Installing wifi in apartment complex

[beachbum]

I've been approached at finding the best way to serve wifi at an apartment complex with several buildings.

Here is an overview of the premisis:

The red lines represent breezeways within the complex, it's an open breezeway, two stories tall with nothing more than some metal stairs in each one.
The office is in the center. The main problem here is that the exterior walls of the buildings consist of steel reinforced concrete.
I was thinking an access point at the office with an antenna, then have a repeater in each breezeway. What do you guys think would be the best approach in this situation?

 

[aaronearles]

Is there a budget in mind yet, or still just planning? Also, is the wireless just available as a free convenience or are customers paying for the service and therefore expect very good coverage and support?

 

[aaronearles]

Also, is there currently copper between any of the buildings or are you relying solely on WDS to distribute the signal to each AP?

 

[beachbum]

There is no copper, to my knowledge, between the buildings, we'd have to rely soley on WDS.

There is not a budget in mind...yet, I was thinking around 5k.

 

[Bobacus]

I really havn't done any large external wifi setups, but I have done a few between buildings.

You might consider putting something like a ubiquiti on the roof of each building to pick the wifi signal up, and then placing an access point in each of the buildings to distribute the signal.