How to Choose an Access Point for a 100-Room Hotel

High-efficiency wireless standard with OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and BSS-coloring for dense environments.

Access Point - the wireless radio that broadcasts Wi-Fi and bridges to the wired LAN.

Next-gen standard with 320 MHz channels, MLO, and 4K-QAM. Adoption depends on 6 GHz regulatory approval.

A feature that nudges dual-band clients toward the less congested 5 GHz or 6 GHz radio.

Bill of Quantities - itemised list of products, labour, and materials for a deployment.

Basic Service Set - a single AP's radio broadcast domain.

Authentication landing page shown on first connection to a WiFi network.

Twisted-pair cabling supporting 1 Gbps up to 100 m and 10 Gbps up to 55 m.

Enhanced twisted-pair cabling supporting 10GBASE-T up to 100 m with better shielding.

Legacy twisted-pair standard supporting 1 Gbps up to 100 m. Rarely specified in new builds.

The MHz slice of spectrum a radio uses - 20 / 40 / 80 / 160 / 320 MHz. Wider = faster but more interference.

Central device or cloud service that configures and monitors a fleet of APs and switches.

Protocol used by ISPs and controllers for remote-managing customer-premises equipment.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - hands out IP addresses automatically.

Demilitarised Zone - network segment isolating public-facing services from internal LAN.

Domain Name System - maps human-readable names to IP addresses.

Digital Video Recorder - records analogue camera feeds (HDCVI/TVI/AHD).

Extensible Authentication Protocol - enterprise WiFi login framework used with 802.1X / RADIUS.

Automatic switchover to a secondary link or device when the primary fails.

Network device enforcing allow/deny rules based on IP, port, protocol, and often application layer.

Single-mode or multi-mode fibre connection between a switch and the core, used above 100 m or for 10 G+.

Wi-Fi environments with >1 device per square metre of coverage - classrooms, auditoria, sports venues.

Internet of Things - non-user devices on the network: cameras, sensors, locks, thermostats.

Ingress Protection rating - dust-tight and submersible up to 1 m. Minimum for outdoor APs.

Intrusion Prevention System - inspects traffic and blocks suspicious patterns in real-time.

Ethernet frames larger than 1500 bytes, used to reduce overhead in storage and SAN traffic.

Radio resource management - lets clients discover neighbouring APs for smoother roaming.

Link Aggregation Control Protocol - bonds multiple switch ports for throughput or failover.

Device-identity login via the Ethernet hardware address. Convenient; easily spoofed without 802.1X.

Mobile Device Management - policy control for tablets and handheld scanners.

Wireless backhaul between APs that don't have a wired uplink. Convenient but halves throughput per hop.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output - multiple antenna streams for higher throughput.

Multi-Link Operation (Wi-Fi 7) - simultaneous use of two bands for a single client session.

Multi-User MIMO - serves several devices simultaneously rather than one at a time.

Network Address Translation - rewrites source/dest IPs so many internal hosts share one public IP.

Network Video Recorder - records IP camera feeds to disk for retention.

Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access - Wi-Fi 6 technique for efficiently serving many small packets.

TP-Link's SDN platform for unified management of APs, switches, routers, and firewalls.

Open camera-industry standard for IP surveillance interoperability across brands.

Power-over-Ethernet classes delivering 15.4 W / 30 W / 60-100 W respectively.

Pan / Tilt / Zoom - motorised surveillance cameras that can slew and zoom under operator control.

Quality of Service - traffic prioritisation for voice, video, or critical applications.

Fast BSS transition - seamless AP-to-AP roaming without re-authentication.

Authentication protocol commonly paired with 802.1X / EAP for enterprise WiFi login.

Duplicate hardware paths so a single failure doesn't drop service.

Ruijie's cloud-first SMB networking line - APs, switches, and gateways.

Radio Frequency - the physical-layer domain Wi-Fi operates in (2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz).

A client seamlessly switching from one AP to a neighbouring one as it moves.

Layer-3 device that forwards packets between networks and usually performs NAT.

The minimum signal level a radio can usefully decode - typically -85 to -95 dBm.

Software-Defined WAN - policy-driven branch connectivity over multiple transports (MPLS, broadband, 4G).

Pluggable transceivers for 1 G / 10 G fibre or copper uplinks.

On-site RF and cabling walkthrough that precedes network design - predictive, passive, or active.

Service Set Identifier - the network name broadcast by an AP.

Spanning Tree Protocol - prevents bridge loops in Ethernet networks.

Layer-2 device that forwards Ethernet frames based on MAC addresses.

Standard protocol for sending log messages from network devices to a central collector.

A switch port that carries multiple VLANs across a single link.

Uninterruptible Power Supply - battery backup keeping network gear alive through power blips.

Unified Threat Management - firewall bundled with IPS, anti-malware, content filtering, VPN.

BSS transition management - APs can steer clients to better radios.

Virtual LAN - logically segmented network over shared infrastructure.

Virtual Private Network - encrypted tunnel connecting remote users or branches to a network.

Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol - two routers share a virtual IP for failover.

Current WiFi encryption standard replacing WPA2. Offers SAE handshake and stronger forward secrecy.