are placed at the walls facing each other.

We did a site survey with a simple free WiFi metering software on our smartphones. This made use choosing the best spots to place the SXT and the right number.

Why the roof only? Can you not use side walls for installs.
I will search the mUM archives because I recently (have no life) went through a bunch of them and one spoke very closely to your exact setup/requirements.........Will see if I can find it again.
In the meantime this is a decent refresher on some basic wifi considerations........
https://mum.mikrotik.com/presentations/ ... 737579.pdf

This MUM should generate some ideas.........
https://mum.mikrotik.com/presentations/ ... 843664.pdf (google translate is your friend)

What we did in our warehouse (a bit smaller, but same racks, just less) is put a directional AP pointing down the side of each aisle.

Hello all,

I have a project I'm working on.
I want to know about your experiences with large warehouse scenarios.

Is mikrotik suited fo the job?

My scenario is about the following:

total area: aprox 75.000 sq ft
ceiling: 40feet high, all metallic
racks: metalic, 35 feet high , 2,2m wide,
aisles between racks: 3,2m wide


My main concerns:

- client devices are symbol and motorola handhelds:
how good are this things roaming between APs?
They won't be using heavy traffic, but handoffs of 1min are unacceptable

- is CAPsMAN working fine for: auto channel selection? dynamic power adjusting and other features competitors with wireless controller systems (cisco, extreme, aruba etc) brags to have?

- Due the fact that APs need to be on the ceiling, is there a right equipment for the job?
I guess omni-directional antennas will be a waste of energy. They need to be directional, aimed from top to bottom and have coverage of all the aisle.
One AP per aisle, or two at most, if they are placed at the walls facing each other.

Hi, I have a similar situation, how you managed? Which Mikrotik hardware you used?

The latest AX wifi products using wifiwave2 are supposed to be much better for roaming!

Have to check the size of the warehouse of my customer... but I guess it is a little bit smaller (estimate about 50.000 sq ft)
All metal on side and top.
Highest part is about 10m high (close to 40ft)

15 APs (mix of cAP AX and AX3), replacing >10-year old Symbol APs running WINGS Manager.
Mainly Symbol handgun scanners
RB5009 as capsman controller

Works just fine.

WareHouse Scenarios most the time are a matter of directional antennas to shape the coverage on each aisle

and very important:
Compatibility with Client Devices (barcode readers etc)

Not so much about High Speed 4k 60fps Youtube thing, running speedtest etc.

Roaming can be tricky because of the coverage and again the client devices behavior, in this cases roaming is more about avoiding sticky behaviors than seamless roaming for voip or high speed apps

That and between the metal racks and what are on those racks...

I did a warehouse with scan guns years ago. It was for a HVAC company. So the objects on the shelf were great big metal shields.

This was back when I was loosing clients over MIKROTIK wifi issues. So we went Ruckus OutDoor WAPs. Not a peep since the install.