Wireless site surveys help network teams design a wireless network that supports business needs. Teams can run a predictive survey before creating their wireless design or conduct an active site survey after installing equipment. It’s important to note that survey tools can have errors that may cause AP heat maps to look incorrectly calibrated.
Know Your Goals
A wireless site survey New England is critical to building, expanding, modifying, designing, or installing a network. With it, companies can avoid costly mistakes and sub-par performance. Before beginning a wireless survey, it’s essential to know your goals. This will help guide the process and ensure the network is optimized to meet your needs. The most common goal is to ensure adequate coverage throughout a facility or city area. Site surveys identify the number and placement of access points (APs) to provide this coverage. Survey tools also detect sources of RF interference and other factors that might degrade network performance. During a wireless site survey, obtaining or creating a blueprint of the space you’re looking at is essential. This will help the RF engineer determine what equipment is needed and where to position it for optimal performance. It’s also important to know the number of devices you expect to use and how much data you want to be able to transfer.
Conduct a Pre-Survey
A wireless site survey is a systematic process that provides detailed information that addresses your network’s radio signal profile. The information it gives you allows you to troubleshoot existing problems and optimize your wireless technology for peak performance. It helps you determine optimal access point (AP) locations that provide adequate coverage within your desired area. It also helps you avoid interference from co-channel sources, troublesome external radio interferences, and existing AP interferences. It considers building layout, obstacles, and anything else affecting radio signals, such as furniture and people. It also inspects AP mounting and the accessibility of cables to ensure your APs can be easily mounted without exposing them to potential hazards or security breaches. The pre-survey is the most time-consuming part of the wireless site survey, but it’s a crucial step to guarantee your success. Without it, your company may suffer from slow connections, data rates, and other issues related to infrastructure inhibiting your wireless signal.
Conduct a Post-Survey
A site survey is crucial for adding wireless devices or upgrading an existing network. This detailed analysis determines the network’s performance and ensures sufficient coverage to meet your business needs. You may choose a passive or active survey depending on the project scope. A passive survey uses RF signal-strength testing to document the current environment without interrupting the wireless network. This allows for a more accurate and complete report to help identify potential areas of interference, access point placement, power considerations, and channel settings. An active survey involves using a laptop to interfere with the current network to collect data and provide more detail on wireless performance and capacity. This type of survey can help pinpoint issues such as co-channel interference, poor roaming and handoff performance, or low data rates. It also helps determine what types of APs are needed and how many. It can also highlight rogue devices and other factors that limit wireless performance.
Create a Report
After completing the site survey, it’s time to create a report. These reports can help you determine whether you have sufficient coverage to support the number of expected users. They can also identify areas where signal strength is low, or interference might be an issue. The report can be a Wi-Fi heat map, a wireless network design layout, or an RF coverage chart. It will show you all the AP locations, SSIDs, client devices, and network performance metrics such as throughput, data rates, signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, co-channel interference, latency, and roaming performance. It is essential to provide your surveying company with accurate information to ensure the report accurately reflects how your wireless network will perform in production.
