N10-009 Question 195
Single answerIP address management (IPAM), Service-level agreement (SLA), Wireless survey/heat mapA company is opening a new floor in its office and has committed in a customer-facing SLA to provide at least 95% wireless coverage in all work areas with no more than 2% packet loss during business hours. Before installing additional access points, the network administrator wants to validate the design and avoid IP conflicts as new wireless devices are added. Which action should the administrator take FIRST to best support both the SLA requirement and efficient deployment?
- A
Perform a wireless site survey and create a heat map of the new floor before finalizing AP placement
- B
Increase the DHCP lease time so wireless clients keep addresses longer and reduce reassignment activity
- C
Reserve static IP addresses in a spreadsheet for all expected wireless clients before deployment
- D
Replace all existing APs with higher-power models to maximize signal reach across the floor
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to perform a wireless survey and build a heat map before finalizing deployment. In real environments, SLA commitments such as minimum coverage percentages and packet-loss thresholds must be validated through proper RF planning rather than guessed through hardware changes. A predictive survey may be used during planning, followed by a post-installation validation survey. Heat maps help visualize signal strength, channel overlap, and coverage gaps across work areas.
IP address management is still relevant in the scenario, but it is secondary to validating wireless design. After the survey confirms AP placement and expected client density, the administrator can use DHCP scopes and IPAM tools to prevent overlapping assignments, track utilization, and document subnets for the new floor. In practice, centralized IPAM is preferred over spreadsheets for avoiding conflicts and maintaining accurate visibility into address allocation.
This aligns with common wireless deployment best practices: survey first, place and tune APs based on measured RF conditions, then use structured DHCP/IPAM processes to support onboarding at scale and maintain compliance with operational targets defined in the SLA.
- A. Correct.
Correct. A wireless site survey and resulting heat map are the best first step when the goal is to meet a coverage- and performance-based SLA. This allows the administrator to identify dead zones, co-channel interference risks, signal overlap, and likely capacity issues before hardware is installed or repositioned. It directly supports validating whether the design can meet the stated 95% coverage and packet-loss targets. Once the wireless design is validated, IP address planning in IPAM or DHCP can be aligned to the expected client load.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. DHCP lease duration can affect address utilization, but it does not validate RF coverage, signal quality, or packet loss. This option addresses a possible IP management tuning task, not the first action needed to determine whether the wireless design can satisfy the SLA.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Using a spreadsheet to track static addresses is not an IPAM best practice for a growing wireless environment with many dynamic clients. Most wireless endpoints should use DHCP, and modern IP address management should be centralized rather than manually tracked. More importantly, this does not address whether the new floor will meet the wireless coverage and performance terms in the SLA.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Simply increasing AP transmit power or replacing all APs with higher-power models is not a sound first step. Excessive power can worsen roaming behavior and increase interference rather than improve service quality. AP placement and channel design should be based on measured survey data and heat maps, not assumptions.