This document provides information on why it is important to have well-qualified network engineering professionals design, install, configure, and help you manage a wireless network at your hospitality center or your QSR location.

Having someone slap together a few wifi hotspots using consumer-grade devices from your corner consumer electronic store may save you some money to start with; but doing so is more than likely to not only prove very expensive in terms of your ongoing costs alone, but also in terms of the liabilities that you may incur because of potentially exposing your guests (and your staff) to harmful RF/Microwave radiations -and from possibly running afoul of FCC regulations.

Regardless of whether your hospitality center primarily caters to high-end markets (big-spender captive audiences with lots of money: e.g. cruise ships, conference centers, high-value tourism and business travel segments) or budget-conscious hotel/motel clientele; your clients expect you to provide them access to reliable (and secure) wireless data services.

While it is true that most high-end hotels that primarily serve business travelers and/or affluent leisure travelers may be able to get away with a "fee based" access (any where from $10 to $25 per day) for Wireless Internet Access; hotels and motels that primarily serve budget-conscious travelers have often to provide Wireless Data services at no extra cost.

However, irrespective of whether or not you are offering to your guests Wireless Internet for a fee or at no additional cost to them, it is important that your wireless infrastructure is fast, secure, safe, and reliable.

At the very least, expect the following from your Wireless Networking Design and Engineering team:

1. Use of only Enterprise Class Wireless Networking Hardware: Do not settle for cheap consumer grade networking hardware suitable for networking a few home computers. Such wireless devices are designed for low data throughput, difficult to manage, and are inherently insecure for use on enterprise class wireless LANs.
   
2. Pre-Deployment Site Survey, Formal Network Engineering Design, and Planning: There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all Wireless LAN blueprint. Every hospitality center is unique due to site-specific attributes such as building materials used, property layout, existing/potential radio interference from adjoining RF networks, etc. Expect and require your wireless networking services vendor to custom design a WLAN for you -doing so will save you money on not only the initial deployment costs, but also on ongoing support costs.
   
3. WLAN Management Tools: Business-class Wireless LANs are built using quality networking hardware designed for Centralized Network Management. Enterprise class managed networking hardware not only provide you centralized visibility and control of wireless LANs (WLANs), but also lower your ongoing administrative expenses of operating a safe and secure WLAN at your hospitality center.
   
4. Automated Detection and Notification of Network Security Threats and Intrusions: A good wireless network design must include an automated support for identification of any unauthorized (rogue/rouge) devices/users on your WLANs, and isolation thereof. Expect your WLAN design engineers to certify that they have designed a WLAN that is proactively security centric. Insist on Rogue Detection and Isolation capabilities.
   
5. Centralized Network Control: Having overlapping wifi hotspots and support for transparent roaming is usually not enough when it comes to providing reliable Wireless Access to many simultaneous users. Expect your WLAN to be engineered such that it allows you management access to all your Wireless networking gear centrally. Centralized network controls will not only improve AP coverage and wireless service throughput; it will also help you achieve gain optimization and peak load balancing seamlessly.
   
6. Support for User and Group Security Profiles: In order to allow your guests to move about freely within your hospitality center -without losing their connectivity to your WLAN -your WLAN should be built using wireless networking hardware that support creation of user-groups, assignment of group-based usage/access policies, and user and/or group-based security enforcement. If your WLAN were to be built using cheap consumer-grade wireless networking gears designed for home users, your guests will not be able to connect once and roam throughout the network with true session integrity.
   
7. Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting: Real-time access to operational data not only allows you to quickly detect/fix network failures and intrusions, it also helps improve security and optimization of your wireless network.
   
8. In-place Expandability to Support Your Future Wireless Requirements: Most enterprise-class wireless networking hardware offer in-place firmware upgrade, in-service software upgrade, and hot-swappable components. Such devices may cost you just a little bit more to start with, but they will save you significantly in terms of ongoing support and upgrade/replacement costs.
   
9. Projected Long Term Cost of Operating a WLAN at Your Hospitality Center: Unless your WLAN has been designed using business-class wireless networking hardware, you may be required to replace most (if not) all your networking gear as the technology (and your users' expectations) evolves. Considering the fast pace at which new Internet technologies and applications (for voice and video, for example) are evolving and getting deployed, you should expect that you will have to upgrade your networking infrastructure continually. Just as your guests would not settle for slow 56k dial-up modem access anymore, you should fully expect that your guests would not settle for outdated wifi hotspots. Unless you want to throw away most (if not all) of your WLAN hardware time and again, insist and require that your wireless network is setup using field upgradeable business-class networking components.
   
10. Minimize Health Risks Due to Extended Exposure to Excessive Radio Frequency (RF) Radiations: Considering potential health risks associated with exposure to excessive RF radiation, you may not want to have an untrained individual setup a poorly designed and potentially unsafe wireless network at your business location. Just as having an untrained/unqualified fly-by-night electrical company do electrical wiring work in your hotel would expose your guests to the potential health risks of electrical shocks and/or electrical fires resulting from short-circuits; hiring unskilled professionals to setup a WLAN at your business location may potentially expose your guests (and your staff) to dangerously high levels of radio frequency radiations.
    
11. Compliance with FCC Regulations: Considering that radio waves (RF frequency) used in our microwaves are more or less the same as those used in most wifi networking (IEEE 8.2.11x) devices, it should be no surprise that poorly designed and/or improperly installed wireless devices can expose your unsuspecting guests to serious health risks. FCC regulations require that wireless networks meet various safety standards. They also clearly specify radiation level limits for various types of radio/microwave devices. However, just because someone is using a few FCC certified radio devices to slap together a wireless network for you does not necessarily mean that any network so created would also be safe and/or compliant with FCC regulations. For example, just because an antenna with 8db gain and an access point may be FCC certified individually, using them together and placing them in close proximity of your users may still expose your guests to potentially harmful radio waves. Expect and require your wireless networking vendor to certify that the wireless network design that you have entrusted them with is safe for your users, and FCC compliant.

Having well-qualified engineering professionals design/install a business class wireless networking environment at your hospitality center can not only save you money (think Total Cost of Ownership) in the long run; doing so will also help you better serve your guests -while minimizing your own exposure to potential liability resulting from having installed/operated a poorly designed wireless network. Professionally designed WLANs are not only less susceptible to network intrusions (thereby better protecting the privacy of your and your guests' sensitive data); they also minimize the possibility of subjecting your staff, and your guests to potentially harmful RF radiations.