Step 1: Obtain electronic copies of your floorplans (or outdoor site plans)

Files will be accepted for review in any of the following formats:

• AutoCAD 2004 .dwg (our preferred file format)
• Other AutoCAD .dwg file format
• Microsoft Visio
• Adobe Acrobat PDF
• Scanned or copied image files: .jpg, .png, .bmp, .tiff
• Microsoft PowerPoint

WHAT TO DO IF NO AUTOCAD FILES ARE AVAILABLE

Be sure that the files contain a visual scale reference (i.e. a dimension draw on the floorplan indicating the distance between two points). We can NOT determine the scale when a drawing simply says something like "1/8 inch = 1 foot". The concept of "1/8 inch" conveys no meaning when the electronic drawing is viewed on the computer screen. A valid scale reference would be any distance marking included in the drawing, your measurement of the long dimension of a room or hallway, or a confirmation that the site has standard 3'-0" door openings. This also applies to AutoCAD drawing files.

EXAMPLES OF VALID SCALE REFERENCES

We will contact you if we have any questions or concerns about the correct scaling for your drawings.

For outdoor design projects you should provide a site plan in any of the above formats and you must also provide the exact street address with the nearest cross street.

Step 2: Obtain a Submission System Userid and Password From Connect802

Call Connect802 at (925) 552-0802 and tell the receptionist what state you're calling from. They'll put you in touch with your Regional Sales Representative who will give you a login userid and password to access the Submission System.

Step 3: Go On-Line and Submit Your Files

As you fill in the information fields on the Submission Form, here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Project Name: Create a meaningful, brief project name that's easy for you to remember. If you come back at a later time to submit additional files or information for the same project you'll want to use the same name.

Project Description: Let our RF engineering team understand, in general terms, what this project entails. You might say something like "This wireless network will be used in our main office to support people who access our database server." The purpose for the Project Description is to give the RF engineer a sense of what you're planning on doing with the network so they'll be able to best develop a set of project specifications.

Project Scope: Indicate the number of separate buildings that are part of the project. You might enter, "3 buildings surrounding a central courtyard." For an outdoor project, indicate the coverage area. For example, "Loading dock and truck yard behind Building 3." The Project Scope field lets our RF engineers confirm that you've submitted all the drawing files necessary to start the project. They'll be looking to find a drawing that presents each building or area you specify as part of the Project Scope

Coverage Area Count: Indicate the total number of separate building floors that will be included in the project. If, for example, you're planning on providing coverage to 2 floors in Building #1 and only the Main Floor in Building #2 you would indicate "3 Floors". The Coverage Area Count lets our RF engineers confirm that they can identify each required floor in the drawing files you submit.

Action Requested: For a new project, where you're interested in having Connect802 provide you with a price quote, simply leave the default, "This is the FIRST upload for a new project. Please provide a price quote." Pull down the menu to see where you would submit additional files or other information when you have previously submitted a "FIRST upload."

File # and Description: For each file that you browse to for upload, be sure to fill in the Description field with an appropriate description if the file name is potentially unclear. For example, it's not obvious that "A0107 New Building.dwg" is the drawing for Floor 1 of Building 7.

IMPORTANT: If you have an entire AutoCAD workspace directory that you're uploading, ZIP the directory and upload it as a single file (maximum size 20 MB). In this case, it's very important that you indicate in the Description which file is the "base" drawing (the drawing that will pull in any AutoCAD X-Ref's.)

Use the Description field to tell us anything that we need to know about the specific file. For example, if your AutoCAD workspace is larger than 20 MB and you create two ZIP files to upload it be sure to tell us that both files should get unzipped into the same target directory.

Environment: Check the boxes that apply. If there are other characteristics of the environment that you feel we should know about, use the Additional Comments field at the bottom of the form to let us know.

Special Features: Check the boxes that apply. The Special Features serve as notice to our RF engineers that they're going to have to locate the features in the drawing files. If there are any other aspects of the drawing files that are not obvious, use the Additional Comments field at the bottom of the form to let us know.

Wireless Standards: Check all that apply. Your final design will be based on the standard that is the most restrictive. For example, access point placement based on 802.11a requirements will be more than sufficient for 802.11b/g coverage. This is because an 802.11b/g 2.4 GHz transmission is able to penetrate further through obstructions than 802.11a at the higher 5 GHz frequency. If you check both 802.11b/g and 802.11a the design will be based on 802.11a and it will work properly for your 802.11b/g requirements as well.

If you want separate designs for separate Wireless Standards you should tell us what you want in the Additional Comments section. You might say, "Provide a design for 802.11a/b/g and a separate design for 802.11n." Note that there is an additional cost associated with developing separate designs for multiple standards. Contact your Connect802 sales representative if you have questions.

Wireless Application Support: The Connect802 RF engineers need to have a sense of the capacity, throughput, latency, and security requirements that go into your design. Identifying what types of user applications will be running over the wireless network will help us understand what these requirements will be in terms of data rates, aggregate throughput, and the RF requirements to meet these specifications.

Coverage Area: If some parts of building floors are to be excluded from the design it's very important that you indicate clearly where the required coverage areas will be (or which areas will be excluded). Otherwise we'll assume that 100% of the floor area requires coverage with the following assumed exceptions: Inside elevator cars, in mechanical and electrical rooms, in janitorial storage rooms or closets smaller than 4' X 4', and in bathrooms. If you need coverage in the areas we normally assume to be exceptions, please tell us in the Additional Comments section at the bottom of the form.

You may want to copy-and-paste an image of your floorplan into a PowerPoint slide and use the PowerPoint Line Tool or Shape Tool to denote coverage areas. You may choose to print your floorplan, mark it up by hand, and include a scanned image file of your manual markup. The Connect802 engineers will be happy to create a PowerPoint document containing images of your floorplans for you to mark up and return. This is a no-cost service. You would then annotate the PowerPoint and return it to us with Action Requested being "These are additional files to accompany an existing project." If you would like Connect802 to create a PowerPoint document with your floorplan images in it please tell us so in the Additional Comments section.

RF Signal Coverage: The Connect802 RF engineering team will establish (and confirm with you) the coverage specifications for your project based on a review of your requirements and your floorplans (or outdoor area site plans). If you have specific RF requirements that must be met, please indicate them in the RF Signal Coverage field.

Equipment Requirements: If you're purchasing your Wi-Fi wireless network equipment from Connect802 then this field can be left at its default value. If you're using Connect802 solely as your RF design and consulting partner and you're providing the equipment for the project then specify the model numbers and basic specifications for the equipment.

On-Site Services Requested: Please refer to the On-Site Consulting Services page for a complete description of each of the listed services. Check the On-Site Services that you're requesting. If you have any questions regarding which on-site services are recommended for your project, please contact your Connect802 sales representative. You may also choose to simply leave these choices unchecked and indicated in the Additional Comments field, "Please contact me regarding On-Site Services"

Site Location: If you are going to use on-site services we need to know the city and state where the site is located. This is so our internal scheduling people know how to best allocate the Connect802 RF engineering resources in the field.

Additional Comments: Include anything else that's important and be sure to indicate here if there is a critical due date for the project (assuming you move forward with the project after receiving the price quotation).

You're Ready To Submit Your Files: Click the Send button once and the BE PATIENT... the system verifies the upload while it's in progress so the upload time may be slightly longer than you would get with an FTP upload. You will be presented with a "Thank You For Your Submission" page when the upload completes successfully and you will receive a confirmation email within 30 minutes (or less, depending on where you are in the country and how busy our respective email servers are).

If you have any doubt about whether or not your upload was successful, please don't hesitate to call your Connect802 sales representative immediately.