Floorplan Manager

What is FPM and what does it do?

Floorplan Manager (FPM) facilitates the design, organization, and tracking of floors and layouts in a building. The manual drag-and-drop and Auto Locate feature enables users to create a detailed floorplan quickly without any hassle.

FPM in HPE Aruba Networking Central visualizes network topology and RF coverage on-site maps. It enables administrators to perform the following:

  • Upload and manage floorplans

  • Place and plan APs (predictive or deployed)

  • View live telemetry overlays (signal, utilization, clients, etc.)

  • Analyze roaming, channel overlap, and IoT metrics

Essentially, it is the visual workspace for wireless design, monitoring, and optimization.

What user roles permission is required to access Floorplan Manager?

Users with an administrator role have access to all menu options as well as the monitoring and configuration pages. Admins can view, create, edit, update, and delete floors, buildings, devices, walls, and zones.

At what context is Floorplan Manager available in HPE Aruba Networking Central?

The Floorplan Manager can be accessed from a site context or an access point context.

Figure 1: Floorplan Manager—Site Context

Can I move floors between buildings?

Yes, you can.

What device types are supported in Floorplan Manager in HPE Aruba Networking Central?

As of now only, Access Points (APs) are supported. Gateways and Switches are not yet supported.

What are the supported floorplan management image formats?

You can create a floorplan by uploading the floor image file from your local system and assigning it to an existing or a new building. The supported image formats to create a floorplan are- BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG, PDF, PNG, and SVG.

Can I upload a floorplan image file of any size?

While creating a floor, you must only use a maximum of 10 MB image file. The floor creation fails if you use files larger than 10 MB.

Can I migrate floorplan maps from Classic Central to HPE Aruba Networking Central?

Yes, available at Site and Global scopes.

Does Floorplan Manager support migrating floorplans from third-party applications?

Yes, you can migrate floorplans from third-party applications such as Airwave, Ekhau, and Hamina.

Can I draw walls on floorplan and define material and attenuation?

Yes, custom walls and attenuation are supported. This is available on the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page under Menu icon.

Can I change the floor height to feet from meters?

Yes, you can change the floor height to feet from meters. You must change the unit at the user level in HPE GreenLake.

What is the maximum number of floors supported per building?

The maximum number of floors that can be created is 350 per building.

What is the maximum floor size supported?

The maximum supported floor length is 10 kilometers.

Can I add switches to the floor plan?

No, you cannot add switches. As of now, only Access Points (APs) can be added.

Why do not I see the Actions button on my Floorplan Manager site?

Only users with administrator rights can see and use the Actions button.

Can I move buildings from one location to another?

Yes, you can move buildings across locations.

Is site migration possible from Classic Central?

Yes, you can migrate sites from Classic Central.

What is Auto Locate and Open Locate?

The Auto Locate feature is used to automate the placement of Access Points (APs) using the Fine Time Measurement (FTM) protocol. The Open Locate feature enables and provides highly accurate Location Coordination Information (LCI) using the Wi-Fi network.

Are Auto Locate and Open Locate available for all device types?

Auto Locate and Open Locate are wireless features currently available only for specific APs running ArubaOS 10.5.0.0 or later versions.

  • Auto Locate (FRM)—Only available for 500 Series and 600 Series APs.

  • Open Locate (6 GHz)—Supports 6 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum, available only on 600 Series APs (AP-615, AP-605H, and AP-605R). These AP platforms can utilize Open Locate even if the 80 MHz channel bandwidth is not enabled on their 5 GHz radio.

Does the roaming statistics widget also help classify sticky clients?

Yes, the goal is to classify sticky clients as well.

Does auto placement require the same AP model?

Yes, for now only one AP model is supported; we are extending this to a combination of AP models.

Does the heatmap consider wall types, windows for calculation?

Yes, AP model, Tx power, environmental attenuation, and wall mount height is considered to predict heatmap.

Is there Ekahau support for Floorplan Manager?

Yes, Ekahau import is already supported.

Do I need to define the wall and all other attenuation-causing obstructions, or can the tool get this information directly from the uploaded floorplan before identifying the AP placement?

When importing for Ekahau, Airwave, or Hamina the attenuation details are retrieved from the imported file.

What is heatmap and how does it help customers?

Heatmaps are graphical representations of data that utilize color-coded systems. The color varies per the intensity of the signal strength of the radios. Heatmap enables users to visualize the volume of locations and events within a dataset that helps them to analyze space utilization, identify high-traffic areas, and understand movement patterns and behavior.

Can I draw walls and define material and density? Can I define the orientation of access points (APs) and enable floor-to-floor detection in a predictive model for a multi-floor building?

Yes, you can draw walls with custom material and attenuation. For more information, Walls.