What is a WiFi Site Survey?
A WiFi site survey is an invaluable part of the process for any successful wireless network installation.
It allows us to get an idea of the wireless coverage areas, data speeds, and other factors that can affect the success of the network set-up.
It’s an essential step in the planning and design of the network – one that can have a huge impact on the long-term success of the installation.
Wireless Site Survey How Would It Work For My Project?
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Our wireless surveys can be used for Design, Optimisation & Fault Finding
We provide various kinds of wifi site surveys, depending on your requirements.
We’ll examine and test your existing infrastructure to make sure it’s up to par and can adjust to your business requirements. Plus, we’ll check your existing coverage and review your vital services, software, and apps to make sure they run without any problems.
We’ll create your network from scratch, keeping all the above in mind. With our surveys, you can make sure that your network is up to the task and can adjust to the changing demands of your business.
What Are The Benefits of a WiFi Site Survey
We’ll design a bespoke network for you
Our team of skilled engineers will conduct a comprehensive wireless survey or network audit and analysis.
This process will identify any potential sources of interference or specific obstacles within your venue that may be impacting the quality of your wifi coverage.
We will thoroughly examine all aspects of your building design and network setup, including the type of internet connection currently in use at your site.
After completing the assessment, you will receive a detailed report outlining any necessary steps to optimize your network coverage and ensure maximum performance.
We guarantee coverage, overcoming any issue
Our wifi network coverage is guaranteed for all handheld devices, regardless of their size. This guarantee is applicable if the network is installed according to the specifications provided in our wifi site survey report.
Our team of engineers will design your network to overcome any challenges that may affect your wifi signal levels. These challenges could include high network congestion, building materials, or local interference.
Rest assured, our work is supported by our Performance Guarantee. If you would like more information about our commitment to providing a reliable network, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We can optimise your existing network
Our team of engineers is available to provide valuable advice on equipment selection to enhance the performance of your network.
With extensive experience in building and maintaining high-performing networks, we offer consultancy services for a wide range of equipment providers including Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Aruba, Extreme Networks, Ruckus Big Dog, Fortinet, Mist, Cambium, and many others.
Additionally, we specialize in working with latency-sensitive applications such as VoIP and video, and can provide valuable insights on prioritization techniques and network topology to optimize your network’s efficiency.
Three Simple Wireless WiFi Site Survey Options
OPTION 1
Health check and fault-finding wifi site survey
OPTION 2
Predictive model wifi site survey
The predictive model WiFi site survey is a virtual survey that differs from other types. It relies on high-quality building plans to assess requirements accurately.
Using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) drawings of the building plans, we utilize sophisticated software to create a 3D model. This model incorporates different floor and wall materials, providing an accurate virtual representation of your site.
The benefits of a predictive model wireless survey include quick, cost-effective, and practical estimation of your site’s requirements. This process minimally disrupts your business activities.
However, it’s important to note that a predictive model survey cannot account for on-site issues such as cabling paths or local interference sources.
OPTION 3
Onsite design wifi site survey
A predictive model wireless survey offers a quick and cost-effective way to estimate your site’s requirements without causing major disruptions to your business activities.
However, it does not take into account on-site issues like cabling paths or local interference sources.
On the other hand, a pre-deployment wireless survey conducted on-site provides a more comprehensive understanding of your site’s requirements.
Our engineers will visit your site and perform an access point-on-a stick survey.
This allows the engineer to accurately position the access point and take measurements to determine the wireless coverage area, signal strengths, and potential interference sources for your wifi signal.
WiFi Wireless Site Survey Next Steps
What devices are going to be used onsite?
Will they be handheld barcode scanners, VoWiFi handsets, laptops or tablets? We’ll need to know the make and model of the devices that will use the wireless networks to determine frequency ranges and which standards are supported. If you don’t know this information, we can help you identify what devices you use.
How many devices do you have of each type?
The number of devices used on your network will determine the wifi design. During the wifi site survey, we’ll need an estimate of how many devices could be present for any given area. Capacity planning helps us determine the model of APs required.
What applications do you use?
During the wireless site survey we’ll need to know if the wifi network is being used for video, VoWifi, email, web browsing, cloud storage, or Real Time Location System (RTLS) tracking. Certain traffic requires Quality of Service (QoS) to
work well.
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Have you got any preferences for the manufacturer or models used?
Different manufacturers such as Cisco, Aruba or Ruckus produce different Access Points, which offer different characteristics. These include antenna patterns (depending on the gain), weight, mounting, and polarisation. Older models usually provide less throughput and interference mitigation. We will also need to know what switches and firewalls are in use.
What issues or symptoms are you currently experiencing with your wifi?
For a fault-finding or health check wifi site survey, we’ll need to know what symptoms or issues are being seen onsite. Are there issues with VOIP, video or a certain application? Is it throughout the premises or one area in particular? Or are issues seen at a certain time of day?
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We’ll import your building plans, set scale, and define the building materials For this stage, we’ll need high-quality digital building plans. Our wireless survey software uses these to show how the wifi signal travels through the building. We’ll need plans that are to scale, and ideally define distance.
CAD drawings are preferred (but not essential), as our software uses the layers to set the different floor and wall materials, and gives the attenuation properties of each. We also support the use of PDF, BMP, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF and SVG files. If you don’t have building plans – don’t worry. When CAD files can’t be supplied, we’ll define these properties manually.
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An onsite pre-deployment survey can be done in conjunction with a predictive survey, or purely as a standalone. If used in conjunction with the predictive wireless site survey, then this can serve as verification of the network design.
Once onsite, our engineer will set up the wireless survey kit in accordance with your building type, regardless of your environment or how many floors your business is spread across.
The location of your comms cabinet and the equipment therein (such as switches, firewalls and the internet router) will be documented, and we’ll confirm the type of cabling if possible.
If possible, we’ll also document the physical location of your wireless APs in use. During this walk of the building, our engineer will also be checking out any potential problem areas or safety issues.
Our engineer will walk the building using the spectrum analysis tool, recording data as they go. This stage will show any possible sources of interference from wifi or non-wifi devices.
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To setup the main wifi site survey, our engineer will place the APs in the correct location using a tripod. This could be vertically mounted near a wall, or horizontally next to the ceiling, which benefits from the way that most antennas are aligned in modern indoor APs.
Using the Ekahau software they will walk the area taking readings. When they get to the edge of the coverage area for that AP, they will then “freeze” the software and move the AP to the next location.
This is repeated until the entire building or location has been completed.
The coverage area size will be determined by the type of wifi network that is required, which will have been ascertained during step one.
One Network Interface Card (NIC) will be used to perform a passive wireless survey, where the laptop and software just “listens” to the signals.
Another NIC will perform an active wifi site survey, where data is sent to test connectivity (PING) and optionally throughput (using Iperf). Extra NICs can be added to speed up the passive survey. The extra NICs then listen to different parts of the spectrum, so sharing the load. Once complete, the engineer will then summarise the initial findings with the onsite contact.
Our wifi survey kit includes: laptop with Ekahau Site Survey Pro software, Spectrum analysis tool, Various Access Points (APs), Camera – to show AP locations, Electronic tape measure, PoE (Power over Ethernet) battery packs and Adjustable tripod.
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Once the wifi site survey is complete, our engineer will compile the findings into a comprehensive report. This will include the recommended locations of Access Points (along with photos and notes for clarity), channel settings, power levels, throughput, wifi heatmaps showing each AP’s coverage area, and any interference issues that may need investigation.
In the case of a fault-finding wireless site survey the report will also include recommendations about what is required to improve the network. Our engineers will be more than happy to go through the report with you.
If you have received a predictive, or pre-deployment wireless survey, then a follow up post install WiFi/RF (Radio Frequency) site survey is always recommended to verify the WiFi network is working effectively
If you would like to see an example of a report showing what is covered, then please contact us.
A follow up post-install WiFi/RF (Radio Frequency) site survey is always recommended to verify the wifi network is working effectively.
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