Wireless Site survey by certified engineers | Cabling Point

Concept of Wireless Site Surveys and Heat mapping

Whether it is an office environment warehouse setup or a student campus , Wi-Fi speed and reliability is a critical factor for any wireless network. It is not uncommon to hear Wi-Fi users  complaining about “slow Wi-Fi " or " WiFi disconnects". This “slowness" & “disconnection" can happen due to a number of reasons . To find out the root cause of these issues you needs to do a Wireless site survey. Both active  and passive wireless site surveys are generally performed .

WiFi signals operate in two radio frequency (RF) bands  . Those are 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz frequency band. Wireless site survey needs to be done on both frequency bands to troubleshoot  wireless problems . Wireless RF site surveys are also done after installing a new wireless network to validate the predictive Wi-Fi design. Optimum wireless network needs good Wi-Fi signals in the areas where the wireless network is used . Optimum Wi-Fi coverage is affected by not having sufficient wireless access points installed as well as due to wireless signal attenuation.

Our Wireless RF network designers are Ekahau Certified Survey Engineers (ECSE). Ekahau is the well known Wireless site survey software in the industry. ECSE certified engineers receive hands on instructor led training for the ECSE certifications. Our Wi-Fi engineers are well experienced in performing Wi-Fi site surveys , reporting and presenting results to customers . 

Objectives of a Wireless Site Survey

When troubleshooting an existing wireless networks or when installing a new WiFi network, wireless site surveys (also called RF site surveys or WiFi site surveys) are done . In the process of performing the RF site survey WiFi signal levels are captured at many locations in the facility to understand the following :

• WIFI signal strength
• WIFI interference
• Wireless signal attenuation
• Signal to noise ratio (SNR)
• Co channel interference (CCI)
• Wireless network coverage holes (Dead spots)
•  

Site surveys generate colored maps denoting different colors for different WiFi signal levels. This is commonly referred as “Heat Maps" . Wireless site surveys need to be done by a knowledgeable certified professional using professional grade RF site survey software .

Some of the use cases for the RF site surveys are :
→ To validate predictive WiFi designs
→ To find out the WiFi signal strength
→ To find the weak WiFi signal areas
→ To find out dead spots in a wireless network
→ To locate co-channel interference (CCI)
→ To locate rouge APs

End goal of a RF site survey is to find the optimal locations to place the wireless access points (APs). Performing the RF site survey itself is fairly straightforward . However one needs to have skill and knowledge about RF signals to properly interpret the survey results and make recommendations to the customer.

At Cablingpoint we provide detailed reports and recommendations based on the wireless site survey results . Our recommendations include; locations for the access points, RF frequency bands , RF channels, types of antennas (if any) , location and direction of antennas etc.

How about the external interference caused by non Wi-Fi RF(Radio Frequency) signals in the same frequency bands ? Non Wi-Fi signals also cause wireless network problems. We follow number of different  techniques to locate such RF signals and minimize their effect on the WIFI network. 

There are many wireless vendors offering WIFI equipment . Most commonly used WIFI vendors for corporate networks are Cisco , Ruckus, Ubiquity, Aruba, Juniper etc.  Regardless of which vendor's equipment you select for your Wireless network RF site surveys and heat mapping along with proper wireless network design techniques are critical for the successful deployment of a wireless network.

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