I agree with Mike. Whenever I’m presented with another “do xxxxxx over wifi because it’s more convenient” I usually let them know I cannot guarantee that my wifi .. which is a requirement for and by the students .. will not interfere with their installation. If they are ok with that, then go ahead. I’d also be concerned about using a consumer-based home automation technology in an enterprise environment. Was X10 not available ;)?
My personal opinion remains .. if it isn’t going to move, it shouldn’t be wireless. All of that being said, maybe this is your opportunity to get more funding to move WiFi to 5GHz and leave 2.4 for IoT junk? -Brian From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Mike Atkins Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 11:35 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Lighting Controls - impact on Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi's impact? I would be concerned about your campus WiFi overrunning the ZigBee operation. We have a similar situation with ZigBee probes used to monitor freezer temperatures. Campus WiFi is not heavily used in the kitchen areas so no issues to note for either side. Mike Atkins Network Engineer Office of Information Technology University of Notre Dame From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>] On Behalf Of Williams, Jess Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:07 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless Lighting Controls - impact on Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi's impact? Our campus Facilities department is looking at a wireless lighting control system that uses a "Zigbee based" 2.4GHz wireless protocol. An example use case for this system is a parking garage that has 86 lights which are connected using a mesh network, however I can see it spreading indoors at some point down the road. At a minimum, I know this will raise the noise floor. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation/technology that can share how this impacts your campus Wi-Fi or how Wi-Fi has impacted the lighting control system, etc? The product is AcuityControls XPoint Wireless lighting controls http://www.acuitybrands.com/products/controls/xpoint-wireless#e8f40e39-86a8-4d2e-9072-e8b872bce11b I'm told by the manufacturer that the default channel used is Zigbee Channel 15, which is 2.425 MHz (5MHz total channel width). The channel can be changed. Vendor says: "XPoint Wireless Mesh operate a low duty cycle, narrow band (5 MHz wide) communications at up to +18 dBm output power, whereas 2.4 GHz Wifi operates at a high duty cycle, wideband communications (typical 20 to 60 MHz wide) typically at up to +23 dBm (that’s log scale so that’s a 5 dB difference which is actually over 3x as powerful as our system). I’ve never once seen a confirmed case where our Zigbee based mesh network interfered with their Wifi." They promise it won't interfere with Wi-Fi. I'd be more comfortable with something that uses 900MHz instead of 2.4GHz. Vendor documentation: XPoint Wireless uses a low duty cycle, narrow‐band, Zigbee®‐based 2.4 GHz wireless protocol that is not known to interfere with your 2.4 GHz WiFi or other systems. The low communication duty cycle, combined with clear‐to‐send backoff capability from the IEEE802.15.4 radio, typically does not produce measurable impact to WiFi performance and is usually difficult to observe in an RF spectrum analyzer. Each XPoint Wireless Bridge and associated mesh network (typically up to 250 wireless devices) can also be programmed to use a specific Zigbee RF channel to avoid co‐channel interference with other installed 2.4 GHz equipment. Zigbee channels 11‐26, corresponding with 5 MHz‐wide frequency bands from 2.405 GHz to 2.480 GHz may be assigned to specific wireless mesh networks. The wireless communication is secured and encrypted using AES 128‐bit encryption. The network protocol includes “replay” protection, where each wireless message is uniquely encoded such that it cannot be recorded and replayed at a later time. Maximum RF power output is +18 dBm for Zigbee Channels 11‐25, 0 dBm for Channel 26. Output power is typically attenuated 2‐20 dB by LED luminaire housing. Thanks, Jess Williams Sr. Network Engineer, Network Engineering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Helping Students Achieve Excellence through Technology jess-willi...@utc.edu<mailto:jess-willi...@utc.edu> 423-425-2372 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
