Magic Madhouse
Dense racking, a growing pick operation, and handheld scanners that had to hold their connection down every aisle.
The challenge
A warehouse serving an online retail operation has a specific and unforgiving Wi-Fi requirement: handheld scanners must stay connected everywhere a picker goes, all the time. Unlike a laptop, a scanner that drops its session interrupts a task, and the cost is measured in picking throughput rather than user irritation.
The requirement was reliable coverage for scanners and voice devices across a densely racked warehouse, alongside separate networks for staff and guests.
What that demands of a design
Warehouse racking is the most under-appreciated variable in commercial Wi-Fi. Loaded racking attenuates far more than empty racking, so a network surveyed and commissioned during a quiet period can degrade badly as stock levels rise — with nothing having changed except the inventory. Narrow aisles behave differently again: signal travels reasonably well along an aisle and very poorly across the racking between aisles, which means coverage has to be designed aisle by aisle rather than as a blanket over the floorplate.
Handheld scanners and voice devices are also less tolerant than laptops in two ways. They need a higher signal level to work reliably, and they need deliberately designed overlap between access points so they can hand over cleanly while moving. Without that overlap and the right thresholds, a device clings to a distant access point until the session fails — which the picker experiences as "the Wi-Fi drops at the end of the aisle", and which adding more access points will not fix on its own.
More on why racking affects 5 GHz so heavily, and on roaming for scanners.
Our approach
- Survey with the racking loaded, measuring down the aisles rather than across the open floor
- Design to the signal threshold the scanner fleet needs, not the threshold a laptop would accept
- Design roaming overlap deliberately along the routes pickers actually travel
- Plan mounting positions and heights that work with the racking layout — and can be reached safely for maintenance
- Separate scanner, staff and guest traffic with policy set at design stage
- Validate on completion and re-check as the operation grows
Different building, same question.
If your site has a coverage or capacity problem, the first step is measuring it. Tell us about the building and we'll tell you which survey answers it.