- Client
- Financial firm, Midtown Manhattan (name withheld)
- Project
- New office build, full floor, 200+ users
- Timeline
- Three weeks from start to opening day
- Scope
- Cabling, rack and IDF build, Wi-Fi survey, ISP ordering, phones, conference rooms
The situation
A financial firm was opening a new office on a full floor in Midtown Manhattan, with more than 200 people due at their desks on opening day. InterDataLink had three weeks to deliver the entire network, from the cabling in the walls to the internet circuits.
What we built
Manufacturer product photos of the models installed.
Cabling and rack
We ran the cabling for the floor and built the rack and IDF, so one team was responsible for everything from the wall jack to the firewall.
Switching
Four Cisco Catalyst 9300 UPOE switches, stacked so they run and are managed as one unit. UPOE ports supply up to 60 W each, well above the 30.5 W a CW9166I access point draws at most.
Wi-Fi
Ten Cisco CW9166I access points, tri-band Wi-Fi 6E on 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz. We placed them based on a wireless survey of the floor.
Firewall and internet
Two Meraki MX95 firewalls in a warm-spare pair, fed by two 1 Gbit internet circuits from separate carriers. If a circuit or a firewall fails, the other takes over automatically.
Management
Firewalls, switches, and access points are all managed from the Meraki dashboard, so the whole network is visible in one place.
Phones and conference rooms
We also set up the phones and the conference rooms.
Network diagram and equipment
| Equipment | Qty | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Meraki MX95 security appliance | 2 | Firewall, warm-spare pair |
| Internet circuit, 1 Gbit | 2 | Separate carriers, automatic failover |
| LTE connection | 1 | Temporary internet until the circuits were delivered |
| Cisco Catalyst 9300 UPOE switch | 4 | Stacked and managed as one unit; powers the access points |
| Cisco CW9166I access point | 10 | Wi-Fi 6E, placed from the wireless survey |
The hard part: ISP delays
The internet circuits were the one piece outside our control, and carrier delivery ran late. Rather than let the opening date slip, we put the network on an LTE connection until the circuits arrived, then cut over to the two carrier circuits.
The result
The office opened on schedule, three weeks after we started, with 200+ users online, redundant firewalls, and two internet circuits.
