The Athletes Shack

NETW563 Course Project

Keller Graduate School of Management

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Assessment 4 Solution 5 Summary 8 Diagrams 9 References 12

Executive Summary
The client is requesting a wireless solution that they can link all of their 10 stores together and provide iPads for the employees to increase customer service. The need for this has been brought about by a disjointed network with no connectivity to each site. The customer’s requirements are that this will be a wireless technology that will need to be implemented at the ten stores in the areas. This solution will also need to be via a broadband service as well as providing iPads for the employees at the stores. The objective is to be able to provide this expectation to the client and turn this store into a store that would portray to the customers high tech customer service. We will be designing a solution that is a reliable, yet cost effective solution that will also be upgradeable in the future as well. Security of the system will also be kept in mind and we will be suggesting solutions for that for the client in terms of physical and electronic security. The client is also requesting two options for this installation. One option must be a generic/basic solution, and the other solution must be more robust and we must provide the comparative differences in them to the customer.
Our design that we will recommend will be a structured solution that addresses all of these issues and not having any constraints on the client’s original request. The best solution that will be implemented will be the solution that fits the customer’s needs as well as their budget. During this project we will provide status reports on a daily basis as well as a final report after the project has been implemented.
The recommendation for this will be a wireless solution that also incorporates a wireless broadband connection to the internet.

Assessment
The vision for the Athletes Shack is to have a completely connected network between its stores to promote better customer service. They have seen a potential decline in sales that they feel is attributed towards the lack of customer service that can be provided due to not having a fully connected network/company. The Athletes Shack also feels that they can also grow in revenue with potential sales that are being missed now due to the lack of technology that they have and there is that ”there is also evidence that mobile computing is reducing infrastructure and operational costs” (Nicolle, 2004).
Currently, there are currently 10 stores that are not connected to each other in any form. Each store has its own database of clients, as well as no connection to each other store. If merchandise stock for example would need to be verified they must call to another store, which in turn slows down the process for assistance of the customer. By being able to” wirelessly submitting work orders, customer forms and credit card payments, millions are saved each year on paper and fuel costs” (CTIA 2015). This project will enable the client to be able to have every store online and be able to connect with any other store instantly as well as allow customers to be able to connect to the network. This wireless network installation that is being designed for “must now routinely host a wide range of mobile devices including smartphones, tablet computers, and e-readers” (Vincent, 2014).
The short coming of the current network is that the network is there is no connection to each location thereby creating a situation where no store can electronically communicate with each other. The Athletes Shack would like a wireless broadband solution installed at their locations. Installing a wireless broadband service as well as a wireless LAN (WLAN) will enable a quicker installation and no unsightly wires installed either. Another requirement for the Athletes Shack is they want their staff to use Apple iPads for customer service.
Enabling their employees to be mobile in the store will greatly enhance and make their staff very flexible in terms of customer service. By having an employee be able to be mobile, they will be able to save time making phone calls to verify stock and also expected delivery dates will also potentially also decrease customers being upset about having to wait for an answer, where this will make the responses almost immediate. Not having these stores connected has impact to the sales of the company, employees becoming frustrated, as well as the obvious impact to the customer. Assistance for this deployment/installation will be provided for the Athletes Shack as there is no in house IT technician that has the skills to do so.
During the implementation of this solution we will involve the local IT representative of the Athletes Shack as that employee will be hired by the time this project starts, to provide a knowledge transfer of this system and how it operates to be able to support this solution in the future. We also recommend that the employee that does support this has an alternate as well trained to minimize any delay in resolving issues or downtime.
In order to make this a successful project for the Athletes Shack we will need to perform a site survey. The site survey would include a blueprint of the building and calculating how many access points would be required for each building. We will need to perform a site survey for each location as “the need and complexity of a wireless site survey will vary depending on the facility” (Geier, 2008). The survey will assist us in making sure that the “access points (AP) are in the most optimal locations and that other radio emitters, which can cause interference, are kept to a minimum” (Strom 2006). This survey would also include an assessment of the existing wiring, which in this case is none since the Athletes Shack has been very low budget over the years.
In order to achieve these goals for the Athletes Shack we will take this analysis and examine the findings and construct a solution that will match their needs as well as their budget.
Solution
To achieve the Athletes Shack’s vision of a wireless network we have researched vendors and are proposing two different solutions. These solutions are a wireless solution that will incorporate the Apple iPad’s and a wireless network that can be managed remotely. These solutions also will be able to handle multiple SSID’s as well to provide the customers the ability to have wireless access as well while they are in the store.
The first step that we must do is to setup a contract with the local wireless vendor for the wireless broadband network cards that will provide internet access for our solution. The vendor we chose is Verizon wireless, with the model of wireless broadband being the MiFi 6620L. This unit is a 4G LTE Mobile hotspot that can connect up to 15 devices at once, but we will not need that capacity per store.
The cost of each of these units will cost $50.00 for the unit itself, so purchasing 10 of these will be a total of $500.00 in wireless hot spots for Verizon. The total monthly charges for access will be $50 a month for a 2-year contract. The total for ten stores for 2 years would be $12000 for access fees. To connect these hot spots to our solutions we will use a USB Female to USB Female adaptor at the cost of $7 each for a total of $70. This will enable the hotspot to be connected to a local switch (each cost is approximately $150, for a total of $1500). We can then proceed to run CAT5E wiring to each of the four access points in each store. The four access points per store will create plenty of wireless overlap so there are no dead zones or weak spots in the retail stores.
Each of these solutions will be able to provide multiple SSID’s to be broadcasted. We will name one network TAS-Employee and TAS-Guest. The TAS-Employee will be a network that is a different subnet that will be connected to all of the other stores and primary data center/home office. The TAS-Employee SSID will be disabled, but “turning off SSID broadcast can only protect your network against someone finding it unintentionally” (Ciampa, 2006). The other network, TAS-Guest will be on a separate VLAN and have all of the traffic routed directly to the internet so that customers can have Wi-Fi access when they are in the store if they prefer.
The iPads will be able to be used as a cashier solution as well as a mobile solution in the store so that employees can look up inventory, expand upon product information, check shipment dates, or even place orders for inventory or a custom order. The Athletes Shack is looking to use the iPads as a cash register as well as a “few retailers are already using iOS devices in stores to take payments in store” (Yates, 2103). Because of the mobility of these tablets we are suggesting that a lockable cabinet be installed so that these tablets can be locked up at night as well as charged overnight so they are ready for business the next day.
The first solution we will be investigating will be the D-Link DAP-2660 wireless access points. These WAP’s provide a 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless solution for the Athletes Shack and its customers. The Wi-Fi rated speed is 300Mbps @ 2.4GHz 867Mbps @ 5GHz.Having a wide variety of wireless bands is a very nice addition as you will be able to cater to any band of wireless that is being used. These controllers also support “both Personal and Enterprise versions of WPA and WPA2 (802.11i), with support for RADIUS server backend and a built-in internal RADIUS server allowing users to create their accounts within the device itself” (D-Link 2015). The integration of these units will also be easy as they also support Power over Ethernet, which our switches will provide so we will be able to install these access points in locations of the stores where there are currently no existing wiring. D-Link also had RF Management integrated into these units to avoid RF interference and optimizes the performance of the access points. The D-Link WAP’s also do not require a dedicated controller to manage all of these access points. There is software that can be downloaded to manage these which reduces the costs. Finally there is a limited lifetime warranty on all of these units and this shows how reliable of a unit these access points are and how rugged they are. This solution would cost approximately $82,600 for hardware (see quote attached)
The next solution is the Cisco MR34 cloud managed 11 AC access point. These WAP’s provide a One 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n, one 5 GHz 802.11a/n/ac, and one dedicated for dual-band WIPS & spectrum analysis solution for the Athletes Shack and its customers. The Wi-Fi is rated at a speed up to 1.75 Gbit/s, with these variety of wireless bands is a very nice addition as you will be able to cater to any band of wireless that is being used. These controllers also support both Personal and Enterprise versions of WEP, WPA, WPA2-PSK, WPA2-Enterprise with 802.1X, TKIP and AES encryption with support for RADIUS server as well. The integration of these units will also be easy as they also support. Power over Ethernet, which as stated previously our switches will provide so we will be able to install these access points in locations of the stores where there are currently no existing wiring. Cisco also integrates the RF Management integrated into these units to avoid RF interference and optimizes the performance of the access points. The Cisco access points do require a controller though to manage all of these access points, which in turn increase the costs of the solution though. A very nice feature of the Cisco unit is that the “new features, bug fixes, and enhancements are delivered seamlessly over the web, meaning no manual software updates to download or missing security patches to worry about’ (Cisco, 2015). This is definitely more convenient, but it would need to be determined at the added cost if this is a necessity. These units also have a limited lifetime warranty. This solution would cost approximately $137,000 for hardware (see quote attached).
Summary
Our recommendation for the solution for the Athletes Shack would be to configure and install the D-Link solution for their wireless solution. We feel as though for their company they are not a large retail chain so every penny counts. The D-Link solution is almost 40% less in expenses as well as less hardware to maintain since there is no controller like the Cisco solution. After careful analysis of the situation that the Athletes Shack has presented to us we are confident that we have met their vision and needs for their demand for a wireless solution that will increase customer service and potentially sales. Our solutions that we presented would both be acceptable, but they decided to choose the less expensive solution as they are a smaller company and funding is tight for projects. By going with the less expensive solution this will leave money in the budget for possibly a future upgrade, or for expanding the WLAN in the future if they expand and open more stores.
In order to have the wireless running at its highest efficiency in the future we recommend on a consistent basis performing firmware updates, as well as software updates for the pc that manages the wireless solution. If there are any building upgrades or structural changes made as well we recommend performing site surveys with a wireless analyzer so that there can be an assessment if any of the wireless coverage has been affected.

Diagrams
Proposed network solution | | Network device naming convention | | | | | | | Mobile Hotspots | Switches | | Wireless Access Points (WAP) | Tablets | MHS1 through MHS10 | TAS-S1 through TAS-S10 | | WAP1 - WAP 40 | TAS-T1 through TAS-T100 |

(Yorio, 2015)
(Yorio)

References