Project: Leadenhall Building “The Cheesegrater” – London

WIFI installation Case Study – Leadenhall Building  -The Cheesegrater

Client: Stadium Wireless / Broadgate | Sector:  Commercial| Duration: 5 Months

Cabling installation for the wireless internet (WIFI ) systems through the 50 floors and 4 Basements of the  Leadenhall Building.

Project Overview – Wifi Cabling

As part of the building of the Leadenhall Building , commonly known as “The Cheesegrater” a large range of maintenance is required throughout the building. Therefore for these maintenance engineers to communicate and document their work a distributed WiFi system was required

Therefore the wireless network was for the coverage of the maintenance engineers and support staff of the building. In addition this involved the cabling having to also being installed on the outside of the building to cover the window cleaning staff

XIRRUS WiFi Installation

In cooperation with Stadium Wireless, NM Cabling undertook the structured cabling installation at this prestigious building in the City of London. Therefore the installation included firstly the fibre optic backbones. These were installed over 50 different floors of the building and terminated into sub cabinets every 3rd floor. Secondly the localised copper cat6 cabling was installed from these cabinets and out to the stairwell and lift lobbies of each of the 50 floors. Lastly the Wi-Fi units were mounted and documented  for the WIFI installation partner

The Wi-Fi system was specified by XIRRUS and a total of 250 hotspot access points were installed. Generally these were internal but did also include numerous external units

Internal and external wireless access points generally both came separate coaxial antenna’s. Thus access to the external skin of the building was required. The building had an external walkway between 2 skins of the building for maintenance access. Thereofre this results in some very exposed moments of data cabling runs

Data Cabling Challenges

Firstly the challenge of the project was the sheer size of the building and having to work over so many floors for the majority of the installation.

Fibre optic cabling had to run from the 3rd Basement to 45 above ground floors and 2 plant rooms which involved, in the worst case scenario, 48 riser doors to access and install through. Due to security limitations only 5 riser keys could be given out. Therefore installing through 50 floors 5 doors at a time presented its own challenges.

Secondly the main communications room was based in the 3rd basement and supplied 4 basement areas. The Basement areas were full of sub compartment rooms and each installation thorough the rooms had to maintain the fire stopping properties.

In addition a combination of scaffold towers, scissor lifts and boom lifts were required to further enhance the complexity of the project. Thus not only using the equipment was complex buy also getting it in and out of the building

Lastly the outside public areas were also covered by the wireless internet. Therefore employees, visitors and staff using the communal garden space could login in. In addition this enabled them  learn about the building and access free internet services

Leadenhall Building  London “The Cheesegrater” wireless internet (WIFI ) systems    – See the full Case Study