Wireless Network Upgrade for a Schneider Electric Logistics Center

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Schneider Electric is a world’s expert in digital solutions for energy management and automation.

The history of Schneider Electric in Eastern Europe dates back more than a century. The company makes a significant contribution into development of the European economy and industry, and provides working efficiency and uninterrupted power supply of the main industrial, cultural, administrative and infrastructure facilities.

Challenge

Schneider Electric is one of the largest companies in its industry; it has its own manufacturing plants, logistics centers, warehouses and offices. To provide business continuity and its top performance the advanced technologies and standards united with a global concept of Industrial Internet of Things are introduced in Schneider Electric on a scheduled basis.

Elements of Industrial IoT allow gradually transforming business processes to add greater automation and using benefits of Smart Manufacturing, including Smart Warehousing and Connected Office functions. One of key components integral to this complex set of solutions is a reliable and high-performance infrastructure of a wireless data communication network.

Strict Requirements

Corporate standards of a Wi-Fi network stated by the Schneider Electric global IT team for the company’s representative offices in various regions of the world set strict requirements to the types of equipment in use, the quality and parameters of radio coverage depending on the type of areas the premises of a logistics center are divided into.

Several years ago, Schneider Electric started scheduled centralization and introduction of a global corporate standard of Wi-Fi networks at their facilities in Eastern European countries, choosing the systems integrator of LWCOM as a contractor for some of these works.

Solution

Works on upgrade of wireless networks in the logistics center located in Lobnya were performed by the LWCOM radio engineering team in partnership with IT specialists of the customer and consisted of the following stages:

The first stage of the works included predictive planning of the coverage based on facility layouts provided by the customer. While performing the works the following factors were considered: the height of premises, materials and fill rate of stacks, main typical routes logistics machines and personnel move along

The second stage included works directly at the facility. Using a software and hardware measuring system and special-purpose tooling that allowed installing access points and antennas at the height of more than 10 m, a radio frequency inspection was performed. A set of measurements made with test equipment allowed confirming the accuracy of a theoretical planning model and making the required changes in positioning of some access points and antennas

The next stage included assembling of equipment, after which the customer’s specialists joined the project to perform fine-tuning as per the corporate standards and recommendations of the LWCOM team

In the final part of the works the final post-project radio inspection of the Wi-Fi network was performed to control the quality of access points assembling and to check the correspondence of radio coverage parameters to the customer’s requirements. Also, fine-tuning of settings was performed together with Schneider Electric representatives

Project Equipment

Cisco access points
Cisco wireless network controllers

Result

Cooperation between LWCOM engineers and Schneider Electric specialists resulted in establishment of a resilient infrastructure of a wireless network for the logistics center that corresponds to the required coverage parameters set with the specified company standards.

About customer

Industry:

Manufacturing

Schneider Electric is a world’s expert in digital solutions for energy management and automation.