Welch Allyn Network Installation Best Practices Overview - Installation Guide - Manual (Page 10)

6 Best practices Welch Allyn Network installation
General network settings and configurations
The following best practices should be followed to maintain a robust system suited for
medical patient monitoring.
Best practice Affected types Without best practice
Bandwidth 1 7% Proportional Bandwidth allocation for APs and
Welch Allyn virtual APs/Packet-Shaping
Wireless Increased probability of dropped patient data
packets on busy wireless networks.
Controller redundancy Wireless controller hardware should include
controller redundancy, either one to one or one to many (1:1 or N:1) Wireless Failure of a non-redundant controller would cause
the entire system to fail.
Critical IT support The customer shall provide 24/7, mission-critical
support for their network Wireless and
wired Possible extended downtime if network support
cannot be reached.
DFS DFS channels should not be used with life-critical medical
devices Wireless Unexpected network outages.
DHCP Information
•
Primary DHCP Server = Primary server IP address
• Secondary DHCP Server = Secondary server IP address
Wireless Loss of connection and data.
Jitter Packet-to-Packet jitter shall be
 400ms
Wireless and
wired Dropped packets, data loss and dropped
connections.
Labeling Welch Allyn VLAN ports should be clearly marked on the
physical switches Wireless and
wired Harder to debug system issues. Mixing of IT and
patient data could result in loss of data due to
broadcast storms.
Network latency Round-trip peak network latency between a server
and its patient monitor
800ms
Wireless and
wired Dropped packets and data loss.
Packet transport Packets should be passed through switches and
routers in cut-through mode, or hardware based switching, not store-
and-forward-only mode (applicable to older switches/hubs) Wired Dropped packets and data loss.
Power redundancy All network equipment used for patient
monitoring should have a continuous power supply and emergency
power Wireless and
wired Data loss and downtime due to power outages.
SNMP read-only access Welch Allyn servers shall have SNMP
read-only access to wireless controllers to log performance data and
generate alerts Wireless and
wired Limited ability to proactively respond to system
issues. Debugging by Welch Allyn Remote
Technical may not be possible. Extended
troubleshooting times.
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) STP should not run on the Welch
Allyn segment of the network. Preferably, use resilient links. Wireless and
wired Dropped connections.
SSID/Radio settings
•
Radio Beacon Interval set to =100 msec
• DTIM set to 10
• Enable short preamble
• Disable channel 165
Wireless Loss of connection and data, patient monitor will
not connect.
VoIP traffic Limit VoIP traffic on 802.11a to no more than three open
connections per AP Wireless Having more than three connections per AP has the
potential to increase patient data loss.
Wired connection Interconnects between all switches and all
WLAN controllers with gigabit Ethernet Wired With only 100Mbs connections dropped packets
and data loss can occur.
1. The 7% bandwidth allocation will support up to 20 connected Welch Allyn patient monitors per AP. If no Welch Allyn patient monitors are associated with the
AP the bandwidth is free to be used by other devices.