Simba Simbi Affordable Housing, Brooklyn, NY

The Project:

Dunn sought a partner that could build a high quality, property-wide managed WiFi system and have it active when the residences opened in 2023. The project needed to meet NY HPD (New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development) specifications. 

Dojo Networks^® Solution:

Dojo Networks was selected as the managed WiFi provider in June 2022 and developed a plan to serve the property. Dojo coordinated with the property developer from agreement signing all the way to go-live, with regular coordination and planning calls and planned site visits to check progress on the facilities. Dojo made sure the installation of the low voltage met all the Dojo Network specifications. Dojo did predictive heat mapping using Ekahau prior to the build to make sure there would be full coverage of all apartment units. 

A multi-gigabit fiber circuit delivers high-speed internet service to the property from the street. A cellular backup server ensures 100% connection and enables the Dojo engineering team to monitor and support the network 24/7/365. The Dojo team has instantaneous access to the equipment in the MDF via out-of-band access, even in the event of some type of technical issue. There is also a power distribution unit (PDU) with dual power feeds to all equipment, including battery backup power (UPS) and common power. This enables Dojo to remotely reboot any piece of equipment if necessary and will provide power even in the event of a UPS failure. 

The network was designed and built with one main distribution frame (MDF) and several intermediate distribution frame (IDF) closets, each with fully monitored battery backup (UPS).  All IDFs were connected to the MDF with 12 strand single mode fiber home runs. 

A wired RUCKUS H550 wall mount access point was installed in each residence’s living room. Internet service in the property’s 23 common areas is provided by ceiling mount RUCKUS R550 access points. WiFi service is also provided in two outdoor areas via RUCKUS outdoor T350 access points. 

The system is managed and supported with Dojo Networks’ proprietary and industry leading Elemento^® platform. The platform provides residents with the ability to have a virtual router, so they can monitor the devices on their network, check their connection and bandwidth levels, view support tickets, and easily interact with the Dojo support team. Also, property management can easily add and remove residents and to see the overall health of the network and customer satisfaction via their secure Elemento dashboard. 

Once the build was complete, Dojo did a post-install heat map to confirm that all areas that required WiFi coverage had service. 

The DojoNetworks ManagedWiFi+^® system provides the following features: 

• Building-wide roaming 
• Complete building coverage 
• RF coordination and interference mitigation 
• WiFi maximization that allows residents to connect to any WiFi access point in the building in a secure and encrypted VLAN 
• Failover and redundancy should an access point go offline 
• WiFi calling optimization 
• Passpoint to assist WiFi calling 

The Results:

The Simba Simbi managed WiFi network was built within budget and was activated two months ahead of Dunn Development’s schedule. 

Residents now have reliable internet service with base speeds of up to 200/200 Mbps and the ability to upgrade to 500/500 Mbps or 1000/1000 Mbps (Gig). The managed WiFi network installed by Dojo Networks also serves as the foundation for the property’s access control technology, security cameras, and administrative network. 

Onboarding has been frictionless for the residents, support calls have been practically non-existent, and there have been no network issues or events since the building was activated.