Free tool
Office Network Setup Estimator
Work out what an office network actually needs: switch ports, access points, cable metres, patch panels, rack space and the power to run it.
Describe the office and the tool works out the materials list: how many switch ports, how many access points, roughly how much cable, the patch panels to land it on and the rack space to hold it. Useful for budgeting before anyone measures, and for checking a quote you have already been given.
Materials list
| Item | Quantity | Why this number |
|---|
How the cable length is estimated
Cable is the line people get wrong most often, because a floor plan makes everything look closer than it is. A run does not go in a straight line. It leaves the outlet, climbs to the ceiling or drops to the floor void, follows the tray or the trunking around the walls, finds the riser, travels to the rack and then loops into the patch panel. The estimate assumes an average run that grows with the floor area and adds a vertical penalty for every floor away from the rack, plus ten percent waste for mistakes and service loops.
It then converts to 305 metre boxes, because that is how the cable is sold and you cannot buy two thirds of a box. Treat the result as a purchasing figure, not a survey. One awkward riser or a long reception run can move it noticeably, and the ninety metre limit for copper has to be checked per run on a real plan, not on an average.
Access point count
Two things set the number of access points, and the larger of the two wins. The first is area, because radio does not reach through a building as far as a brochure suggests, especially through concrete and plasterboard with foil backing. The second is device density, since a single access point shared by forty phones and laptops will be slow even when the signal bar is full. Full coverage in a typical office works out near one access point per 130 square metres, and dense use brings that closer to 90.
Position matters as much as count. Three access points placed well beat five placed badly, and the usual mistake is putting them in corridors because the cable was easy to run there rather than in the rooms where people sit.
Switch ports and spare capacity
Ports are sized against every device that plugs in, not just the computers, which is why phones, printers, cameras, access points and the uplinks all count. The figure is then rounded up to real switch sizes, because switches come in 8, 16, 24 and 48 ports and nothing in between. Leaving room to grow adds a quarter on top. That spare capacity is the cheapest thing in the whole project at purchase time and the most expensive to add later, once the rack is full and the panels are terminated.